Wondering in front of a partially damaged temple near Hanumandhoka Jail, Suzana looked lost as she tried to capture the broken images of the monuments that have survived. Contortion on her face clearly revealed her inner sadness that she was trying her best to hide."This is my sixth visit to Nepal and my past visits have always been memorable. Although the temples have been damaged, my heart has and will always bring me here whenever I feel to travel," she said adding, "Things have fallen apart but the hope for reconstruction is there. I want to see these temples standing tall gracefully like they used to."
A teacher by profession, Suzana and her friends back home are trying to raise funds and share helping hands in recovering the lost heritages of Nepal. "Currently, I have been connecting with many of my friends and asking for any sorts of help and they have been more than willing to make contribution to assist Nepal to regain its glory," she said.
Few feet away stood Sandra from California, USA. Unlike Suzana, she looked confident and happy as she shifted from one temple to other taking pictures. After a brief conversation, it came to fore that this was her first visit to Nepal. She had taken a detour to Nepal from Bangkok.
"I always wanted to visit Nepal but my bad luck that when I finally came here, Nepal's heritage is in rubbles. I knew of the quake but it did not discourage me to come here. Damages here are major but I firmly believe Nepal can rise again to its original beauty," said Sandra.
Over two months after the massive jolts, flow of tourists coming to visit Nepal's heritage sites has gradually started to gain momentum. "Though the flow of the tourist inflow is not as dense as it used to be before the quake, the number of foreigners coming to Nepal has been increasing over the past few weeks," said Santu Shrestha, section officer at the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office (KMC), Basantapur.
"Heritage sites inside and out of the valley have been opened nearly two months after the quake. More than half of the tourists had to return as the heritage sites were closed for tourists. I would not say the flow has normalized but the number is increasing gradually," said Shrestha.
KMC records state that at least 60-75 tourists register entry every day at Basantapur Durbar Square. Its data claims that over 250,000 foreigners had visited the square in the five months before the earthquake.
Shrestha considers this flow of tourists nearly normal during off-season. "The numbers of tourist visiting the site in day sometimes exceeded over 200 during peak tourist season." Based on these calculations, Shrestha termed the flow of tourists to be definitely pleasing and optimistic.
Sureshman Lakhe, officer at the Patan Museum also claimed that there has been gradual growth in the number of foreign tourists at the Museum.
"Over the past few weeks, tourists visiting the museum have increased. Now we get at least 20 visitors a days. In the past week, the number was limited to one or two. The growth is definitely a good sign that we the inflow of tourists is gradually recovering," said Lakhe.
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