KATHMANDU
or "wooden gazebo" was an ancient city that had a building made out of the wood of one
tree. There's also a temple in Patan made out of one block of stone.
Accommodation
From from
top class to low class. In Thamel $5 US dollars a night
while others will cost in excess of $100. Outside the valley, you can
get dorm accommodation in tea houses for 20 rupees a night.
Airport
The airport is small and not as confusing as some. The visa clerk are
friendly. They are not as stringent about declaring items or searching
for drugs as they were a few years ago which makes it easier to get out
of the airport.When you get through visa and luggage check you have to run the
gauntlet of touts for different services. If you don't mind paying
extra, this is probably the easiest way to find your way into the city
and the first night's accommodation.
If you know where you want to go catch a taxi. If you do want to
catch a bus there are old coaches leaving from the front of the airport
but you have to walk about 300 meters to get there and while they are
cheap (about 6 rupees) they are crowded and do not go directly into the
city center. You have to change to a tempu (see below), and can get
confusing.
Money
The currency is the Rupee (Nrs).
44Nrs = A$1
48Nrs = US$1
Approx one hundred paisa =1 rupee but inflation has made these nearly
obsolete.
Budget
If you are on a low budget to dhal bhat as your main food source, you can
live on about 3500 rupees a week: 2400 for accommodation, 1000 for food
and 100 for transport around the city.This does not include all of the very expensive tourist activities
such as trekking, or sight seeing. It is not unusual for tourist to pay
up to 25 times the entry fee on certain attractions such as the zoo or a
museum.
Bring an international student card if you have one as you can get a
25% discount on the already very reasonably priced internal flights.
Transport
A Tempu is
the main taxi. These come in three varieties, the black or karlo which
seats two to three and is metered, about 6 rupees a km.There's a diesel tempu but they are being phased out now. These cost
4 Nrs anywhere along the route.Then there's an electric less polluting tempu which are usually
white. These cost 5 Nrs anywhere along the route. Like everywhere watch
out as they will rip you off and charge you lots more if they can.
They travel in set routes into and out of
the city. Other forms of transport are taxis which are very expensive
and coaches. All tempus are crowded and this is hard to get used to at
first.
Travel
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