80. Nepal - Kathmandu

Like the trek itself, Kathmandu is going both backwards and forwards in terms of progress.

The city stinks, and seems to have got far worse over my 20 years of visiting, The pollution, the smog is appalling - the locals are now wearing face-masks as well as the Japanese tourists (who strangely were still wearing them at ABC itself (Sarah refused to allow me to ask one of them why; and she had an important potential sanction, refusing to zip our sleeping bags together - crucial at 4000m in my experience).

There is rubbish everywhere, piles of it, not to mention the heavily polluted rivers and streams in the city. But what did seem to be new was the chaos - everywhere seemed to being knocked down and re-built. Bricks, rubble, metal rods everywhere. It was my room 101 - immersion in one giant building project with everyone you met being a builder.

In terms of progress, Nepal seems to have developed a middle class; whether this is a good or bad thing I will leave to your own politics. We went to a food festival (parking for 1500 cars and 5000 m/bikes) which would have done Buxton credit. Foods from 20 or so countries (fish and chips and roast (not many takers!) from the UK.



Go and visit Nepal, but get out of Kathmandu asap.

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