Insight Guides Nepal (Travel Guide eBook)

Insight Guides

• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781786718532
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

Nepal maintains a formidable allure for travellers - the name "Kathmandu" alone is enough to set feet itching. Be inspired to visit by the new edition of Insight Guide Nepal, a comprehensive full-colour guide to this fascinating and dramatically beautiful country, home to eight of the world's ten highest mountains.
Inside Insight Guide Nepal:
A fully-overhauled edition by our expert Nepal author
Stunning, specially-commissioned photography that brings this breathtaking country and its people to life.
Highlights of the country's top attractions, including the mighty Mount Everest and the medieval temples of Bhaktapur in our Best of Nepal.Descriptive region-by-region accounts cover the whole country from the cultural riches of the Kathmandu Valley to the Terai's jungles. Detailed, high-quality maps throughout will help you get around and travel tips give you all the essential information for planning a memorable trip.
About Insight Guides: Insight Guides has over 40 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as picture-packed eBooks to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture together create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

A–Z

A

Accommodation

Nepal has it all, from rock-bottom fleapits seemingly left over from the days of the Hippie Trail, to palace hotels redolent of the Rana regime.

Kathmandu has Nepal’s greatest range of accommodation. There are plenty of luxury offerings, including international corporate hotel franchises, as well as myriad moderately priced places. Many of the large luxury hotels are clustered in the upmarket Lazimpat area, and at the northern end of Durbar Marg. Further west, the area around Thamel originally grew up as a backpackers’ ghetto, replacing the older hippie hangout on Freak Street south of Durbar Square. Modern Thamel, however, is home to an increasingly sophisticated scene. While it is still possible to find ultra-cheap beds here, there are ever more mid-range places (and some excellent dining options). Thamel escaped relatively unscathed from the 2015 earthquake.

Virtually all hotels in Kathmandu – including the very cheapest – offer free Wi-fi, and most make claims of 24-hour hot water, though in the cheaper places the heating is usually by solar power so there is slim chance of a steaming shower early in the morning. Power cuts are a chronic issue across Nepal. Almost all accommodation has some kind of emergency backup system, and in the more expensive places you won’t even notice when the supply switches from the mains to the generator. In cheaper guesthouses, however, a battery system is often used, and while you won’t be plunged into darkness, fans and power sockets customarily cut out when the mains supply gives way.

A number of luxury hotels are scattered around the Kathmandu Valley, and at viewpoints on the valley rim such as Dhulikhel and Nagarkot there are large numbers of mid-range places, aimed as much at middle-class Nepalese trippers as foreign tourists. Nepal has been surprisingly slow to catch on to the boutique hotel scene, but an increasing number of traditional Newari buildings – especially in Patan and Bhaktapur – have been converted into beautiful guesthouses in recent years. Creature comforts may not quite match those of the big chain hotels, but the experience is far more authentically Nepalese.

Outside the Kathmandu Valley the most sophisticated array of accommodation is at Pokhara. Most other mid-sized towns in the Terai and the Middle Hills have at least a few mid-range options with clean rooms and hot water. Around the national parks, meanwhile, there are budget safari lodges, and luxury jungle resorts and tented camps. An ongoing licensing wrangle with Nepal’s supreme court has seen the celebrated luxury resorts within the Chitwan National Park mothballed for several years, but new – and equally luxurious – operations have sprung up around the boundaries of the park. At Bardia, meanwhile, there is a smaller selection of luxury camps and cheaper lodges.

Bookings and rates

Thanks to the internet it is generally easy to book accommodation in Nepal from overseas – either through booking websites, or directly with the provider. Many resorts in outlying areas of the country, including the national parks, have offices in Kathmandu which are much easier to contact when making enquiries.

Most hotels add a 13 percent government tax to the bill, and many also levy a 10 percent service charge. During peak season popular places fill up quickly. However, during quieter periods significant discounts are frequently available to those who ask.

Trekking accommodation

A much more humble sort of accommodation is available in the mountains. The so-called “teahouse” is a Nepalese institution. Originally these were simply village homes that gave passing trekkers a space to sleep on the floor, but along major routes such as the Annapurna Circuit a surprising degree of comfort is now on offer, with modern bathrooms and good beds. On the wilder trails, however, the teahouses are usually much more basic, with simple dormitory-style accommodation and ice-cold showers. Booking teahouses in advance is often impossible. Those venturing still further off the beaten track will have to resort to camping, or to lodging in the kind of smoky, ultra-basic teahouses more often used by local herders than by international trekkers.

