Kathmandu after the earthquake

It's been four months since Nepal's April 25 7.9 magnitude earthquake. 9000 people died and hundreds of thousands were left homeless, and Nepal is facing a long recovery.

That said, Nepal is a big country, and much of it wasn't directly affected by the earthquake. Tourism is an important part of the Nepalese economy, but most of the tourists were scared off and the Board of Tourism is begging for visitors. We did our research before we left, and decided to come see for ourselves.

We spent three nights in Nepal's bustling, dusty capital Kathmandu, in the tourist enclave of Thamel. September is supposed to be high season, but not this year. A fair number of tourists, but outnumbered by the shopkeepers. We saw some collapsed buildings and a few refugee tents, but not as many as we thought there would be, at least not in the areas we went to.

We saw six(!) UNESCO World Heritage Sites in two days of sightseeing:

Kathmandu's historic Durbar Square. Lots of earthquake damage. Several famous temples are just gone, and the rest all have cracks and timbers bracing them up. Kasthamandap, the 1000-year-old temple from which Kathmandu got it's name, is leveled.

Swayambhu and Boudhanath, respectively Kathmandu's most important Nepalese Buddhist and Tibetan Buddhist temples.

Pashupatinah temple and the ghats: Hindu-only temple, plus riverside platforms (ghats) for cremations. We saw two. No photos.

Bakhtapur and Patan Durbar Squares: Main squares of Kathmandu's historic rivals, now part of one large conurbation. Fantastic temples but a few razed by the earthquake. Patan's was having a festival while we were there.

Kathmandu is pretty polluted, so we moved on as quickly as we could. We've been in Pokhara several days now, Nepal's adventure sports capital, and leaving tomorrow on the 8-day Annapurna Sanctuary trek. We'll be staying in teahouses instead of camping- there is electricity, showers, and maybe even cell reception, so it should be pretty luxurious!

-Peter