The drive from Varanasi to Kathmandu by bus was pleasurable.
I caught a night bus to Gorakpur at the bus station in Cant in Varanasi. I arrived in Gorakpur before sunlight, and had no trouble finding a connecting bus to Sunali. I arrived in Sunali in the morning, got stamped out of India and into Nepal with no problems, and then caught a bus to Kathmandu with no problem. I want to add that all of this bus catching included no wait – at each of the three departure points, I readily found a bus leaving within twenty minutes. So far as I know, the bus schedules are all informal, so this cannot be planned on paper in advance.
The bus ride to Kathmandu goes over winding mountain cliffs. Sometimes the ride was scary on account of the roads being narrow by Western standars and the bus not slowing down to my comfort level when making sharp blind turns, but traffic is just risky here and people live that way.
After arriving in the Kathmandu bus station I came to see that it is not readily equipped to handle foreigners. I walked around a bit and after talking to six taxis, I accepted one who would take me to Thamel (Nandan recommended this neighborhood) for 150 Nepali rupees. One US dollar is 44 Indian rupees and 65 Nepali rupees, so things are less expensive here.
I walked around Thamel and found the layout of the market to be fashioned after Western taste. The quality of clothing sold, for example, seems to be at Western standard. In addition the style of clothes sold corresponds to certain styles which would be widely recognized as modern in the West. One oddity here about local fashion is that I have seen no fewer than five young men wearing expensive-looking clothes that incorporate continual display of midriff above the pants and below the bellybutton. It seems out of place with my expectations, but there is a lot of nightlife here and boys and girls are not segregated here to the extent that they are in the places I have visited in India. Also there are many foreigners here and the facilities for guests seem superior here than to those of Varanasi.
The Royal Palace is not so far from Thamel… I just walked down a street lined with strip clubs, went around a corner, and after about fifteen minutes there it was. I followed its border as I knew that the Indian Embassy was close to a part of it. I found the embassy today, Sunday, as Nandan told me that in Nepal, things were closed on Monday but open on Sunday. The sign at the embassy said that it was closed on Saturday and Sunday but open 9:30-12 on other days. Their website does not give this info, or even a map, but I have no problems.
I have had buffalo momos for my previous two meals here. The desire for red meat has rekindled quickly… it has been more than five months since I have had it. I think I will eat as much buffalo as possible while I am here. The way I have had it has been spicy so I cannot entirely evaluate the taste, but it is enough like cow beef for me to consider it the same.