Kathmandu City

In 1982, the forward looking Dean of Charing Cross Hospital Medical School was seduced by the enthusiastic plans of one of his medical students to take a year out of his studies in order to work (and climb) in Nepal. I spent three months working as a porter in Harvey Nichols to fund the trip, and then I set off to Kathmandu.

In those days it was a charming small city surrounded by vivid green paddy fields and terraced hillsides within the confines of the Kathmandu valley. I lived in a small house in amongst the paddies and cycled everywhere. I was fortunate enough to have nine months to explore one of the most interesting cities in the world, including magical places such as the Swayambhunath (or Monkey) Temple, the stupa at Bodhhnath and the burning ghats.

Over the years the city has expanded enormously, the population is now about 600,000 (1.4 million live in the valley). New buildings seem to be going up everywhere. Much of the surrounding land has been built upon, and traffic with all its attendant noise, pollution and blaring of horns appears omniprescent. Temperature inversion tends to trap smog in the valley with regular frequency.

Kathmandu is a city of contrasts and still has an immense charm. In amongst the old streets, time appears to stand still. The streets are too narrow for cars and consequently everyone moves on foot through the teeming colourful markets. In places the city takes on an almost Dickensian atmosphere with street vendors, hawkers, moneychangers, fruit and vegetable vendors around every corner. In the narrow dark alleys around Durbar Square life hardly seems to have changed for some people, with the shrines and holy places being tended by devout Hindu and Buddhist monks much as they would have been hundreds of years ago.

Kathmandu is a fascinating city of contrasts, with the old and the new, the rich and the poor and the clean and the polluted all in close proximity.