"wander! Especially in..." Kathmandu Tip by tiganeasca

Favorite thing: wander! Especially in Katmandu: the sights, the smells, the sounds are all likely to be different from anything you have ever experienced. Katmandu is definitely not a small city--taken together with its surrounding valley, it is home to 750,000 people. And, it is important to remember that it was essentially closed to the West until about 1950. So it now has the dubious distinction of being a modern city without many modern conveniences, primary among which might be its absent sewer system. Garbage is thrown in the streets and mingles with the smells of burning incense and burning oil and smoky cooking fires--pollution laws are virtually non-existent. You will find cows in the streets together with seemingly thousands of abandoned dogs. Holy men wander, dependent upon the charity of believers. Every third building seems to be a temple or a shrine. And everywhere there are people. I have been to Cairo, a very large 'Third World' city. And though the cities share many things, they are distinct and impossible to confuse. Katmandu is at once the filthiest, smelliest, oddest, and most magical city I have ever visited--and I cannot wait to return!