My first visit to Kathmandu was in 1990 and my last one in 2001, I found a big big difference from the time when KTM was a refigy for world travelers searching for inner peace and free spirit, to the money making city polluted and crowded .......
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On my first visit to Kathmandu I arrived in bus from varanasi, India. Going around the world in 30 days !. The bus from Varanasi took two days and by the evening of the second we were in KTM. Magic and new to my eyes !. Narrow streets and not as crowded or polluted as today. Cheap and free spirit ! . You could see foreigners smoking pot or hash in the streets. Durbay Sq. was down town, not the attraction you pay to enter of today. I could feel the closeness to the Himmalayas and even thought I was very close to Tibet. A marketplace of rare and exotic things, like human remains turned into ceremonial instruments, beautifuly carved human skulls ( I own one ), femurs, and monkey and goat skulls too. Beautiful knifes and wood and bone carvings. Nice bead laces and imitation brand-name stuff everywhere for a very affordable price. At night, after going around shopping, or looking, you go into the cafes at Tamil and have some cold beer, coffee, or something else, then you can chose a good diner. The morning starts, depending on which guesthouse or hostel you're staying in, with the little bells played by the buddhist monks on their way to the temple ! ..... Today's KTM is more polluted, has way more traffic that it's designed for (actually I don't think it was designed to handle motor vehicle traffic), smoke everywhere, anoying hinking from bikes and cars in the very narrow alleys and streets. You cannot transit free thru down town now, you have to pay a fee, I believe it's US$2.00, but if you can manage to find your way thru the laberyinth streets around Durbay Sq. you can go into it for free ! . At one side of the city it's the hindu temple, where as you approach, you can smell the known, even if you haven't smell it, human flesh burning smell. Beautiful architecture and monkeys all over the grounds of it. The cremation sites are podiums rising from the sides of the temple, at both sides of the river ...........
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| Favourite spots: |
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-Everest restaurant in Tamil !!! . Where you can eat a great steak mignon diner for about four bucks ! . -The ever washing down road to Chitwan Natl. Park, or Anapurna Rge. -Kumari temple (?). -Durbay Square
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| What's really great: |
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I have been ten times in KTM and all have been to different places in Nepal, so I would say everything but the crowds, traffic and honking !!!.
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| Accommodations: |
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deopending on your budget, there are places from US$1.00 a night (I thing there still are), to $100.00's /night ! .
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| Restaurants: |
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Mount Everest restaurant, in Tamil, or Tamel !!! . strongly recommended.
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| Other recommendations: |
Chitwan National Park.
Anapurna Range.
The trip from KTM to Lhasa, Tibet !!! .
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Published on Monday June 7th, 2004
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Mon, Jun 07 2004 - 11:33 AM
 by kathmandukitten
| You can actually get into all the temple sights for free if you know how. If not 200NRS isn't too bad for a month's pass to Durbar Square. You're right about all the traffic, it does get on top of you sometimes but after a while you really don't notice it. Surely whilst in India you were subject to Dehli traffic? Did you not think this was worse? |
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