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Kathmandu Travel Blogs

Background: In 1951, the Nepalese monarch ended the century-old system of rule by hereditary premiers and instituted a cabinet system of government. Reforms in 1990 established a multiparty democracy within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. A Maoist insurgency, launched in 1996, has gained traction and is threatening to bring down the regime, especially after a negotiated cease-fire between the Maoists and government forces broke down in August 2003. In 2001, the crown prince massacred ten members of the royal family, including the king and queen, and then took his own life. In October 2002, the new king dismissed the prime minister and his cabinet for "incompetence" after they dissolved the parliament and were subsequently unable to hold elections because of the ongoing insurgency. While stopping short of reestablishing parliament, the king in June 2004 reinstated the most recently elected prime minister who formed a four-party coalition government, which the king subsequently tasked with paving the way for elections to be held in spring of 2005. Citing dissatisfaction with the government's lack of progress in addressing the Maoist insurgency, the king in February 2005 dissolved the government and assumed power.

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By pp
December 15th 2005

rooftop view

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamel

rooftop
sitting on the rooftop with beer, peanuts, and oranges** **by oranges i mean mandarins

our hotel has 6 floors, and as it turns out is one of the higher buildings in Thamel. walking through and around Thamel, we have come to realise that perhaps the building code in australia is more strictly regulated than in nepal... had lunch at Pumpernickel's Bakery today. a cheese-spread roll with salad... very nice. the cheese-spread turned out to be garlic-onion-cheese-spread but was still very yummy. we have also discovered that the supermarkets sometimes have quite a sizeable selection of wines. about 1/4 of the wine on offer seems to be australian too! we found the ever-deadly [View Full Entry]

By pp
December 14th 2005

more lazing around kathmandu

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamel

very cute
A young monkey

Two days ago (Monday) we went to the Swayambhunath Stupa (also known as the Monkey Temple for obvious reasons once you get there). It sits on a hill to the west of Thamel (where we are staying), and is one of the more visually-famous temples in Nepal. The walk up to the temple has a set of quite steep stairs, which passes through trees and shrubs. What looked like hundreds of monkeys live in these trees, 'guarding' the temple. (What they really do is steal food from the stalls selling fruit, and grab bags of food from people at the temple.) [View Full Entry]

By pp
December 14th 2005

James lost something...

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamel

Jim's mo
James' mo before and after being attacked with a razor. You wouldn't believe how long it took to find a shop that sold a Gillette Mach 3 for under $10

Blog entry by James: well, much to the disappointment of all the nepali people out there, james has removed the mo. there has been much rejoicing within 'teh group' tho. no longer will james get handshakes especially because of his mo, and no more comments like "i like your mo even better than your face" a little part of me died today - its been seven years since ive been clean shaven... 'Tis true... the lady working at the front desk of our hotel in Thamel would only refer to James as "Mr Beard" (seriously!) while he had his mo. [View Full Entry]

By ClareandGareth
December 13th 2005

clean air, but a sore head !!

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamal

Well hello there everone ! It's Gareth here giving you the latest on our travels. First of all I'll brief you on the drama that unfolded yesterday on our way to Nepal. After another very long journey on trains and buses from Varanasi to Gorakhpur, we could almost see our destination in our sights. Our main aim was to reach the Nepali boarder in the morning sometime so that we would be able to catch the 'day' bus to Kathmandu. At Gorakhpur, all we had to do was get the local bus to Sonauli, the boarder town. We managed to [View Full Entry]

By pp
December 13th 2005

lazing around kathmandu

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamel

walking to Patan
walking to Patan took a little longer than anticipated (2 hours)... we probably should have caught a taxi

breakfast for the past 2 days has been at the "New Orleans Cafe", and it's been damn good food! today we went to Patan, a city neighbouring Kathmandu across a (very polluted & dirty) river. we were heading toward the "Central Zoo", the only zoo in Nepal. entry cost $2. i have never heard of a zoo where they take the elephant out of his enclosure and walk him around amongst the visitors... [View Full Entry]

By pp
December 12th 2005

Random Post for the Day

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamel

(joel) In order to be ready quickly in the morning, you need to make sure you beat Max into the toilet. Should you fail, you must be prepared to wait upwards of half an hour for him to finish.... [View Full Entry]

By pp
December 12th 2005

everest trek summary

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamel

Lukla Airport
449 metres long according to www.world-airport-codes.com And not nearly long enough...

here's my account/summary of the first trek that we did, including some pictures! it's a bit of a mega-post, so if you don't have time to read it then just look at the pictures & captions. 18 days in the Everest Region (North East from Kathmandu, right up the top of Nepal near Tibet, to the base of Mt Everest and back!) After arriving in Kathmandu on the 21st we began searching around for a good trekking company to provide flights, a guide, and porters for our trek. There is something like 400 trekking companies in the Thamel (tourist area) district, [View Full Entry]

By pp
December 11th 2005

Living Dangerously (joel)

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu » Thamel

(joel) Now that we're back in Kathmandu and have so far all managed to avoid any bouts of delhi belly, we've found ourselves starting to live a little more dangerously. Yesterday our guide from the Everest region showed us around parts of Kathmandu. As we passed a particularly dodge looking place, thoughts of 'no way am I ever eating at a place like that!' were secretly running though our minds. It was at this point our guide showed us in and treated us to many of the local delights. Nervously we all squeezed into the seats (Nepalese people are small!), and [View Full Entry]

By Carolee and Jay
December 10th 2005

A Vicious Cycle

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu

Boudnath Stupa

After that first day of minimal activity-- laundry and a shower (neither of which had been accomplished during the week's ride through Tibet), we decided to buy the guidebook to tell us what we should see. Durbar Square in Kathmandu was the first stop which houses several temples and museums of Old Nepali architecture (the 3 largest towns in the valley- Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktipur all have their own Durbar Squares). We biked the second day to the one in Patan. Biking here is even worse than in China-- it's just as disorderly, but here they don't slow down. Then we [View Full Entry]

By Shlub
December 9th 2005

Kathmandu

Asia » Nepal » Kathmandu

kathmandu architechture
In the old parts of town the whole place looks like this - every single piece of wood is covered with intricate carvings

Photo's coming when i get back from Everest... Summary - since I've been here I've visited various religious places and really got under the skin of the place by spending some time just relaxing at some of the most holy religious sites in the world. I've seen snake charmers and had people asking for photographs of me amongst a whole bunch of other things. I've also done a bit of shopping stocking up on v.v.vcheap outdoor equipment for my trek coming up - don't worry I've invested in a high quality daun jacket and not one made out of chicken feathers! [View Full Entry]

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