Kathmandu, Nepal
Walking the crowded, narrow streets of Thamel in Kathmandu, with its chalkboard menus shouting momos and banana pancakes, trekking and whitewater rafting companies crammed into the alleys, and shops stuffed with knock-off trekking gear, pashmina scarfs, rugs, Tibetan thankas, and idols of Buddha and Ganesh, you could almost lose yourself, tele-transporting from this to any other backpacker enclave in the developing world
