You can do it when you Kathman-du it!

Before and after both our treks we spent a few days in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. Kathmandu is a sprawling, busy city which is still recovering from the 2015 earthquake. People, cows, cars, motorbikes, rickshaws, buses and micro buses fill the roads and fly by with lots of horns honking. STOP PRESS!!! Since writing this line we have discovered that a new law came in at the start of the Nepali new year and it is now illegal to honk horns unless it is "necessary" and not as a general form of communication and unnecessary honking now leads to a fine of 500 Rupees. It seems to be working as the roads are much quieter, but they also seem to have lost some of their character. When it comes to crossing the road you either have to look for a big gap or wait until the traffic comes to a standstill. There are lots of traffic police at all the major junctions desperately trying to keep the traffic flowing. 

A quiet traffic day

For each of our stays we were in Thamel, the uber touristy area, but in small hotels in the backstreets which provided some peace and quiet from the hustle and bustle. There are many tourists in this area and they generally here for hiking, yoga or the relaxed basic lifestyle (or a combination of all of these).

Our hotel was a former temple house

Our first day in Kathmandu was spent trying to decide whether we needed any extra equipment for our Everest Trek. Thamel is full of outdoor shops but the challenge is deciding whether the shops are legitimate branded stores (generally fixed price) or just cheap replicas which could be bargained for. Some items were easy to spot, others were not so easy. We purchased a couple of items and we are still not certain whether they were legitimate! Since then we have given the shops a wide berth. 

Shopping in Kathmandu - most prices are negotiable!

Other days were spent catching up on the blog, having a massage, doing some yoga lessons, tea tasting, a free walking tour and enjoying the tranquility of the Garden of Dreams.

Kathmandu temples and sights

the Garden of Dreams - a good spot for Nepalis to take a date

At weekends people queue down the street to get into this peaceful oasis.

The free walking tour took us through the windy, chaotic roads of the main shopping area, past a number of temples and stupas, across Durbar Square which is in front of the old Royal Palace and surrounded by temples, through a residential area and up to the Monkey Temple with views over Kathmandu (when it isn't cloudy). All the time we were dodging people, traffic and animals.

Monkey temple

Stupa at the bottom of monkey temple

A hazy view of Kathmandu

I was keen to do some yoga between our two treks to stretch out our aching muscles. There are lots of yoga studios in Kathmandu, but I thought it would be helpful for Nick, who was new to yoga, to have a private lesson or two to get him started. We arranged lessons with Lisa at Pranamaya in their Thamel and Patan studios. Heading out to Patan encouraged us to explore a different part of the city. It was an area popular with ex pats and filled with cafes. We found a German bakery that had delicious cinnamon swirls. Lisa was a great teacher and had planned our lessons to deal with typical hiker tight muscles. Nick was impressed by how deep the poses make you stretch and how much you can sweat! After the noise and chaos of the city the yoga studio provided a welcome quiet and cool retreat. 

If you are travelling  to Kathmandu, I recommend  this yoga studio

The Patan Studio in a peaceful courtyard with other interesting business

The massage was at "Seeing Hands" where masseuses are all blind. My masseuse was quite petite and had super strong thumbs which found knots in my back that I didn't know I had! 

In between all of this we sampled several restaurants including Frens Kitchen, Momo Hut for steamed dumplings (my favourites were the spinach and paneer followed by the chocolate ones) and the Kathmandu Steak House for some Australian steak. One of our favourite restaurants was Western Tandoori & Naan for Dal Bhat which came with free refills and delicious fresh naan cooked to order in a tandoor oven at the entrance to the tiny restaurant (it had space for just 20 people) - all of this for two cost about $5. A post hike treat was a delicious pizza and beer at Fire and Ice, but we could have been in Europe or the US with the number of post hike tourists in there. 

Just round the corner from our hotel was a tea shop that sold loose Nepali grown tea and offered tea tastings to encourage you to buy more! We made a couple of visits and particularly enjoyed the Nepali Oolong and the Golden Tips tea which had quite a different taste.

Momos, local beer, dal bhat and tea tasting

On our last night in Kathmandu, we were treated to a cultural evening by Rup at Bhojan Griha, a former royal residence which now has a number of rooms where tourists (and locals, including dignitaries, we were assured) attend on a nightly basis to sit on the floor at Nepali tables and eat traditional food whilst watching traditional dancing from different parts of Nepal. Some of you might roll your eyes at this type of evening but we concluded it was a great way to end our time in Nepal and the food (popcorn, curried potatoes, chicken momos, dahl bat with chicken curried and fried fish - a real highlight, yogurt and fruit with sweet milk tea) was delicious and gave us a final taste of our favourite Nepali flavours. 

Our final evening

Kathmandu is a great place to use as a base for any trip to Nepal. Even though it is a hectic city it is always possible to find a quite space to relax and escape from the chaos. In many ways Kathmandu reminds me of Indian cities, but is friendlier and easier to navigate. After three different visits over the course of a month I felt sad to leave behind Kathmandu and its friendly inhabitants.

- Jess