Kathmandu

I spent about 4 days in Thamel in Kathmandu. Thamel is a neighbourhood popular with tourists. I stayed in a mixed dorm in a hostel and just hung around Thamel mostly.

It took a day or two to work out how to cross roads. For the bigger ones, I still try to shadow a local who is crossing at the same time. But mostly, you just need to start walking and keep moving and let the traffic flow ahead and behind you.

I went to lots of restaurants / cafes. I read a lot. I wrote some blog posts. I did some walking. I basically had a lovely holiday. 😊

The smells of Kathmandu are mostly a mix of incense; exhaust; dust; fried food; pine disinfectant; raw meat; and coffee. In the older parts of Thamel with 5 story buildings on each side of a narrow, two-way road the buildings crowd in at you (partly because in some cases the upper floors overhang the lower ones so they really do loom), and some of the older structures made from wood have a historic wood smell to them too. The smells change a bit as you walk down the streets, but incense, dust and exhaust fumes are the most prevalent. It’s not unpleasant by any means.

As with many towns, shops are often all grouped together, so when I went for my long walk to the Buddha Stupa I passed through a whole strip of shops on both sides of the road that sell motorcycle accessories; another strip where it was woodworkers sitting out in the front of their little shops working away – a great smell of wood and varnish. Another strip was jewellery shops. Thamel basically alternates between hotel / restaurant; trekking gear shop; cashmere shop; tea / spice centre; handicrafts shop; Buddhist paintings gallery.

I found a particularly lovely café called The Nook. Mostly lovely because it had doors and windows that closed, and heaters so was therefore nice and cozily warm. Many other restaurants open out to a central courtyard which is a little chilly at this time of year. The Nook also had lovely tables and power sockets so I could potter away on my laptop or just read a book or just stare out the window at the people coming and going on the street.

I did most of a self-guided audio tour which was interesting and a fun way to meander through the warren of backstreets. And I walked down to Kathmandu Durbur Square. I remember when I was here 13 years ago having a lemon soda in a coffee shop overlooking the square. It was severely damaged in the earthquake in 2015 and has had extensive rebuilding work. This time I sat in a different coffee shop and had a cappuccino overlooking the square. I’m pretty sure that last time you could walk through the Square, and I think I did. This time, I didn’t. I could have done, but I would have had to pay to do that. And I wasn’t that bothered by it so decided the coffee shop view was sufficient.

I also walked the 90mins out to Buddha Stupa. Not so much to see the stupa, though it is huge and impressive, but mostly as an excuse for a walk. 😊 I found another coffee shop overlooking the stupa where I had lunch. There is absolutely a theme here!! 😊

On one of my walks a man walking down the road explained about the toothache shrine. It’s a lump of tree in an alcove at the side of the road. People with toothache go there and nail a small coin (with a hole in it) into the tree. They do this twice a day to seek blessings and a cure for the toothache. This is also the street where all the dentists are. I’m not sure what the coexistence of these things says: the dentists are terrible, the coin on a tree is more effective; the coin on the tree is ineffective so best go to a dentist; both have their benefits so people do both; they are aimed at completely different demographics but either way this is the place to come with a sore tooth; pure chance; some other explanation I haven’t thought of yet. In any case, my dental well-being was in need of neither intervention, so I merely admired and pondered.

I loved just floating around Thamel for a few days. It felt good to just slow down and relax after being quite busy with work and life in general in the past few months. And it was glorious to be able to just read for pleasure for hours on end, and get distracted from the reading and just stare out the window.

Kathmandu is great – so much history and culture if you’re interested in looking for it, but also some lovely coffee shops and restaurants too. And the momos (Nepali / Tibetan dumplings) were gorgeous!