"Rooftop of the World" Nepal by leon.partsi

The Nepalese people are some of the nicest you will ever meet, anywhere in the world. It seems to be a trend: the poorer a location, the nicer the people are to foreigners.

It's mostly economical: they know the tourists are good for them. So, they welcome them with open arms. They talk, they try to help, they practice their English... If only every country was so openly accepting.

Varities of Nepalese Rupee

This will fluctuate wildly depending on how local you want to make your trip. In the main city of Kathmandu, you can expect the following:

Bottle of drinking water: 50-200 rupees.
Coke: 100-200 rupees.
Street stall snack: 10-50 rupees.
Meal at a restaurant: 50-200 rupees, but then at tourist places it can skyrocket to several hundred rupee for a western meal.
Bottle of "Everest" beer: 150-300 rupees.
Rickshaw ride under 1.5km: 100 rupees.

Temples in Kathmandu

Nepal is a very, very poor country in comparison to any first world nation. The infrastructure is hap-hazard, the rules and regulations relaxed, the traffic laws seemingly non-existent. While it is by and large a safe place for tourists, you need to exercise that brilliant common sense in order to help things along:

Do not ever argue with police.
Do not ever drink tap water.
Don't do drugs.
Take a rickshaw rather than walk alone after dark.
Try not to flash around your wallet full of rupees.
Take great care in crossing the street.

Apart from these minor precautions, I definitely recommend Nepal as a place that everyone should go to at least once. It's very hard to explain what emotions you feel, walking around Nepal. It's as though you stepped off a plane and walked into a different age. Everything feels old, antique. Precious. And the trail to Everest Base Camp... That needs an entry all on it's own. And now it has one.

• Pros:Mesmorising, Beautiful, Historical
• Cons:Poor, Unhygenic
• In a nutshell:Once in a Lifetime Movie Type Stuff