Kathmandu, Patan & Pokhara 

My trip through the Mustang region of Nepal up to Lo Manthang – part 1 and part 2 – was bookended by stays in the Kathmandu Valley and a brief stop in Pokhara. I wasn’t planning or expecting to see anything new, my visit was just a reminder of familiar places and interesting visits over the years.

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▲  Yes Freak St was still there, on my first visit to Nepal in 1972, an interesting stop along the hippie trail, Freak St was where penny-pinching backpacker – freaks – automatically turned up. Yes Maureen and I stayed on Freak St on that first visit, it’s just off Durbar Square, the centre of old Kathmandu. In fact we stayed our first night in Kathmandu at the Camp Hotel on what used to be known as Maru Tole, the street leading from Durbar Square down to the Vishnumati River. There’s no sign of that hotel today and I have no idea which building it was in.

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▲ The Museum of Nepali Art, Kathmandu Guest House

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When we returned to Nepal just after Christmas 1975 we stayed at the Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel. The centre of gravity of backpacker tourism had shifted north and the Kathmandu Guest House was the place to stay. Over the years I’ve been back there many times, in 2011 on my last visit to Kathmandu before this 2025 trip I stayed there. The guest house was badly damaged in the terrible 2015 earthquake, but has been completely repaired. It also gained the superb Museum of Nepali Art with its excellent collection of new and old Nepali art and regular special exhibits.

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▲  My trip to the Mustang Region of Nepal was aimed at keen photographers and led by Richard I’Anson. Naturally on our first morning in Kathmandu we were off to the Bodhnath Stupa, the centre for Tibetan Buddhism in Kathmandu. Yes, it’s the standard views of the stupa’s Buddha eyes, but I would be very disappointed if I made a visit to Kathmandu and did not circumambulate the Bodhnath Stupa, as thousands of Buddhist pilgrims and local Nepalese do every day.

▲ Meanwhile monks sweep the stupa clean.

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◄ Narayanhiti Royal Palace – the palace was not open for visitors on my last visit to Kathmandu, today 1000 NPR (US$7) gets you in, but no photography please. It’s interesting enough, although really it’s just one room after another, ‘the king’s study, the queen’s bedroom, the bedroom for the visiting head of state, the waiting room, the dining room, etc etc etc.’ In fact truthfully it’s really pretty dull. But then there are the assorted Mercedes and other cars the king and royal family tooled around Kathmandu in, and their Alouette helicopter and their Avro 748 airliner.

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Plus there’s the building where the royal family really lived, it’s a sad place with the childhood rooms of Princess Shutri and Prince Nirajan, she was 24, he was 22 when both were murdered by their elder brother Crown Prince Dipendra along with King Birendra and Queen Aishwarya in the 1 June 2001 Royal Massacre, along with a number of other royals and innocent bystanders. Then there’s the site of the massacre, the building where it all happened has supposedly been demolished, but in fact there are still lots of locations along with bullet holes in the walls.

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◄  Monkeys still slide down the bannisters on the steps up to Swayambhunath, the monkey temple overlooking Kathmandu. Just as they did on my very first visit in 1972.

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▲ The group’s enthusiastic photographers did not let a little rain shower interrupt their sunset photography session at Swayambhunath.

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▲ Dwarika Hotel, Kathmandu

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Naturally I laid out another 1000 NPR to visit Kathmandu’s Durbar Square (Palace Square), the centre of the city and site for a number of its finest temples. Sadly the temples in the square were badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake and I was not impressed by the reconstruction work. There’s a lot of work still to do and a lot of the repairs are pretty basic, a temple might be back, but looks like it’s 10 years old, not 500. No prizes for superb rebuilding.