Admission charges

There are admission charges for most of the high-profile sights around the Kathmandu Valley, and there is usually a three-tiered price system, with visitors from countries belonging to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) grouping paying less than those from further afield, and locals paying still less. For major attractions tickets for non-SAARC residents generally range between US$5–10. As the various historic attractions are generally run by separate managements there are few combined tickets. However, general entry to Kathmandu’s Durbar Square and the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar have been combined, and there are plans to bring some other sights in Kathmandu under a single ticket.

There are entrance fees for all national parks, including those traversed by trekking routes. These fees are typically around US$20, payable in dollars or rupees.

The arts

Cinema

Nepal has a popular cinema scene, and in Kathmandu there are plenty of cinemas, generally featuring an array of Hollywood blockbusters and Bollywood tearjerkers, as well as low-budget local attempts to emulate both. Western visitors may enjoy the reactions of the audience more than the action on the screen. QFX (www.qfxcinemas.com) inside Civil Mall in Sundhara is a modern multiplex with plenty of English-language screenings.

For Western films, check the programmes of the European, American and Russian cultural centres. The Alliance Française (www.alliancefrancaise.org.np) also shows the occasional film. Film South Asia (www.filmsouthasia.org) holds a film festival in Kathmandu every two years, showcasing the best documentaries from around South Asia.

Theatre and dance

The National Theatre (Rastriya Nachghar) in Kathmandu puts on plays and music performances.

Many of Kathmandu’s luxury hotels host nightly cultural performances, including traditional music and dance. Some of these are fairly tawdry tourist shows, but the best function as serious outlets for the arts. Hotel Vajra (tel: [phone]; www.hotelvajra.com) near Swayambhunath is one of the best places for cultural gourmets. The hotel is the home base for the Kala-Mandapa Institute of Nepalese Performing Arts which lays on regular performances and hosts visiting classical and folk music groups.

Cultural performances are also held nightly at many of Kathmandu’s upmarket Newari restaurants, including Thamel House (tel: [phone]; www.thamelhouse.com) where a programme combining elements of music and dance from around the country complements the Nepalese tasting menu.

The best show of all is the dancing amid ancient squares and courtyards lit by oil lamps in Patan or Bhaktapur. This must be arranged in advance and is available for groups only – ask your travel agent for details.

B

Begging

Beggars are a common sight in Kathmandu, often stationed around bus stations or on busy pedestrian walkways. Major pilgrimage centres such as Pashupatinath and Swayambhunath were attracting large groups of beggars long before the first tourists arrived in Nepal, and they continue to do so today.

As well as these “genuine” beggars, you may be targeted by children around tourist sights, often speaking excellent English, and offering a slick tale to elicit sympathy. A typical approach is to ask tourists to pay for school books, and even to lead them to a shop where they can make the purchase directly. This is generally a scam and the beggar later returns the book and splits the cash with the shopkeeper. While a few street children have used their savvy and their language skills to make their way in the legitimate tourist trade, many others slip into a life of drugs and crime, and local NGOs strongly caution against giving handouts, arguing that doing so encourages children to stay on the streets. If you want to help, make a donation to a local charity.

Budgeting for your trip

Bottled beer: Rs350

Glass of house wine: Rs500

Main course meal: Rs:300 budget; Rs:700 moderate; Rs:1,500 expensive

Hotel cost: from Rs500 budget; from Rs:3,500 moderate; from Rs7,000 expensive

Taxi ride within Kathmandu: Rs200–500

Bus journey: Kathmandu to Pokhara on a “tourist bus” Rs800–2,500

C

Children

Travelling with children in N...

Table of contents

• Nepal’s Top 10 Attractions
• Editor’s Choice
• Introduction: A Country in Between
• The Collision Zone
• Decisive Dates
• Royal Dynasties
• From Monarchy to Republic
• The Nepalese
• Religion
• Food and Drink
• Architecture
• Arts and Crafts
• Insight: Nepal’s Wool Industry
• Festivals
• Flora and Fauna
• Environmental Issues
• Trekking
• Mountaineering
• Rafting and Kayaking
• Insight: Adventure Sports: from Peak to Jungle
• Introduction: Places
• Kathmandu
• Around Kathmandu
• Patan
• Bhaktapur
• Insight: Nepal’s World Heritage Sites
• Kathmandu Valley
• Kathmandu to Pokhara
• Pokhara and Pokhara Valley
• Trekking in the Annapurnas
• Trekking in Langtang-Gosainkund-Helambu
• The Everest Region
• Insight: Sherpa monasteries and gompas
• East of Everest
• The Terai
• The Remote West
• Transport
• A–Z
• Language
• Further Reading