For many people, stepping off a plane into Kathmandu is an
exhilarating shock - the sights, sounds and smells can quickly lead to
sensory overload. Whether it be buzzing around the crazy polluted
traffic in a taxi, trundling down the narrow winding streets of the old
town in a rickshaw, marvelling at Durbar Sq or dodging the tiger balm
sellers and trekking touts in Thamel, Kathmandu can be an intoxicating,
amazing and exhausting place.
As the largest (and pretty much the only) city in
the country, Kathmandu also feels like another developing-world city
rushing into a modern era of concrete and traffic pollution. Take a walk
in the backstreets, however, and the capital's amazing cultural and
artistic heritage reveals itself in hidden temples overflowing with
marigolds, courtyards full of drying chillis and rice, and tiny
hobbit-sized workshops largely unchanged since the Middle Ages.
Kathmandu has been a travellers mecca since the
1960s but these days you're less likely to see a tie-dyed hippy in
search of enlightenment than a well-heeled Gore-Tex-clad tourist in
search of a good espresso. With tourist numbers down and political
tensions up, the last few years have been uncertain, yet residents have
retained a good-humoured self-respect.
Kathmandu is well worth a week of your time, but
it's too easy to spend too much time stuck in touristy Thamel. Enjoy the
Internet cafés, the Western music and the lemon cheesecake, but make
sure you also get out into the 'real
Nepal', before your time runs out.
Last updated: Feb 17, 2009
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