Nepal Travel Guide

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Cuisine

National specialties:
• Dal bhaat (lentils and rice).
• Tarkan (spiced vegetables).
• Gurr (Sherpa dish of potatoes pounded with spices, then grilled like pancakes on a hot, stone ground, and mixed with milk, tea or water).
• Rotis (flat pancake-like bread made from wheat or rice flour).
• Choyla (diced and roasted water buffalo meat, heavily spiced and eaten with flat, beaten rice).

National drinks:
•Chai (tea brewed with milk, sugar and spices; in the mountains it is salted with yak butter).
• Lassi (curd mixed with sugar in a mixture of sweet and salty flavors).
• Arak (very strong potato alcohol).
• Rakshi (wheat or rice spirit).
• Chang (homebrewed beer made from fermented barley, maize, rye or millet).

Legal drinking age: 21.

Tipping: Only expected in tourist hotels and restaurants; 10% is sufficient.

Nightlife

Kathmandu's nightlife scene may not be considered wild, but there are plenty of late bars, live music spots and nightclubs in which to have a jolly good time. These are found around traveler hopsopt Thamel, and near the city's 5-star hotels.

Many restaurants put on traditional Newari dance shows for tourists - particularly in Pokara - and there are a couple of casinos for those who fancy trying their luck. Watch movie blockbusters on DVD in restaurants around Thamel, or sample Hindi films at cinemas.