This time, Chelsea and I managed to sit on the correct side on the flight between Paro and Kathmandu. And wow! The views were spectacular. I think this is the best window view I’ve ever gotten on a plane, full stop. We got to see the Himalayas up close, and the pilot came on over the announcements and pointed out various significant peaks, including Everest. I read Into Thin Air at a formative age and have a great degree of respect for the Himalayas, so it’s always been a dream of mine to see Mount Everest from a nice safe distance.
Kathmandu has a very different vibe from anywhere in Bhutan – it’s a lot more populous and a lot more chaotic! The most similar place I’ve been would probably be Hanoi, and the skills I learned trying to cross the street there came in handy in Kathmandu. We made our way to our accommodation, which thankfully let us check in even though it was mid-morning.
Once we had stored our luggage and gotten our lives together a bit, we headed out to explore the city. We wandered around Thamel for a bit, got lunch, and spent a portion of the afternoon in the Garden of Dreams, reading and going through the various exhibits in the surrounding buildings. Our first lunch was fantastic – in general, I was very impressed with the food in Nepal. It didn’t hurt that we had mostly had buffet food in Bhutan as part of the tour, which wasn’t bad but was also…. just fine. I also had never had momos before! The Nepalese place that Sam and I used to get takeout from never had vegetarian ones, so I tried those for the first time on this trip and they were incredible.
The next day, we headed to two of the three Durbar Squares around Kathmandu Valley! These are royal squares, and they’re UNESCO sites that have some of the architecture from previous kingdoms that used to rule Nepal. A lot of the buildings were damaged in 2015, and you could still see some areas that had fault lines or damage, but I was impressed how much of it had been rebuilt. We went through a few exhibits in the one in Kathmandu, which had a pretty comprehensive history of how they transitioned into their current form of government. I didn’t realize how recently they transitioned to democracy.
From there, we headed out to Bhaktapur, which has one of the other Durbar Squares! We took a taxi there and back, which was pretty straightforward, and then we just wandered around. If you want a guide, there are a lot of people around who offered to take us around for money. There were lots of markets and restaurants as well. We only had a half day here, because Chelsea’s next tour had a meeting and dinner that evening, but it was definitely a worthwhile trip out from the Kathmandu city center.
I knew this was going to be a short time to explore Kathmandu, because it was really just a stopover and I had to fly home so I could get back to work, but I was still disappointed to have to leave so soon! I really liked Kathmandu. I have a few other places I would love to see in Nepal as well, and I will need to figure out a way to get back here again.
It’s a long series of flights out there from the US, but definitely worth a visit. Looking forward to my next trip to Nepal!