Friday, October 12, 2012

Kathmandu

Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, is none other than a cowboy town...
The city is huge, and highly densed. There were buildings on every corner, mostly old, and there are lotsa construction around. However most of it are renovation or rebuild, hardly i see any new buildings.
 old junks everywhere, plenty of electric cables extension, similar to the ones that you normally see in Hanoi...dusty roads (probably due to lack of rain), and unmanaged tar roads.
the major roads are better (but not much better than ours), however most alley or smaller trunks will either have potholes, uneven surface, or the tar being worn off. Most of their streets are narrow with 2 lanes, and hardly to see anything more than that. If you are travelling, i would recommend u to get a tourguide as most of the roads doesn't hav signboard, and looks almost the same!
b'coz of the narrow size, it gets jam almost at every part of the city. You will see trucks, old and dusty cars, motorbikes, bicycle, old buses and people on the roads...while some vendors jst pile their stuffs to sell at the roadsite. 
 the buildings are mostly 5 to 6 storeys high with mostly shops at the ground floor selling a variety of items from cooking utensils to domestics plasticware...and perhaps some small offices...all looks the same to me. The upper floors would be mostly for residences purpose.
 and in some building, i noticed that there is no proper staircase for the upper floor. Instead a ladder is used to connect the ground to the 1st floor!
Thankfully not in the case of my staying hotel. It is a much better place in Lazimpat, despite all the street chaos.
 here's one view outside of my room
 and another view from different angle of the hotel
 see those buildings?
it stretched so far and the buildings are so close to each other...such a densed place!
electricity is scarce due to the high population, blackout is a norm even in a 5 star hotel, plus there is very little street lights being lit up at night. It is advisable not to walk on the street at night or you might end up falling into some holes! (jst kidding!)
anyhow, great cultural place and nice people...

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