Back in the Thamel After Visiting Bhaktapur

I visited India and Nepal for the first time on a Buddhist pilgrimage led by Shantum Seth in 2007. The following is from my 2008 trip to India, Nepal, and Tibet and is about Nepal.

It’s almost eight in the evening, I’m in my hotel room, and I hear a concert taking place nearby, but it’s not classical Nepalese music: it’s a 1970s American rock song. “Wide world” or something — music from…