Visiting the interesting Dwarika Hotel near Pashupatinath and the airport is an indication of what should have happened to Durbar Square. I didn’t stay there, although I might on my next visit to Kathmandu, but I did go there for dinner with Richard and my first thought when we stepped inside the large building was ‘what was this before?’ and the answer is it wasn’t, it was put together from bits and pieces from lots of old buildings, took over 30 years to construct and today has over 80 rooms and 48 suites. The owner and creator salvaged pieces from buildings around Nepal as they were demolished and used the architectural fragments to construct his hotel. It’s very encouraging (or disappointing) that they could build a brand new, but beautifully crafted old-looking hotel, so why couldn’t they do the same thing to the reconstruction of Durbar Square?

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Go to Patan, I was told, they’ve done a much better job of rebuilding the Durbar Square in the Kathmandu Valley’s second city. It’s only five km south. On my visit to Kathmandu’s Durbar Square I had a look into the home of the Living Goddess, the Kumari, right on the square. Kathmandu’s living goddess is retired as soon as she reaches puberty and vacates her palace for a new goddess. The current Kumari wasn’t around when I dropped in, but outside they were readying her chariot for her annual parade through the square, along with smaller chariots for living gods, a young Ganesh and a young Bhairav. These junior gods don’t enjoy their own palaces, like the goddess, and their chariots are reassembled each year, the much larger Kumari one is simply stored away until next year. Richard, who went to the square to photograph the Kumari activities, reported that Durbar Square was full-on Kumaris, or Kumari wanna-bes as he puts it, little girls dressed up as goddesses.

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▲ A little goddess perched on the stairs up to the Vishveshvara Temple in Patan’s Durbar Square.

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Patan’s Durbar Square, when I got there, did indeed look much better than Kathmandu’s, but it was very difficult to tell what had survived the quake, what had been restored and what was awaiting or undergoing restoration. Really it was a bit of a shambolic mess. The square was, however, full of more Kumari wanna-bes with their parents and relatives busily photographing them. Maureen and I had put some money into restoring one of the Patan temples, but I really could not remember which one and amazingly I don’t seem to have a record of it. No problem because when I got back to Kathmandu Professor Google instantly popped up the information that it was the Vishveshara Temple which we had helped to restore and remarkably I’d managed to accidentally photograph a would-be-Kumari on the steps up to our temple.

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▲ A Khaja ‘set’ in the Delicious Momo Pasal Restaurant

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I joined some of our photographers to explore the food possibilities of Kathmandu with Deepak of Yakthung Tours. In three-plus very interesting hours we certainly ate more then I needed although we also did lots of other things and enjoyed assorted insights into Kathmandu, Nepal and particularly Newari life. The food:

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• Aambo Momo – small outlet at the edge of Thamel turning out the best momos, Deepak suggests, in Kathmandu.

• Delicious Momo Pasal – for a Khaja set, traditional Newari food, rather like a thali, with a bamboo soup, interesting dried and cracked rice, peanuts, yak – very nice, shame we’re all already pretty full from that momo starter.

• Bhakta Mithai Pasal – for sweet haluwa swari – ‘sweet semolina (chickpea?) pudding (haluwa) and soft, flaky bread (swari), a favourite breakfast dish.’ And tea.

• A hidden away little courtyard where we sample the best fried goat lung in Kathmandu. It’s not as bad as it sounds although you would absolutely never find this place without Deepak to lead you there. There is certainly no sign in English proclaiming ‘Kathmandu’s best fried goat lung specialist.’

• Finally a very crowded courtyard at the end of the ‘bridal alley’ where lots of people, but overwhelmingly more women than men, are knocking back lentil pancakes and other sweet items after a bout of bridal shopping.

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▲  I made a brief diversion as we came through Pokhara on our way back from Mustang to visit Stan Armington. Stan wrote the very first Nepal trekking guide for Lonely Planet and came along on my 2011 Mustang trip which he organised. In fact Stan, who has retired in Pokhara, turned 70 on that trek, which is now 14 years ago! I also walked along the Phewa Lakeside in Pokhara, not as far as the backpacker zone, but I did pass a rowboat rental station and the jetty where the punt crosses the inlet to the Fishtail Lodge, a classy lakeside hotel where I stayed once.