Gorkha is not misleading: as soon as you leave the general road from Pokhara to the banks of the Trishuli river, to access this Nepali town you have to climb some steep slopes. The town itself is a succession of streets with an exaggerated unevenness that is more than clear when it rains. The streets then become vertiginous torrents that go wild in search of the bottom of the valley.
Very little frequented by foreign tourists despite its easy access, Gorkha has great significance for Nepalis. It is true that the times have passed when homage was paid to the monarchy without discussion, since the country has been a republic since 2008. But no one forgets that from his palace in Gorkha, in the middle of the 18th century, Prithvi Narayan was a fierce warrior as well as a skillful negotiator, who turned his small feudal state into the kingdom of Nepal, expanding its borders to reach Tibetan territory and part of India.
To access the Durbar palace, which is located on top of a hill, you have to climb 1,500 steps of those that are not testimonial, but an aerobic exercise in each step. Those less inclined to whip themselves can go by car to the last platform and climb just over a hundred.
Whichever system is chosen, the entrance to Gorkha Durbar is very spectacular, through a narrow access that shows that the palace was also a military fortress. Then, on an esplanade at the top, a formidable collection of buildings raised under the Newar aesthetic appears, a marvel of architecture but also a prodigy of the imagination. The pagoda-shaped buildings, with successively smaller roofs as the building gains height, are linked by wooden structures carved to the millimeter, with everyday scenes, heroes, peacocks, demons, dragons, snakes and other ferocious beasts.
The site has not lost its status as sacred despite the disappearance of the monarchy. The sumptuous buffalo sacrifices, which were celebrated until a few years ago and which left the recognizable aroma of blood and torn meat in the air, are in question. Although it is still forbidden to access the Hindu temple of Kaila with leather objects, due to the veneration that is professed towards cows. It is necessary to leave the shoes, belts and – more thorny and more difficult to comply with – even wallets.
From the Durbar towers, the views of some of the most impressive mountains in the region such as Annapurna or Manaslu (two of the mountains over eight thousand meters high in Nepal) are close and clear in the favorable season, which goes from October to May.
Gorkha is in an advanced state of rehabilitation, as it was the epicenter of the terrible earthquake in April 2015. The structures were damaged and some of the palatial rooms partially collapsed, but it was a miracle that everything was not reduced to crumbs, taking into account the damage it caused throughout the country and the more than 9,000 deaths.
Now the work to return Gorkha to all its splendor is going well and it can be visited. In addition, the paths are still open –again with stairs– that in a few minutes lead to temples and statues of the monkey-god Hanuman scattered throughout the forest.
Going down from the palace to the town center, you should not lose sight of the city museum, which brings together a colossal collection of wood carvings hidden in a delicious palace that is in turn surrounded by huge, refreshing gardens.
Gorkha is equidistant from Kathmandu and Pokhara, the country's two largest cities, about a five-hour bus ride each.
