Kathmandu
Pashupatinath charges non-Hindus a thousand rupees to stand on one bank and watch the cremations from behind a fence. What happens on the other side of that arrangement is more complicated.
Trekking
The risk profile for solo female travel in Nepal is not what the travel forums say it is - in either direction. What the numbers, the trail culture, and the ground conditions actually show.
Trekking
At 4,920 metres, the last tea house before Thorong La is where the Annapurna Circuit separates the people who planned from the people who did not. What is there and what the 3am departure asks of you.
Culture
The Maya Devi Temple marks where the Buddha was born. Around it, forty-two monasteries built by nations from Myanmar to Germany. What the pilgrimage economy looks like and what it has built over.
Mustang
Upper Mustang requires a restricted area permit that costs USD 500 for 10 days - one of the most expensive trekking permits in the world. What the restriction is for, where the fee goes, and what you actually get.
Chitwan
The Chitwan package - airport, resort, jeep safari, elephant bath, cultural show, jeep out - is one of the most efficient tourist experiences in South Asia. What it leaves out is most of the park.
Culture
Tihar is not Diwali. The five-day festival runs its own ritual calendar - lamps, animals, Deusi Bhailo, and Bhai Tika - and the shape of it is changing with migration and apartment living.
Culture
The Gurung of Lamjung district have been called Gurkhas for so long that the word has buried the culture. What the heritage trails, village elders, and Tamu Dhee ceremonies say about identity now.
Kathmandu Valley
The tourist buses arrive at Bhaktapur around ten. Before that, the square belongs to the city. A Tuesday morning in Nepal's best-preserved medieval town and what the potters, priests, and schoolchildren do with the space.