I just came back from Kathmandu 2 days back and I am forced to write few of my experiences of that place so that no one else should be cheated by them...... The title to this review gives the brief. What happens there is funny like, i went to a shop to buy a bottle of water the MRP says Rs20 NC, but they paste a sticker for Rs 25 and the shop kipper will charge you Rs 30 and if you are not that worried about you don't say any thing about it to him then he'll charge you Rs 30 INR which is around Rs 48 NC(Nepali currency). And this thing happens everywhere in every shop, for every stuff you want. I went to buy shoes, the guy quotes Rs 1200 NC and later on, on bargaining he gave me 2 pair of shoes for Rs 950.
If you talk about hotels they are like waste too as Kathmandu has a power supply for only 12 hours so most of the time you have to out the hotel (if you are not going to a 5 star hotel), plus the hotel doesn't provides water you have to buy bottles from them and by 10pm the door of the hotel is closed and they lower down the shutters.
The market is absolutely closed by 10:30pm and its like everyone gets inside their hotels or houses....
The biggest THUGS are the dance bars, if you are on a enjoyment trip then NEVER GO TO dance bars there as they literally rob you. What they do no one ever imagine. First they'll invite you like you are there god, then you'll buy some drinks, then few girls will come and sit next to you and you'll start feeling them by their acts....then they'll ask you for a drink, and very obviously you'll bu them one....and from here things start going bad as after some time you'll see many drinks have come on your table and when you'll ask for the bill, your eyes will be wide open as they have charged you with so many drinks that you didn't ordered including the drinks you bought for them eg. if you ordered for 5 coke in all and it costs Rs 1000 NC you will get a bill of Rs 10,000-15,000 NC. and will find yourself into a situation. Then they'll start showing their bad side,they'll ask you to come to a close office where they can rob you they'll take your money and you can't even call police as one of the girl there will blame you for having sex with her and prostitution is illegal there and to avoid a bigger situation you have to pay10-15 times the bill........and they'll do it a gun point and you can only watch them doing......they can even come to your hotel to take money from you.
If you talk about the cab/taxi they are also thugs as for a destination of say 2-3Kms they'll ask 150 NC where as the actual charges are 40-50NC.
Police system there is waste i don't think they'll be of any help as they are big time corrupt and you'll come to know about it in the dance bars.
So ill suggest not to waste you trip/holiday, enjoyment, money onto Nepal rather choose some other place in Asia. Often people to there for tracking, mountains, rafting.....all these things are available in India as well with far less problems. I guess every 1 out of 3-4 tourist must be having same kind of experience like this. So go there on your own risk. Thanks
Date: 25th March 2010
ReplyDeleteI just came back from Kathmandu 2 days back and I am forced to write few of my experiences of that place so that no one else should be cheated by them......
The title to this review gives the brief. What happens there is funny like, i went to a shop to buy a bottle of water the MRP says Rs20 NC, but they paste a sticker for Rs 25 and the shop kipper will charge you Rs 30 and if you are not that worried about you don't say any thing about it to him then he'll charge you Rs 30 INR which is around Rs 48 NC(Nepali currency).
And this thing happens everywhere in every shop, for every stuff you want.
I went to buy shoes, the guy quotes Rs 1200 NC and later on, on bargaining he gave me 2 pair of shoes for Rs 950.
If you talk about hotels they are like waste too as Kathmandu has a power supply for only 12 hours so most of the time you have to out the hotel (if you are not going to a 5 star hotel), plus the hotel doesn't provides water you have to buy bottles from them and by 10pm the door of the hotel is closed and they lower down the shutters.
The market is absolutely closed by 10:30pm and its like everyone gets inside their hotels or houses....
The biggest THUGS are the dance bars, if you are on a enjoyment trip then NEVER GO TO dance bars there as they literally rob you. What they do no one ever imagine. First they'll invite you like you are there god, then you'll buy some drinks, then few girls will come and sit next to you and you'll start feeling them by their acts....then they'll ask you for a drink, and very obviously you'll bu them one....and from here things start going bad as after some time you'll see many drinks have come on your table and when you'll ask for the bill, your eyes will be wide open as they have charged you with so many drinks that you didn't ordered including the drinks you bought for them eg. if you ordered for 5 coke in all and it costs Rs 1000 NC you will get a bill of Rs 10,000-15,000 NC. and will find yourself into a situation. Then they'll start showing their bad side,they'll ask you to come to a close office where they can rob you they'll take your money and you can't even call police as one of the girl there will blame you for having sex with her and prostitution is illegal there and to avoid a bigger situation you have to pay10-15 times the bill........and they'll do it a gun point and you can only watch them doing......they can even come to your hotel to take money from you.
If you talk about the cab/taxi they are also thugs as for a destination of say 2-3Kms they'll ask 150 NC where as the actual charges are 40-50NC.
Police system there is waste i don't think they'll be of any help as they are big time corrupt and you'll come to know about it in the dance bars.
So ill suggest not to waste you trip/holiday, enjoyment, money onto Nepal rather choose some other place in Asia. Often people to there for tracking, mountains, rafting.....all these things are available in India as well with far less problems.
I guess every 1 out of 3-4 tourist must be having same kind of experience like this. So go there on your own risk.
Thanks