Sociologist and journalist based in Kathmandu. MA Sociology, BA Journalism and Mass Communication. Eight years teaching sociology at Campion College Nepal. Editorial Director at The Goreto.
Nepal Travel
The women of Thimi are making clay pots. They sit in open courtyards, chatting and singing while they work. One pauses to explain the leg tattoos visible below her skirt: markers of marital status, designed to make her unattractive to outsiders. Twenty minutes from Bhaktapur's Durbar Square by
Nepal Travel
Janaki Mandir was completed in 1898. The builder was Rani Brisabhanu Kunwar of Tikamgarh, a princely state in what is now Madhya Pradesh. She built it in Janakpur, in what is now Nepal. The border drawn between the two countries in the decades that followed did not change what the
Trekking
The first thing you notice above Soti Khola is the change in the plants. Below the trailhead the hillsides hold banana trees and the kind of undergrowth that suggests the lowlands are not far. An hour of walking and the vegetation shifts. The rhododendron starts. The ferns grow taller. The
Places
The 108 water spouts at Muktinath are fed by Himalayan snowmelt. The water is cold in the way that stops breathing. Most pilgrims who intend to bathe under all 108 do not complete the sequence. This is the part the brochures do not lead with. Muktinath sits at 3,710
Travel Planning
Nepal uses the Nepali Rupee (NPR). As of mid-2025, one US dollar buys around 133-135 NPR. That rate moves daily. Check Nepal Rastra Bank's live rate before you go, and again when you arrive. Everything else in this guide covers the decisions most travellers get wrong: which bills
Trekking
At Thorung Phedi, before 3 AM, trekkers pull on down jackets over everything they own and step into the dark. The climb to Thorung La Pass at 5,416 metres takes three to four hours on switchbacks cut into frozen scree. As one trekker reported on Nomadic Boys, they found
Culture
Nepal's living goddess is not a metaphor. There is a girl in Kathmandu right now who is carried rather than walks, who sits in silence on a throne while a queue of devotees files past her, who receives one hour of tutoring a day and cannot speak to
Culture
At 6:32 in the morning, a woman is sweeping. Her broom makes a dry scratching sound against the stone of the outer circuit, and the movement is unhurried. Around her, in one continuous stream, people move clockwise. Some carry malas. Some have their lips moving. A monk in ochre
Travel
Lukla's runway is 527 metres long, set on a 12 percent gradient, and closes for days when cloud rolls in from the east. What the approach actually asks of you before the Everest trek begins.
Travel Planning
The Nepal visa on arrival process works. What it does not do is move quickly. What to prepare before landing, how the queue breaks down at peak arrival times, and what to do if the system is down.
Trekking
Annapurna Base Camp is no longer quiet. The teahouses from Chhomrong upwards run at near capacity in October. What that has done to the trail - and what the trek still delivers that the Everest circuit doesn't.
Trekking
Kanchenjunga does not reveal itself quickly. From Taplejung to base camp, the mountain appears in stages - and the trek is cold, remote, and quietly exacting in a way that Everest and Annapurna are not.