From Durbar Square to Patan Dhoka
If after you visit Darbar Square you want to return to Patan Dhaoka, where you started the Patan Walkabout, go back to the Bhimsen temple at the place where
you entered the square from Swotha. As suggested earlier, join the asphalt lane that heads west here. This main thoroughfare will have you back at Patan Dhoka
within 20 minutesof walking. (You can, of course, also take a taxi out from Mangal Bazaar.)
Exiting Darbar Square along the asphalt lane, you pass a zone that is full of curio stores. At the shikhara temple, turn right and down the slope past some
more curio shops. You will come to a wdie square with the newly renovated temple of Uma Maheshwar to the right. Beyond it, turn left at the corner. If you
were to continue down the slope, you would pass the main entrance of Kwa Baha on the left, on the road heading down to Kumbheswar.
Passing an impressively ancient roadside shrine on the right as you turn, continue on a street which is lined with dry goods, confectionaries and clothign
stores. The section ahead consists of a row of well-built townhouses which have yet to be replaced by modern cement and concrete. In a short while, the street
opens into the well-kept square of Nakabahi, which you traversed earlier to enter Nyakachuka on your right.
Beyond Nakabahi, as the street curves to the right, you will pass by Patan’s only movie theater, Ashok Hall, which has been showing Hindi movies to city folk
since the early 1960s. Turning left at the corner where there is a busy newspaper stall, you will soon come upon the Ganesh temple to your right. Beyond lies
the white gateway of Patan Dhoka.
Patan Dhoka is an important transportation hub of the Valley, where you can pick up a taxi or a three-wheel “tempo”, or catch bus to take you back to your
lodgings-unless you happen to be staying in Patan.
