I'll take shopping for one hundred.

What can you buy in Kathmandu for under $100 (or really under 50)? The answer, anything! Well, except for a mandala I overpaid for - Doh! This place (neighborhood of Thamel) will knock your socks off. Or at least mine coming from from sweet, innocent Bouda. Signs and shops all over the place selling anything under the Sun that won't rot. I found it's just not the quantity of shops but rather the quality and colors and workmanship that caught my eye. Leather purses with hand-stitched embroidery to full-on North Face clothing. Wait, is this really North Face, I asked. Apparently so; made in India or Nepal according to a fellow Italian traveler that comes here year after year to trek. It's like candyland here and the days just go by as if your bank account hasn't ticked.

Sights? Temples? Oh yea, guess I better do that too. I've spoken with other travellers that had the same thing happen - they forgot what day it was and missed out on some of the temples or other highlights of Kathmandu valley. Ooops. Hanging out with a nice gal from Switzerland didn't help me either. Its so much more fun to shop with another girl!

Tourist-oriented Thamel has alot to offer also with food and cafes! Almost any kind of food you want is available. Continental, Japenese, Nepali, Newari, Indian, Italian, Thai, decadent desserts abound on every street corner. Add to this the cycle rickshaws ringing bells, motorcyclists, taxi honking, narrow alley-like streets, loads of people, the continued presence of the toy violin (or whatever you call that thing) sellers & tiger balm sellers, stray dogs, the ocassional cow or bull and one of the top world's most polluted cities and you have mayhem.