overview

How to describe KATHMANDU? A medieval time capsule? An environmental disaster area? A pleasure dome? A tourist trap? A holy city? A dump? All of the above. There are a thousand Kathmandus, all layered and dovetailed and piled on top of one another in an extravagant morass of chaos and sophistication. Though its population barely tops 700,000, Nepal's capital is far and away its biggest and most cosmopolitan city: a melting pot of a dozen ethnic groups, and the home town of the Newars, Nepal's master craftsmen and traders extraordinaire. Trade, indeed, created Kathmandu – for at least a thousand years it controlled the most important caravan route between Tibet and India – and trade has always funded its Newar artisans. Little wonder, perhaps, that the city has so deftly embraced the tourist business.

The Kathmandu most travellers experience, Thamel, is like a thumping, Third World theme park, all hotels and hoardings and promises, promises, with croissants and cakes beckoning from restaurant windows and touts flogging tiger balm and hashish to holiday hippies. The old city, though squeezed by traffic and commercial pressures, is still studded with ageless temples and splendid architecture. Its narrow lanes seethe with an incredible crush of humanity, echoing with the din of bicycle bells, religious music, construction and car horns, and reeking of incense, spices, sewage and exhaust fumes. Sacred cows still roam the streets, as do holy men, beggars, street urchins and coolies. To the south, the separate municipality of Patan was once the capital of an independent kingdom; though now subsumed into the greater Kathmandu conurbation, it has its own quieter and better-preserved historic district, marked by numerous Buddhist bahal (monastery compounds, some of them still active), proud artistry, and a laid-back tourism industry.

These quarters represent only a few facets of a complex and eccentric city that also encompasses squatter shantytowns, decrepit ministry buildings, swanky five-star shopping streets, sequestered suburbs and heaving bazaars. Perhaps the predominant images of contemporary Kathmandu are those that pass for progress: hellish traffic jams and pollution; a jostling skyline of rooftop water-storage tanks and obsolete satellite dishes; suburban sprawl, cybercafés, discos and trash heaps; power cuts and backup generators; chauffeured Land Cruisers and families on motorbikes. The city hasn't abandoned its traditional identity, but the rapid pace of change has produced an intense, often overwhelming, urban environment. Anyone visiting Nepal for its natural beauty is likely to be disillusioned by Kathmandu.

Nevertheless, Kathmandu is likely to be your first port of call in Nepal – all overseas flights land in the capital, and most roads lead to it – and you probably won't be able to avoid spending at least a couple of days here. It's the obvious place to sort out your affairs: it has all the embassies and airline offices, Nepal's best-developed communications facilities, and a welter of trekking and travel agencies. At least as important, in the minds of long-haul travellers anyway, are the capital's restaurants and the easy social scene that surrounds them, all of which makes Kathmandu the natural place to get your bearings in Nepal.

All things considered, though, you'd be well advised to get your business here over with as quickly as possible. If you're intending to do any sightseeing around the valley, consider basing yourself in the healthier surroundings of Bhaktapur or Boudha, or even further out in Nagarkot or Dhulikhel. These days, the smart money is on staying outside Kathmandu and making day trips in, not vice versa.