Freak Street in Kathmandu

10.2.08
5:30am

We're in Kathmandu, we got in yesterday afternoon. Our friends Misha and Rita were already here and had warned us that people will try and send us to Thamel, we should ensure we get to Freak Street.

This area is Durbar square and is called freak street because all the hippies used to stay here in the 60s. Our taxi drivers did try very hard to dissuade us from coming here, they said it was dirty, full of drug addicts, not a place for tourists - blah, blah.

We managed to get here, and it is perfectly fine, safe and secure. Our hotel, Annapurna Lodge, is simple but clean - nothing fancy. A lot of hotels in Thamel probably give a commission to taxi drivers, which is why they are such aggressive advocates of Thamel. We really enjoyed Annapurna Lodge at Durbar square.

There is a small outdoor eating area with some plants down below for eating and relaxing away from the noise of the city. There's a sandwich shop around the corner and Snowman's bakery - it has pretty good cakes. The area itself is a shopping area for locals, for we don't see a lot of tourists, mostly those who stay at this hotel - unlike Thamel which caters to foreigners. We walked around one morning and saw a lot of people selling local produce. People had laid out their blankets selling mostly vegetables on the small streets, which yesterday had been full of evening shoppers. By the afternoon all this will be cleared up and the routine will start again the following day .. and so the rhythm of life continues here in a slightly different way.