KIRAN GOES PLACES
If you want the full story of our day there, haircut, monkey business and all, I've written that up separately as 24 hours in Kathmandu. This one's just the shortlist, what to actually prioritise if your time is tight.
1. Start in Thamel
Kathmandu's main tourist hub, narrow streets full of scooters, prayer flags and shops selling just about everything. Fake North Face jackets, hiking poles, boots, duffel bags, if you've forgotten anything for your trek, this is the place. Watch your step on the narrow, rocky pavements, and expect to be offered hash, tiger balm and massages about five times an hour. Kathmandu is surprisingly walkable, but if you'd rather not, ride-hailing apps like Pathao or InDrive work well. Just don't expect seat belts.
2. Get a rooftop lassi
Kathmandu's rooftops are its best kept secret. There are loads of rooftop restaurants, cafes and bars, and we started at Forest and Plate, leafy and quiet just above the madness of Thamel. Order a lassi, cold, sweet, yogurt based, perfect for the heat, and often filled with local fruit. Sit up there and you genuinely feel like you're floating above the chaos below.
A rooftop lassi above the madness of Thamel, one of the city's better kept secrets.
3. Climb up to the Monkey Temple
Swayambhunath is perched on a hill, which means great views but also a lot of steps, more than you think. About halfway up there are prayer wheels spinning and golden stupas shining, and monkeys absolutely everywhere, one of which I watched snatch food straight out of someone's hand. Watch your belongings. Once you're at the top, it's a genuinely great spot for sunset.
4. Meet Kal Bhairav in Durbar Square
Durbar Square is Kathmandu's old royal historic complex, small entry fee, and worth getting a local guide for, we paid about ten dollars and learned a lot more than we would have alone. There's still visible damage from the 2015 earthquake, which flattened much of this heritage site in under a minute. Don't miss the massive black statue of Kal Bhairav, a fierce form of Shiva. Legend has it that if you lied in front of it, you'd face divine punishment, basically the original lie detector test.
5. Visit the Kumari House
Just inside Durbar Square is the home of Nepal's living goddess. She's a real child, chosen from the Shakya community through a long, strict selection process, flawless skin, perfect teeth, calmness, fearlessness, and around thirty other physical and emotional traits. She appears at a small window for blessings a few times a day, local guides usually know the timing. She's worshipped here until puberty, then returns to ordinary life with a government pension for life.
6. Eat momos, repeatedly
It would basically be illegal in Nepal to not eat momos. Dumplings, steamed or fried, stuffed with vegetables, paneer or meat, originally from Tibet but thoroughly adopted by Nepal as their own. We had ours at Samaya Garden, another good rooftop spot, and the potato and cheese filling edged out the veg for me.
7. Pashupatinath Temple
One of the most sacred Hindu temples in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage site dedicated to Lord Shiva, especially packed during the Maha Shivaratri festival. Non-Hindus can't enter the main shrine, but you can still watch the open air cremation ceremonies along the river, families gathering, ashes scattered in the water, holy men sitting quietly in saffron robes. It's genuinely moving.
8. Boudhanath Stupa
Not far from Pashupatinath, massive, peaceful, and one of the calmest places in the whole city. Surrounded by tea shops and prayer flags, with monks doing kora, walking clockwise around the dome spinning prayer wheels as they go. Go late in the day if you can, the stupa stays lit by the sun even once the surrounding streets are shaded.
That's the shortlist. There's so much more to Kathmandu and Nepal in general that we barely scratched the surface, but if your time is tight, these eight will get you the real flavour of the city. Our next stop from here was straight up into the mountains.
Next stop from Kathmandu, straight up into the mountains.