Woolly says – A second day of enforced rest had left my paws itching to see something, Zoe, although still not well was prepared to try an outing, having considered our options from our list of must see places I thought that a gentle stroll around some gardens might be manageable. Although only a short walk from our lodgings Jo decided that a taxi would help, I’m not sure the bumping over the unmade roads really helped any of us but it did get us to the entrance. Located in Kaiser Mahal which is across the street from the former Royal Palace at the entrance to the Thamel tourist area, the Garden of Dreams was created for Field Marshal Kaiser Sumsher Rana (1892–1964), in early 1920. The Garden, which featured a design inspired by the Edwardian styles, was considered one of the most sophisticated private gardens of that time. After the death of Kaiser Sumsher, the garden was handed over to the government of Nepal, but it was not properly managed for decades. Today, only half of the original garden remains which was restored between 2000 and 2007 with the support of Austrian Government in collaboration with the Nepal Ministry of Education. The pictures I had seen showed it to be rather lovely and defiantly worth a visit.
The roads are none existent and defiantly shake you around, having jarred quite a few parts of our bodies it was a relief to enter the serenity of the gardens.
Woolly says – My first sight was of a small bandstand type building, I raced over to have a look, it gave me a wonderful view across the gardens and a softly sloping area of grass forming an amphitheatre. The slow coaches caught up with me and leaving the poorly one to have a rest, Jo and I went over to investigate a very fine looking tea house which had an impressive statue of Laxmi the goddess of wealth and abundance residing over a small pool outside of it. Chipmunks were scurrying everywhere and seemed to have great fun running up and down the trees and into the orange blossom. Zoe was able to move on and we wandered very slowly along the perfectly kept pathways taking in the odd statues and colourful flower beds, a handy bench allowed her to sit for a while as I sat watching a chipmunk enjoy a drink only inches away from my trunk, he didn’t seem very chatty and when I asked his name he raced into the branches above me and scuttled out of sight.
We moved on a little further past a large pond which was surrounded by vibrant blooms, including one of my favourite flowers, the sweet pea which were red and smelt divine.
Woolly says – Next to the wonderful scents was a mother and baby elephant, to good a photo opportunity to miss and as Jo took my picture I continued to admire the different colours that the garden offered. Steps led us up to a small terrace which gave us a view over the whole place, even with lots of people about it still had a feeling of tranquillity and peacefulness, we waited for Zoe to catch her breath and admired a canopy of orange flowers. It seemed like a good time to have a proper sit down and quench our thirst and having taken a very slow walk to the large tea house, we flopped onto the comfy seats and sat enjoying our fresh juices and the sound of the fountains. So, relaxing it seemed a shame to leave, but our invalid was flagging and needed to lie down, having left Jo to guide her to the exit I trotted ahead to flag down a taxi ready to have my bones jolted again. Maybe not a big outing for us but a huge step forward for Zoe, hopefully tomorrow we can tackle something a little more.
