كاثماندو - صورة

Katmandou, located in the middle of the valley, is the capital of Nepal. Large Katmandou would count more than one million inhabitants. It is a poor city affected several evils: insufficiency of the urban infrastructures, outdatedness of many buildings, insalubrity of drinking water, river and air pollution which crosses it, obsolete management of waste… Despite everything, this fascine city and charms its visitors, because of course of the hospitality of its population but also because it clings obstinately to its past.

For which put forever the feet at Nepal, the shock is brutal. Narrow streets where pedestrians, rickshaws, vehicles and motor cycles carefully dispute space in a concert of horns and small bells. Cows sauntering in the city and the dungs which they leave in their wake. Accumulations of refuse with open sky. Regroupings of separate decayed dwellings to each other by dark and wet lanes where one can circulate only with foot. Electric wire running in disorder along the buildings giving the impression that all the installations are temporary. What a dilapidation!

Katmandu gives the impression to go up time. The noises and odors are seizing. The streets are narrow. One finds there gravers, framed places of temples, markets. Misery is present, but the population moves in a good mood and preserves a certain dignity and integrity. One can move there in full safety in spite of the pickups and the drug pushers. Arrived at Thamel, the district where the tourists gather. It is here that the mountaineers and the trekkers establish their headquarters during their short stay with Katmandou. Hotels, pensions, guest houses, restaurants, pastry makings, bookshops, coffees Internet, agencies of trekking, shops of all kinds, material for the mountain, memories… in short, one finds there of all. In premium of the begging tradesmen always willing to negotiate with the hesitant cliens. The district is over-populated. One to hardly circulate there.