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

There's no wild nightlife scene in Kathmandu, but there are plenty of late bars and nightclubs, some with live music, around Thamel and the city's 5-star hotels. Some restaurants put on traditional Newari dance shows for tourists and there are a couple of casinos. Watch movie blockbusters on DVD in restaurants around Thamel or sample Hindi films at cinemas.

Popular buys include locally made clothes such as lopsided topis (caps), knitted mittens and socks, Tibetan dresses, woven shawls, Tibetan multicoloured jackets and men's diagonally fastened shirts; and pashmina (fine goat's-wool blankets), khukri (the national knife), saranghi (a small, four-stringed viola played with a horse-hair bow), Tibetan tea bowls, papier mâché dance masks, Buddhist statuettes and filigree ornaments, bamboo flutes and other folk objects. Find copies and good-quality seconds of walking and climbing gear in Thamel.

Shopping hours: Daily, 1000-2000 in tourist areas.