https://www.scmp.com/rss/515784/feed Eileen McDougall focuses on stories about travel, culture and development in South Asia and Myanmar, with bylines in BBC Future, AFAR, Adventure.com and the I. She is at her happiest on a bus heading somewhere new, but returns time after time to the mountains of her native Scottish Highlands. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Until the formation of Nepal in the 18th century, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan were independent city states. Despite all standing in the Kathmandu Valley and being inhabited mainly by indigenous Newars, each had its own royal family, and a pantheon of palaces and temples. Since then, people from all parts of Nepal have migrated to the valley, creating a microcosm of the country as a whole. Urban sprawl has erased most signs of the borders between the city states, and today the name Kathmandu... https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3304212/insiders-guide-kathmandu-3-city-states-became-nepalese-capital?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/postmag/travel/article/3304212/insiders-guide-kathmandu-3-city-states-became-nepalese-capital?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 01 Apr 2025 05:00:10 +0000 The policeman in the Nepalese hamlet of Koto was correct – the phone signal disappears as we cross the churning grey Marsyangdi river and leave the well-trodden Annapurna Circuit. The path strikes out north from Koto – a row of understocked shops and a small monastery on an unpaved road, and the last place we see wheeled transport – following the milky-blue Nar River towards Tibet. The river is flanked by pine-clad slopes, which steepen as we move up the valley. The Nar-Phu is a rugged trekking... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3237035/trekking-nepals-road-free-alternative-annapurna-circuit-nar-phu-trail-connects-two-remote-tibetan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3237035/trekking-nepals-road-free-alternative-annapurna-circuit-nar-phu-trail-connects-two-remote-tibetan?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:15:11 +0000 The bus drops me next to a stall at which a young man is placing pieces of red and white betel nut on green leaves smeared with a white paste. Once the masala has been sprinkled, the leaves are folded and taped up in plastic. The men waiting in the long queue for their snack are dressed in checked Burmese longyis. Betel nut – the chewing of which produces a mild stimulant effect, and shockingly red teeth – is popular in Myanmar. But this is not Myanmar – I am in Sangkhlaburi, a town in western... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3222764/how-experience-myanmar-without-going-there-thai-border-town-sangkhlaburi-has-mix-countrys-ethnic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/travel/article/3222764/how-experience-myanmar-without-going-there-thai-border-town-sangkhlaburi-has-mix-countrys-ethnic?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Jun 2023 04:15:10 +0000