Katmandou- Népal

When we got out of the airport, a minivan was waiting for us. As soon as they saw us, they came to greet us with lovely orange flower necklaces that they placed around each of us. What a warm welcome to Nepal.

​They then drove us to our hotel, Alpine Hotel. It was very late, past midnight, and we were more than happy to finally go to sleep after such a long day of traveling.
​The next morning, we met the hotel staff. They were all extremely welcoming and it felt like we were home with family. There is a nice rooftop terrace where we enjoyed a view over the city while doing some school work, or drinking Fanta while dad sipped a beer.

We headed out to meet Rajesh, the owner of the trekking agency we chose, and he too gave us such a warm welcome. He treated us to drinks and momos. Momos are basically nepalese dumplings and they are really tasty! That evening, he also invited us to the restaurant where we enjoyed our first Dal Bhat. This is a traditional nepalese dish composed of rice, lentil soup, vegetables and curry. It was delicious! We went to see Rajesh many times during our time in Katmandou and it was impossible to enter his office without him treating us to drinks.
 
Over the next few days we did homework, prepared for the upcoming trek and tasted different restaurants. One of them was an Indian restaurant called Western Tandoori. When we were looking at the menu, a man passing by our table looked as though he was used to the place. He told us he had been coming here for more than ten years so, we asked if he had any recommendations on the menu. He sure did! After he was done telling us all about his favorites, he said « so, what do you think? » and dad answered « sounds perfect! ». So the man looked over to the waiter and yelled out what sounded like an order before looking back at us saying that our food would be here soon. We had no idea what we would be eating but a few minutes later, there it was: one roasted chicken in a spicy paste, one chicken masala curry, one lentil curry and lots of naan bread! Yuuumy!!! It was a feast and everything was very tasty!

We spent a lot of time walking around Thamel, a neighborhood in Katmandou, exploring all the small shops that sell anything and everything you might be looking for, from spices to mountain gear to souvenirs or food markets. The shops seem to be piled on top of each other in an unorganised way and the streets are narrow and shared by everyone.

As we were wandering around, we found a cheese shop. It smelled so good that it was hard to miss! The lady at the counter was very nice and let us taste all the different types of yak cheese before buying them. Our favorite was the cumin flavored yak cheese! Finally, very close to our hotel, there was a really good chicken kebab restaurant. We kept going back because it was just that good! Here is a small video where you can get a glimpse of the streets and it ends with the Kebab place on the right ;)

We didn't get out of Thamel much but we did go to the Monkey temple one afternoon. The view over the never ending city was lovely, the monkeys on the way up the countless steps were... intimidating, and the temple at the very top was overlooking the city with it's watchful eyes!