

Walking along local streets outside the Thamel area at night, businesses were either dark and shut down, or operating by candelelight. Patrick’s Day at the Everest Irish Pub, drinking green beer with a group of Brits and Americans who are in Nepal to volunteer at orphanages. One unexpected adventure was celebrating St. Some of these meals were expensive ($10 for the two of us!), but we reckoned eating out back home will cost a lot more! And, we were in Kathmandu for two tactical maneuvers… organizing both a two week trek in the Himalays, and coordinating the final leg of our journey- a week visiting Wade’s sister and her family in China. We had pizza and beer, Thai food, falafel wraps, and big American breakfasts with bottomless cups of coffee.
#Lonely planet india darjeeling tongba free#
Our sweet hotel owners gave us smiles and candles, which didn’t help us book online air tickets!īefore we switched hotels, we found ourselves heading regularly to tourist restaurants to take advantage of the free (working) wifi. Wade and I stayed in one hotel for a few days, then realized that when our power-and wireless- went out, other hotels had wifi and backup power. Power cuts are the norm throughout Nepal, and the paper announced that there recently had been an improvement –the load shedding power cuts were down to 10 hours a day instead of 19. The streets are narrow and congested, and this was the most touristy place we visited our entire trip. Thamel is an entire neighborhood devoted to foreigners with restaurants, gear shops, and souvenir shops. We changed plans for the second time in Nepal due to a strike, and ended up in the tourist district of Thamel, which we had hoped to avoid. Once we got off the bus, we were limited to places where we could walk, which did not allow for a 30-minute taxi ride to Boudha. The strike allows emergency and tourist vehicles (buses included), but personal cars and taxis are not allowed. We had planned to stay in Boudha, a calmer area on the outskirts of town. We arrived in Kathmandu during another bandh, or strike. View of Kathmandu from Swayambunath Temple
