July - Kathmandu’s Garden of Dreams (Nepal)

Weed, hash, marijuana or stronger are freely available on the streets of Kathmandu but the pictures are no figment of my imagination (nor of any substance) even if they are in the European style. The Gardens are a haven of peace in the middle of Kathmandu and after a couple of hours in there it was like leaving another world to go back into the noise and bustle of Thamel, the old area of Kathmandu.

The Garden of Dreams, a neo classical historical garden, is situated in the midst of Kathmandu city, Nepal. The Garden was known as the garden of Six Seasons which was created by late Field Marshal Kaiser Shumsher Rana (1892-1964) in early 1920. After the completion of this Garden, it was considered as one of the most sophisticated private gardens of that time. However, as a private garden of Kaiser Shumsher  it was actually designed in the  Edwardian style. Kishore Narsingh,  a prominent architect who designed and constructed Singha Durbar in 1907, designed and supervised the construction of the Garden of Dreams. Within the garden walls Kaiser Shumsher created an exquisite ensemble of pavilions, fountains, decorative garden furniture and European inspired features such as verandahs, pergolas, balustrades, urns and birdhouses. He erected six impressive pavilions each dedicated to one of the six seasons of Nepal. These pavilions provided the Garden's architectural framework and lent a cosmopolitan flavour to the formal arrangement of flowers, shrubs and trees. Today, only half of the original garden remain.