A thick haze of exhaust, incessant honking from motorcycles, cars and bicycle rickshaws, narrow streets and piles of garbage.  If you let first impressions stick, Kathmandu may be nothing more than a dirty and noisy city. 

We stayed near the Thamel neighborhood, which is basically a tourist ghetto of shops selling puffy down jackets, guesthouses, restaurants and bars catering exclusively to westerners.  If you just walk outside of this area you will find Kathmandu is full of life.  The people, culture and colors of the city are absolutely beautiful. 

Kathmandu is also famous for it's numerous temples, we will cover these in our next post.  For this post our photos cover the life in the streets of Kathmandu as well as the Durbar Square, the city center filled with interesting buildings statues and pagodas.  If you ever go to Kathmandu, be sure to take a day or two away from the major sights and walk around, it will be worth your while.  Enjoy the rest of the photos! 
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