Kathmandu

Here are some scenes from Kathmandu, the capitol city of Nepal and gateway to the Himalaya.  It was quite an interesting city, but also dusty and polluted, so we didn’t spend much time there.

Thamel district.

The Thamel district of Kathmandu is the tourist district.  You can’t walk a block without passing five mountaineering shops, ten tour operators, six restaurants, a couple of massage parlors and a book shop.  The narrow streets are packed with rickshaws, motorcycles, taxies, tourists and the occasional pile of garbage.  Signs for all manner of tourist goodies are mounted one atop another for several stories up each building.

A trip to Kathmandu would not be complete without a visit to the Boddhanath stupa.

Most towns and cities in Nepal have a Durbar Square which is the cultural epicenter of the city. The Kathmandu Durbar Square had many temples and interesting happenings.

Hindu holy men looking for tourists to bless for a buck.

Porters carrying appliances through the square.