Nepal’s capital can be a serious culture shock for many first-time visitors. As the country’s single metropolitan centre, it’s swelled to colossal proportions, and is now a patchwork of sprawling residential districts, concrete boulevards and bubbling market bazaars, where the sounds, smells and kaleidoscope of deep colours is at once thrilling and overwhelming in its intensity.
The touristic heart of Kathmandu is the Thamel district, which has graduated from being a bohemian New Age tourist mecca in the 1980s, to one of the liveliest centres for trekking goods, tour providers and sellers of local produce in the city. If you’ve come here in search of the postcard temple sites that have become something of an iconic image of this old religious centre though, then you’re best off branching out into the backstreets and alleyways of Old Kathmandu, where grand stupas and Buddhist cloisters pop up unexpectedly on even the most unassuming of street corners.
Don’t expect to get everything done in a day though. Even the most organised Kathmandu tour guide will be hard pushed to show you everything there is to experience in under a week, so allow plenty of time to give this ancient mix of religion, art, and raw human character the attention it really deserves.