NEPAL - Kathmandu

Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal. It is a very crowded and congested city and stands at an elevation of 1400m. Kathmandu is where most people will travel to first before embarking on their other trekking activities.

We stayed at a 3-star hotel, Marshyangdi, which is situated at the shopping belt of Thamel. It is quite a nice hotel which served good breakfast and the staffs are friendly.

Thamel is a very popular shopping area for tourists. There are rows and rows of shops selling all types of souvenirs, books, trekking goods and tea leaves. Highly recommended for you to choose a hotel in Thamel and enjoy the ambiance.

One of our favourite activity was browsing sport goods at the many trek shops around Thamel. You can buy many things such as trek poles (SGD$5), fleece jackets (SGD$8) and down jackets (SGD$40) at a fraction of retail prices. They are fake north face products but will do just the job for you. It is ok to negotiate the prices down at least 40% but do be kind to these people as most Nepalese do not earn well.

Sleeping bag selections!

 In the evening we had dinner at a very nice restaurant and we ate the traditional dahl baht, which is rice with curry vegetables, potatoes and meat.

After dinner, we hung around our hotel area and spotted someone selling roasted nuts on the street. We bought some and it tasted very nice with spices and chilli.

The next morning, our guide told us we shouldn't have eaten it because it could be dirty and we could have gotten a bad tummy. Oh well...