Voices from Nepal.
Essays, guides, and neighborhood reports written by people who live here. Submit yours and we’ll feature the best of the week on the homepage.
- Neighborhood
The Boudha kora at dawn
By 5:45 the first monks are circling. By 7 the tour buses arrive. The hour in between is the version of Boudha locals love.
- Food
A field guide to Newari thali
Choila, bara, samay baji, juju dhau. The fifteen things on a Newari plate, and what they actually are.
- Festival
Tihar in eight nights
Diyas, marigolds, sisters, brothers, dogs, cows, crows. A field guide to Nepal's most layered week.
- Neighborhood
A walk through Patan after the rain
The brick courtyards turn copper, the chowks empty out, and for an hour Patan belongs only to the walkers. A field guide.
- Craft
The disappearing potters of Bhaktapur
Pottery Square has been making clay for 600 years. There are eight working families left. A short report on what's at stake.
- Food
Twelve momo joints worth a detour
Not a list of the most famous spots — a list of the ones I keep going back to. Greasy buff, juicy chicken, a couple of surprises.
- Neighborhood
Kirtipur, the city that gets skipped
Twenty minutes from Patan and somehow not on any tourist itinerary. A weird, layered hilltop Newari town, mostly intact.
- Trail
A guide to half-day hikes from the Kathmandu valley
Champadevi, Phulchowki, Shivapuri base, Nagarkot ridge. When you have four hours and a craving for altitude.
- Opinion
Coming back
I left for ten years. I came back. This is the unromantic version of why.
- Neighborhood
Lakeside mornings in Pokhara, before the boats
The shore at 5:45am is somebody else's city. Ten minutes from the tourist strip, completely different. A small love letter.
- Guide
Ilam in the off season
Tea, mist, near silence. Eastern Nepal's tea district is most photographed in spring. It is best in November.
- Festival
Indra Jatra after-hours, mapped
The chariots, the pole-raising, the hidden chowks. A residents guide to the festival you think you know.
- Culture
Where Kathmandu's live music actually happens
Not Thamel. A short list of small venues across the city where the actual scene plays.
- Food
A short essay on juju dhau
Bhaktapur's "king of yoghurt" is more interesting than the postcard says. Earthen pots, century-old families, and why the texture is what it is.
- Opinion
Why I stayed
Everyone in my class moved abroad. Here is the unpolished version of why I didn't.
- Guide
Janakpur by train (yes, train)
Nepal has one passenger railway. It runs to Janakpur. A short report on what the journey is like.