Kathmandu

Nepal

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The Good: Thamel has a lot of bars and restaurant, bakeries geared towards foreigners. Many shops offer cheap trekking gear etc. Walking around the tourist attractions: Durbar square, Patan the history and architecture is like walking back in time. Staying in Bhaktapur.

The Bad: Pollution and dust before the monsoon. Power outages, sometimes up to 18 hours per day*

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The Ugly: Crime, some tourist have been attacked, robbed, street children sniffing glue. Drug deals, touts and junkies. Better stay away from Thamel as much as possible.

Freshness::: 53%

To make life easier avoid Thamel all together. From the airport take a taxi to straight to Bhaktapur. That's what i always do. Just do a day trips but it the same in Bhaktapur anyways.

Lets just say think have change since the fabled days in the 1970's when Bob Segar sang about hippies in Kathmandu. Despite this Kathmandu seems to be highly overrated by travelers. The city is often referred to Crapmandu by residence and locals is very polluted and hectic. The popular 'tourist area' Thamel, is very congested and filled with criminal low life's peddling drugs to locals and tourists. This is not such a safe place in Nepal.

"That's why I'm going to Kathmandu,
Up to the mountains where I'm going to.
If i ever get out of here that's what I'm gonna do.
K - k - k - k - k - Kathmandu,
Take me, baby, 'cause I'm going with you.
If I ever get out of here I'm going to Kathmandu" ~Bob Segar 1974

Due to rising crime tourists should stay away from Thamel for the time being. Stay in Bhaktapur and do a day trip to Bodnath,  Patan, Swayambunath (monkey temple), Durbar Square and Pashupatinah, burning ghats. Actually it is same buildings and temples in Bhaktapur and much cleaner.

After that head to Pokhara Lakeside for some peace of mind, where the air is considerably cleaner and people are friendlier. The mini bus runs all day from Kathmandu to Pokhara and takes 5 hours. So you don't need to get trapped in Kathmandu.

Corruptions alert: The hotels and trekking guides don't want you to know about Pokhara. They want to keep in you Kathmandu and trek in that area! Much information is Kathmandu-centric about Nepal, this is the reason why.

Map of Kathmandu

The Main Areas of Kathmandu are:

Thamel, Durbar Square, Pushapatinath

Patan, Boudanath Temple, Swayambhunath Stupa

Kathmandu tourist map

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Map of Thamel

Thamel tourist area

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Map of Bhaktapur

The best place to see temples in all of Nepal!

Newarian town with a function sewage system courtesy of the Germans. There is a $10 entrance fee (now raised to $20!)  

You can circumvent this by going around the front gate

via a path some 20 meters before hand. The locals don't pay anything of course.

Bhaktapur tourist map

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