Nepalese Girl Shows Me Kathmandu🇳🇵

A day around Kathmandu with Yisha, who is from the city and picks where they go. Two halves that could not be further apart: the morning at Pashupatinath, the most sacred Hindu site in Nepal, where cremations happen in the open on the riverbank and sadhus sit smoking on the far side; and the evening at Dwarika’s, a six-course Nepali tasting menu served on the floor where each course comes from a different region of the country.

The most revealing thing in it isn’t a place. Harry films the sadhus, asks what they’re smoking, and declines it four or five times, saying plainly that his audience would judge him. Later he walks up on bodies being prepared with the family present, and stops filming — his reason is not that he’d be stopped but that it wasn’t relevant. Between them, and a taxi driver who tries to give him a free lift and leaves with 4,000 rupees, the video is mostly about what he chooses not to take.

Key moments

• [00:00] Thamel and Durbar Square, the tourist quarter — busy, but good for food and worth walking.
• [01:36] A taxi opens at 700. Harry counters at 400 with the ride app as his check, and gets it.
• [03:18] Yisha explains Pashupatinath on the way, and Harry works out that the river runs on toward the Ganges.
• [05:38] A Nepali lesson. He learns kati hoyo — how much — and admits the problem is he can’t understand the numbers that come back.
• [06:54] A theme park, immediately next to the temple complex.
• [08:05] Pashupatinath and Varanasi are the two great Hindu sites; Yisha has been to both, which counts for something. Harry plans Varanasi later that year.
• [08:39] A sweet sold in cubes that look like ice, 100 rupees, and about as sweet as anything he has eaten.
• [11:36] Monkeys, and instructions to zip his pockets.
• [12:10] Tika powder on sale, then washing hands and removing shoes at the gate.
• [12:46] 1,000 rupees for foreigners. Nepalis go free.
• [13:21] Non-Hindus cannot enter the main temple. He watches from the far bank and can just make out a bull inside.
• [14:34] A man who has fed the complex’s stray dogs for 25 years. He calls the sixty of them his kids.
• [17:11] Cremations under way in the open, with families and onlookers around them.
• [17:47] The ashes go into the river. Yisha says she will be cremated here herself.
• [18:28] The sadhus, and what they’re smoking. Harry films, asks questions, learns the price by the kilo, and turns it down repeatedly.
• [23:42] His stated reason for declining, said to camera: his audience would judge him.
• [26:26] He comes back round to the ghats to find bodies being prepared and the family crying. He stops filming — his own explanation is that he probably could have, and it wasn’t relevant.
• [27:30] The temple itself, colourful and, on a Tuesday, not especially busy.
• [29:47] The next taxi driver offers the ride for nothing.
• [30:58] The age-guessing game — a free ride if Harry gets it, which he doesn’t until the third go.
• [32:32] He drives his sister’s car and offers to wait an hour, unpaid, in case they need him after dinner.
• [33:46] Harry gives him 4,000 rupees precisely because he offered the lift free. Off camera, Harry says, the man couldn’t stop laughing about being on YouTube.
• [34:19] Dwarika’s, and the Krishnarpan dining room.
• [35:32] Shoes off, cross-legged on the floor, on a set table with candles.
• [36:49] Raksi, poured from the usual height.
• [37:23] The most famous previous guest, offered without prompting: Prince Harry.
• [38:02] First course, Newari: beaten and puffed rice, ginger and garlic, black-eyed peas, soya and kidney beans, sun-dried baby prawns, lentil pancakes, chicken, potato and a small fried fish.
• [39:06] Before eating, a portion is offered to the gods and ancestors — and only before the first course, because once you have begun eating the food becomes impure and can no longer be offered.
• [43:44] Second course, from the Terai plains near the Indian border: puri, chickpeas, keema, mushrooms and green peas.
• [44:19] The conceit of the menu — every course is a different region of Nepal, with the dumplings standing in for the mountains.
• [47:14] Momos in three colours: buffalo, chicken and fish.
• [48:56] The vegetables come from the restaurant’s own farm.
• [49:30] Nine-bean soup, a Himalayan dish, now usually made with vegetables added.
• [51:25] The main course: dal, black rice and brown rice, aubergine, potato and spiced chicken, eaten with the hands.
• [55:14] Yisha can taste that the rice is Nepali rather than Indian, which Harry treats as the most impressive thing said all evening.
• [55:52] Dessert: sweet potato with yoghurt and honey, fruit, and jelly balls, then black coffee.
• [57:31] Six courses for about $113 (from video – unverified). Expensive, and he says so, but his verdict is that you won’t get it anywhere else.

Extracted pages

• Place: Kathmandu
• Country: Nepal
• Person: Yisha
• Tips: Haggle with a reference price, Reward honesty and hard work, Don’t point the camera at private moments