Three days of sightseeing in Kathmandu
Nepal would be only my second Asian country after spending 5 years in India! When I planned my short three-day trip to Kathmandu in advance, I got almost a little nervous: Getting out of India, my comfort zone!?
In the end, however, it was fun to plan something new and I was excited when I got on the plane!
Admittedly, as a trekking lover, I should of course not only travel to Nepal for three days to do sightseeing in Kathmandu, but actually should explore some trekking routes!!! But the real reason for my short trip is not to travel, but due to my Indian visa (after 180 days one usually have to get out of India).
Of course, I do not want to advertise too much for Nepal. I still firmly believe that the Indian Himalayas are the best place for trekking and mountain biking. Nevertheless, I have to say that my three days here in Kathmandu were great! Lovely people, an interesting city, everything here is a little softer than India and also surprisingly westernized: many cozy cafes with real coffee, vegetable tarts and goat cheese!!!!
For me, these days were holidays! I have booked into a small and cheap yoga hotel and enjoy the free relaxing yoga classes in the morning! The perfect start to the day! Then a goat’s cheese Baquette and off to sightseeing! Kathmandu has a lot to offer culturally and besides the entrance fees, which you have to pay almost everywhere as a foreigner, a tour with a guide can be quite interesting. The earthquake has partially affected the Unesco sites, but I really enjoyed the places Durbar Square, Bhoudhanath, the Monkey Temple Swayambhunath and the surrounding Buddhist monasteries!
Kathmandu is very Buddhist and has a great atmosphere! For example, it was just fun to watch the little monks in Pullahari Monastery play, turn the prayer mills or sit under the Buddhist flags.
Also the Hindu temple complex Pashupinath is very interesting, especially the crematorium on the holy Bagmati river. Here the dead Hindus are burned!
In between the sightseeing, I walked a lot (or, when I was tired, took the little blue micro taxis) and feasted on nepali specialities.
In addition, you can shop well in the tourist center Thamel, especially outdoor equipment!
Here are my pros and cons of Kathmandu compared to Indian Cities:
| Positive | Negative |
| Small(er), green and accessible! | You pay for everything and quite a bit |
| Many Nepalis are here with their mountain bike and not, as in India on the motorcycle! Very laudable! | Almost too Western with Western prices for food in Thamel |
| Great restaurants with international food | Much destroyed by the earthquake |
| Many women on the streets and also in the shops! Pleasant!! | Many power outages, resulting in heavy use of noisy generators |
| Many interesting sights | |
| Public use of toilets is free of charge at the sights |
Fast Wi-Fi connections everywhere
Many restaurants and hotels offer free drinking water
So once you have explored India extensively, come to Nepal and give the people back their hope! I was almost the only tourist here after the earthquake and the Nepalese, who are heavily dependent on tourism, are desperate: first the earthquake and now their source of income has been lost as well!
Everywhere I got a discount in Kathmandu, be it in the hotel, for the guide or in the restaurant!
Trekking is still possible in Nepal, not everywhere, but the Annapurna and Everest region seems unproblematic!
I plan to come back in November for a little longer then!
After the big earthquake in May, there were more than 32,000 smaller aftershocks in Kathmandhu.
On my first day in Nepal at about 22:30, I had a very special surprise when it suddenly started to wobble violently!
The next day I learned that a relatively strong 4.8 earthquake with epicenter in Kathmandu had greeted me on my first day in Nepal!
Admittedly, a little shocking, but as long as nothing happens, it is also somehow exciting to witness a smaller earthquake!
We now have some Nepal Tours in our Program:
