"The Himalayan Kingdom" Top 5 Page for this destination Nepal by SumTingWong

Nepal Travel Guide: 3,920 reviews and 10,570 photos

Bearded Sadhu from Pashupatinath, Kathmandu

Mero arko desh Nepal ho!

Please note that all of the following photos were taken by me and are are under copyrite. Do not reproduce these images in any way unless you have prior permission. Thanks!! Enjoy!

Note that some tips are the same tip with different photos. This is because the travelogues cannot hold all of my photos. Rather than dumping the photos I just repeated the tip with new photos.

Nepali Language - Nepali Bhaasaa

Namaste!

The offcial language of Nepal is Nepali, written in the Davanagari script . Nepali comes from indo-european roots, and more directly related to Sanskrit and Hindi.
Because I cannot figure out a way to type in Davanagari on VT, I have some phrases in transliteration.

The Golden Word: HADZUR - this word (also romanized as hajur) has several important meenings. It can be used to meen 'yes' as in 'agreement', it can also mean 'repeat' or 'say it again' it is also used to connotate 'affirmation' (accent usually placed on the 'a' in this case) and also 'perplexity' (accent usually placed on the 'u' at the end)

Basic conversation phrases and vocab:
Hello - Namaste
Hello (formal) - Namaskaar
Whats up? - Ke chha?
I'm OK - Thik chha
I'm not OK - Thik chhaina
How are you? - Tapaainlai kasto chha?
I am well - Malai sanchai chha
Good - Raamro
Very - Ekdam
Name - Naam
My name is... - Mero naam...dzi ho
What is your name? (directed to an adult) - Taapainko naam ke ho?
What is your name? (directed to a child) - Timro naam ke ho?
I - Ma
You (adult) - Tapaain
You (child) - Timi
He/She (adult) - Wahaan
He/She (child) - U / Uni
We - Haami
You (pl. to children) - Timiharu
You (pl. to adults) - Tapaainharu
They (adult) - Wahaanharu
They (children) - Uharu
Mother - Aamaa
Father - Baa
Older Sister - Didi
Younger Sister - Bhahini
Older Brother - Dhai
Younger Brother - Bhai
Aunt - Kaka
Uncle - Mama
Son - Chhora
Daughter - Chhori
Whats her/his name? - Wahaanko naam ke ho?
I feel sick - Ma birami chhu
How much? - Kasto chha?

** The best Nepali phrase book out there is the Lonley Planet one, and it is pretty good at almost all basic vocab and grammar. However, I personally have caught several errors. Nepali grammar is different from place to place, and sometimes varries by a large margin. Nevertheless, you will learn a lot of Nepali by just being in Nepal. TRY TO AVOID USING THE WORD DHANYABAAD, yes many phrase books translate it as "thank you" but it has very, very formal connotations, and just doesn't fit. Only use it when someone does you a big favor.**

Speaking Nepali

Life in Nuwakot

Basic knowledge of Nepali grammar is very impressive and useful in Nepal and for speaking Nepali. So, here I am providing those who are interested with a bit of grammar.

Verbs:
Infinitive verb: garnu 'to do', ends in "nu"
Progressive verb: garna 'doing', ends in "na"
"Oops, I forgot how to conjugate" verb form: garne 'lets do', ends in "ne" sometimes pronounced like "ni". To negate this most basic understood form, add "na" to the beginniong of the verb.

Q: Where can verbs be found in a sentence? AT THE END OF THE SENTENCE. ex: I eat food = Ma khaana khaanchhu (lit. I food eat)
and it even still applies in more complex sentences with more than one verb, ex: 'I want to live in Nepal.' = Ma Nepal-ma basnu chahinchhu. (lit. I Nepal-in to live want) NOTE that prepositions (like in, on, at, etc...) are hooked onto the ends of the nouns they modify. Also NOTE that the conjugated verb is the final verb of the sentence if there is more than one verb.

Conjugation: conjugation (or at least formal conjugation) is quite complex in Nepali, mostly because there is unfortunatly a completely different conjugation form fot a nagative and positive conjugation of a verb. Anyway, here are the formal conjugations, I used the example veru 'dzaanu' (which can also be romanized as jaanu, but the "j" is pronounced in Nepal like "dz" whereas in India more like a "j") 'to go' (note that the verm boor of any verb is the verb in the infinitive minus the "nu"; however if the verb ends in a vowel the "n" is retained.

PRESENT TENSE POSITIVE CONJUGATION:
Ma: dzaanchhu
Timi: dzaanchhau
U/Yo/Tyo: dzaanchha
Haami: dzaanchhaun
Timiharu: dzaanchhau
Uharu: dzaanchhan
Tapaain/Wahaan/Tapaainharu/Wahaanharu: dzaanuhunchha

PRESENT TENSE NEGATIVE TENSE:
Ma: dzaandina
Timi: dzaandainau
U/Yo/Tyo: dzaandaina
Haami: dzaandainaun
Timiharu: dzaandainau
Uharu: dzaandainna
Tapaain/Wahaan/Tapaainharu/Wahaanharu: dzaanuhunna

PAST TENSE POSITIVE CONJUGATION:
Ma: dzaanen
Timi: dzaanyau
U/Yo/Tyo: dzaanyo
Haami: dzaanyaun
Timiharu: dzaanyau
Uharu: dzaane
Tapaain/Wahaan/Tapaainharu/Wahaanharu: dzaanu-bhayo

PAST TENSE NEGATIVE CONJUGATION:
Ma: dzaaninan
Timi: dzaanenau
U/Yo/Tyo: dzaanena
Haami: dzaanenaun
Timiharu: dzaanenau
Uharu: dzaanenna
Tapaain/Wahaan/Tapaainharu/Wahaanharu: dzaanu-bha-e-na

How to form the PRESENT PROGRESSIVE TENSE: add the word 'dai' in-between the verb root and the present tense endings, ex: I am going. = Ma dzaandaichhu

How to form the FUTURE TENSE: There is no immediate future tense, but the most popular way to signify events thet 'may' or 'will' happen in the future, the word "holaa" can be added after a present tense conjugated verb, ex: I will/may go. = Ma dzaanchhu holaa.

How to form the IMPERATIVE TENSE (or the polite command tense): add the following endings

Haami: dzaanaun
Timi(haru): dzaanaa
Tapaain(haru): dzaanus (or jaanuhos)
*Note that to order someone to 'go away' the word baang is used.

more to come.........

Pros and Cons

Pros:People, culture, land, mountains, traditions, history, and many more
Cons:Kathmandu street people; Politics (the Chairman's amigos)
In a nutshell:A place that touches the depths of your soul

Last visit to Nepal: Aug 2003
Intro Updated Apr 23, 2004
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Reviews (120)

Pizza and Ice Cream Restaurants (8)

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Tribhuvan Intl Airport (from airplane window) - Nepal

Tribhuvan International Airport Transportation (6)

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Landing at Tribhuvan Intl, Kathmandu - Nepal

Flying into Nepal Transportation (6)

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Tourist Traps (2)
See All Fake Sadhus
Favorites (6)
See All Deforestation
Warnings and Dangers (14)
See All Headline: Bandh Kantipurmaa
Hotels (3)
See All Tented Treks
Off The Beaten Path (17)
See All Sagaramatha the Mt Everest of Nepal

What to Pack (3)
See All What to Take Trekking
Local Customs (28)
See All Didi-Bahini Dai-Bhai
Things to Do (28)
See All The Terai
Nightlife (2)
See All Looking At the Stars
Sports & Outdoors (1)
Tiger and Goat! Baagh ra Bakra!

Travelogues (5)

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Comments (57)

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alidoll Nov 6, 2008 at 10:14 AM

Thanks very much for these pages, lots of useful info :)
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mrkenlewis Sep 21, 2007 at 11:40 PM

STD is an abbreviation for Subscriber Trunk Dialling, localese for inter state telephone calls. STD is NOT the name of the phone company- but that was a good guess anyway. International phone booths would be marked as ISD.
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Elena_blue Aug 29, 2007 at 8:20 AM

Amazing pics, amazing pages. I m planning a trip to Nepal and your pages have been an inspiration. Thank you for sharing Matt. I hope to meet you somewhere, some day. Fare forward, voyager!
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mantru Jun 16, 2007 at 5:53 AM

looks like u did quite a study of our nepali langauage....
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lusilk Jun 6, 2007 at 7:37 AM

Hi there My god I am surprised to see your knowledge about you and your english-nepali transaltion, and about culture and religion ..................wish you all the best , I wanted to write you more but I will write you when I will go back to Pokhara
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Starsa May 24, 2007 at 7:31 AM

I am a fan of your page...amazing pics.
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BeeLadybird Apr 22, 2007 at 7:41 AM

Just found this page .Its great,I did the Royal Trek in 2004 and visited all these places.Everyone should visit Nepal at least once in their lifetime Pat
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stevefoulds Feb 11, 2007 at 4:30 AM

I was after some information on volunteering in nepal. I'm a nurse and plan to work in nepal in september. I would be grateful for more details. Thank you. Steve
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hunterV Jan 24, 2007 at 12:58 PM

Thanks, Matt, I see you've had a great trip!
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thisit811 Mar 13, 2006 at 8:05 PM

Sitthi Great information and wonderful pics. My wife & I are going to Nepal in April, 2006. We can't wait. Thanks for your information and we'll take your advise.