Patan, Bhaktapur and What to Eat in the Kathmandu Valley

No trip to Kathmandu is complete without crossing the Bagmati River south to Patan (Lalitpur, the City of Fine Arts) and driving thirteen kilometres east across the valley floor to medieval Bhaktapur (Bhadgaon). Both sister capitals preserve the red-brick, carved-sal-wood and gilded-copper urban artistry of the indigenous Newar civilization at an even higher density than central Kathmandu.

Patan (Lalitpur): Patan Museum, Krishna Mandir and the Golden Temple

Just fifteen minutes south of Thamel across the river, Patan Durbar Square is a textbook display of seventeenth-century Malla architecture. Along the western side of the brick plaza stands a row of tiered pagoda temples facing the former royal palace, anchored by the 1637 Krishna Mandir, built entirely of carved grey stone in the shikhara style with miniature friezes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana running along its beams. Step inside the palace's Mul Chowk, Sundari Chowk and the Patan Museum, which showcases lost-wax Newari gilt-copper sculpture. Five minutes' walk north through narrow alleys brings you to the twelfth-century Golden Temple (Hiranya Varna Mahavihar / Kwa Bahal), a glittering three-roofed Buddhist courtyard monastery tended by a young boy priest.

Bhaktapur: Four Car-Free Squares and Living Pottery

Because heavy vehicles are barred from its brick core, Bhaktapur feels remarkably serene: walk from the 1700 55-Window Palace and gleaming Golden Gate on Durbar Square down to Taumadhi Square, dominated by the thirty-metre, five-roofed Nyatapola Temple (1702) guarded up its stairway by stone wrestlers, elephants, lions and griffins; watch potters shape and sun-dry thousands of clay vessels in Pottery Square; and admire the fifteenth-century carved Peacock Window in Tachupal Tole (Dattatreya Square).

Five dishes to eat across the Kathmandu Valley

• Momo & Jhol Momo: pleated buffalo, chicken or vegetable dumplings served steamed with fiery tomato-timur pepper chutney, pan-fried (kothey) or swimming in a tangy roasted sesame, soybean and coriander broth (jhol momo, a Kathmandu signature).
• Dal Bhat Tarkari: Nepal's national platter presented on a gleaming brass thali with steamed rice, black or yellow lentil soup, seasonal greens (saag), vegetable curry, crisp papad and fermented radish pickle (gundruk / achar), with cooks coming round to offer free refills of rice and lentils.
• Newari Khaja Set, Bara & Chatamari: in Patan or Bhaktapur courtyards, order a savoury black-lentil pancake topped with egg (wo / bara), a crisp rice-flour crepe dubbed "Newari pizza" (chatamari), or a festive Samay Baji platter of crunchy beaten rice (chiura), ginger-marinated grilled buffalo (choila) and black soybeans.
• Thukpa & Thenthuk around Boudhanath: steaming Tibetan hand-pulled noodle soups with radish and greens on a cool evening.
• Juju Dhau ("King of Yoghurt") in Bhaktapur: rich, custard-thick sweet buffalo-milk yoghurt set inside terracotta bowls. Compare stays in where to stay.