Where do I even start with Kathmandu? It's probably the least developed city I have ever been to, with no real roads, very little electricity, and tenants of houses and rubble still lining the streets from long ago earth quakes. It's the kind of place where motorbikes weave in and out of cars and pedestrians alike, where people are calling to you in the streets to buy their goods, or book tours with their travel companies, and where the air is so polluted that it sits in your lungs like a brick. It's an eye opener, that seriously makes you value the little things we have back home, and how comparatively easy it is to make a good life for yourself and the ones you love there.
With this thought in mind, we grabbed our pollution masks and hand sanitizer, and ventured out into Thamel to see what was around. Thamel is the best place in Nepal to buy good quality clothes for a fraction of the price back home, and a whole range of things were offered, including cashmere scarfs and blankets, yaks wool jumpers, traditional Nepalese skirts dresses and trousers, and all sorts of nick backs on hand made markets. But having done our erase arch, we learned that we are in the perfect area for clothes, but other trinkets and souvenirs are better bought elsewhere in Kathmandu as they are likely to be more authentic and better prices.
So for now, we are planning our route for the rest of Nepal, figuring out how to get to all the things we want to see, and just experiencing what it's like to be in a country that is worlds apart from our own.
