Kathmandu, reality sets in

It took until early afternoon before we set off into town. The problem with staying at nice hotels is that it's so difficult to leave and as the price was right, we're staying at the most luxurious place in town for around $150/night. The other nice thing about staying at the best place in town is that a generator kicks on immediately when the power goes off in the rest of the city.

Once outside, reality did set in as Kathmandu is a dusty, dirty and chaotic place
but filled with very pleasant people. We should note that it probably has the worst air quality of any city we've ever visited due to the dust. Today was some sorta festival and we ended up getting stuck in traffic where we moved about 50 feet over the course of an hour. Traffic is normally hectic with no regard for lanes, organization, or just about anyone else on the narrow lanes but the festival made today particularly bad.

Eventually we made our way to the Thamel neighborhood which is one of the greatest concentrations of backpackers travelling in the world, probably second only to Bangkok's Khao San Road. Last trip, Ryan stayed in the neighborhood but we only stopped by for a look as it doesn't have a 'Shauna Class' hotel worthy of staying at.


Our aim was to visit Durbar Square but we decided against battling the crowds and will aim for it tomorrow.