Nepal's capital and largest city was a must-visit destination in the 1960s and 1970s. Hippies would take cheap flights to Kathmandu seeking spiritual enlightenment. Today, it's still a must-visit city even if the Hippie Trail has exacted a fairly heavy toll. Kathmandu might be sprawling and smoggy, but it's still a magical destination and many visitors use it as a starting point for trekking holidays in the Himalayas.
Kathmandu can seem, to a Western traveller, like something out of a fairytale. It has beautiful temples and magnificent monuments. There's poverty, but there's also a wealth that can't be quantified in dollars and cents. Kathmandu is rich in spirit.
Nowhere is the other-worldliness of Kathmandu more apparent than in Durbar Square, the historic centre and a World Heritage site. In Nepali, durbar means palace and in the square you'll see the old Royal Palace, the former home of the Malla Kings. There are about 50 temples, the Kasthamandap (House of Wood) from which Kathmandu gets its name and a Living Goddess.
She, the Kumari, lives in her small palace and sees the outside world only a few times a year when she is wheeled through the capital on a chariot pulled by devotees.
In the Kathmandu Valley there are seven awesome World Heritage sites. One of the most spectacular is Swayambhunath stupa, which is also known as the Monkey Temple because of the monkeys who wheel about as if they own it.