After our time in Senegal, it’s time to go to Léopold Sédar Senghor International Airport and hop a flight to Kathmandu, Nepal! As this region is known for its beautiful mountains (Mount Everest, maybe you have heard of it), we can expect a bit of turbulence. But once we touch down at Tribhuvan International, there are so many things to do!

 

First Thing’s First: Put On Some Nepalese Tunes!

Even the newest Nepalese music often relies on traditional instruments, like the plucked string Tungna or the tambourine-like Damphu. If it’s folk music you like, the band Kutumba has been making traditional Nepalese music since 2004.

But if it’s modern you’re after, Mahesh Kafle and Melina Rai are both up-and-coming artists in Nepalese music.

For more, check out Radiooo00, where you can specify both the decade and the country.

Brush up on your Nepalese!

Nepalese is written in the Devanāgarī alphabet, which might be a little intimidating at first, but luckily Transparent Language has you covered when it comes to the phrases we will need to get around town. It’s important to note that there are formal ways of saying certain things, as well as informal. For example ‘namaskar’ is the formal ‘hello’, and ‘namaste’ is informal. Add in the Devanāgarī, and it looks like this:

Let’s go sightseeing!

Using the panoramas at 360cities.net, we can explore Durbar Square in Kathmandu (click on the picture for the panorama view):

 

The Thrang Tashi Choling Monastery:

Lake Naghdaha:

And, of course, get a peak of Mount Everest from Rongpu Monastery:

Or we could go bungee-jumping!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEJn1nNd4cA

Culture Trip has several delicious looking recipe ideas from Nepal, whose cuisine is full of veggies, lean proteins, and other locally-sourced delights. Nepal got used to being self reliant on food as they only recently opened up their borders for trade, so you can be sure whatever you get is going to be fresh and local!

The recipe I’ve decided to try, rice fiend that I am, is Garima Gautam’s Vegetable Pulau, an uncomplicated dish “packed with flavor”. Svādiṣṭa (Delicious)!

Watch a movie!

Nepalese film, known sometimes as Kollywood, is a relatively new industry, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of great choices! I’ve decided to watch ‘Who Will Be a Gurkha’, a documentary about the selection process for becoming a kukri-wielding elite soldier.

Culture Trip has a list of other Kollywood movies for you to check out as our trip draws to its close.

It’s time for us to say ‘Alavidā’ to Nepal, we’ve got another plane to catch. I hope next week you will join me for a Staycation trip to beautiful Holland!