Best of Nepal List

  Kathmandu, Nepal
Thursday, October 25, 2007

I've now spent quite a bit of time in Kathmandu waiting for visas, arranging trekking, recuperating, etc.  While here I have gorged myself on an abundance of Western food.  So I provide you with my 'Best of Nepal' list.  

Best Breakfast  breakfast bagel + a stuffed pancake, Delima Cafe, Kathmandu
Best Trekkers Hotel  The Bob Marley, Muktinath
Friendliest Proprietor  Cho Oyu View Lodge, Gokyo  [free biscuits for independent trekkers!  shhh.... :) ]
Best Place for a Beer  Tatopani Hot Springs
Best Pizza  Roadhouse Cafe or Rum Doodle, Kathmandu
Best Steak  filet mignon, New Everest Steak House, Pokhara
Best Italian Food  Dolce Vita, Kathmandu
Best Dessert, Butterscotch Carmelized Bananas with Chocalate Ice Cream, Kilroys, Kathmandu
Best Ice Cream  Narula's, Pokhara
Best Restaurant with a View  Rooftop cafe on Annapurna Circuit facing Manaslu between Chamje and Chame
Best Energy Bar  Snickers
Best Place to Kill a Day  Nepal Immigration Office; runner up, Indian Embassy
Best Coffee  Himilayan Java, Kathamandu
Best Place to Escape Honking   Garden of Dreams, Kathmandu
Best Hamburger  Nilgiri's, Kathmandu
Best Atmosphere  Rum Doodle, Kathmandu
Best Service  Delima Cafe, Kathmandu
Worst Restaurant  Gangapurna Lodge, Manang

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If you're like me, then, after five months wandering around Asia, the top question on your mind is: if you put fertile female and male yaks, cows, American bison, and water buffalo together, would each be able to breed with the other? 

As far as I can determine from brief Internet research there's one that can't breed with the other.  Which one?

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Some things that I wish I could say in Nepali

1. No thanks, no hashish today.
2. Your rickshaw certainly looks snazzy, but, thanks, I'll walk.
3. Your baby looks decently healthy, so, no thanks, beg for milk from someone else.
4. Of course I need a trekking guide.  And, yes, I do generally hire them in dark alleys.
5. No thanks, I don't want help looking for a hotel room from neither you nor your gangster friends.
6. Please don't smear that on my forehead and if you do I ain't paying for it.
7. No, young child, I don't have a school pen. Hey, ouch, that hurt.  Why did you just hit me?