Exploring Old Kathmandu 🇳🇵

It's my last day in Nepal, so my last chance to have a good explore around Kathmandu.

My previous stay in the city was ruined by a case of extreme food poisoning that left me confined to my hotel room for an entire week.

This stay in Kathmandu was mostly ruined by constant rain, but that stopped in the mid afternoon of my final day, so I took the opportunity to get out and have a wee adventure.

My first mission was to find a local samosa shop that had been recommended to me. I walked through the narrow streets, avoiding motorbikes and other obstacles and found the place I was looking for, Tip Top Samosa.

One huge vegetable samosa cost just 30 rupees ($0.24 USD / £0.20 GBP). Definitely the cheapest food I've bought in Nepal so far but the quality of the samosa was excellent. Nice crispy pastry, stuffed with potatoes, lentils and a delicious masala.

After washing that salty, spicy samosa down with a fresh, sweet lassi, I took a bicycle rickshaw to the Kathmandu Durbar Square. The word 'Durbar' means 'Royal', so it's the old royal square.

The chancer tried to charge me 500 rupees for a 1 minute ride. I bargained him down to 100 rupees but that's still a ripoff.

I got gouged again at the Durbar Square. Just to enter the area foreign tourists must pay 1,000 rupees ($7.80 USD / £6.65 GBP). There's a bunch of a interesting old temples in the area but it's still a regular area with shops, businesses and residential buildings. 1,000 is a bit much to just wander around those streets, especially when you have to pay for another ticket to enter the museum that's in that area.

I was planning on exploring the area myself with the information pamphlet that I received at the ticket booth, however I was convinced to take a guide. Fortunately so, because he was really good.

I'd been on the hunt for a Dhaka Topi, the traditional hat that Nepalis wear, for some time. I asked my guide, Mr Doga, to help me find one. He was determined to find one for me that was both high quality and low priced, so we tried a bunch of different shops before we found a man who specialises in Dhaka Topis.

Proudly wearing my new Nepali hat, we wandered back to the royal square and visited the Kumari's house. Kumari is a little girl who the locals believe is a living goddess. She lives in a house with a caretaker family that she's only allowed to leave 13 times a year, during Hindu festivals. Other that that, local people can visit the house to get blessed by her and foreigners like me can see her appear at the window at certain times of the day.

There were a lot of other interesting things to see in the area, including an old stone water tap that the locals in that area still use, as they still don't have running water in their homes. Nearby, there was a fertility temple where people come to worship Shiva and ask to have a boy as their first child.

My guide was very knowledge and honest, so if any of you guys want him to give you a tour in Kathmandu you can contact him on whatsapp +9779820514228 His name is Doga Dahal.

0:00 Thamel Area
4:38 Vegetable Samosa
11:56 Sweet Lassi
13:56 Bicycle Rickshaw Ride
16:45 Royal Square
21:37 Bargaining for Tour Guide
27:38 Dhaka Topi Hunt
49:53 Living Goddess Home
56:46 Rooftop Cafe
1:06:14 Stone Water Tap
1:09:29 Fertility Temple
1:14:58 Temples of Old Kathmandu

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