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Amid historic palaces and the converted former residences of members of the Rana dynasty, Joe Bindloss has a right royal time in Kathmandu
PHOTOGRAPHY TOM VAN CAKENBERGHE
When visiting an ancient Himalayan kingdom, it pays to live like a Himalayan king. This was my intention as I booked into the Yak & Yeti Hotel in Kathmandu, the mountain-gripped capital of Nepal. Among Nepali hotels, the Yak & Yeti has a special pedigree – the modern wings of the hotel open onto the Lal Durbar, a lavish terra-cotta and stucco palace constructed in 1881 by Bir Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana, the third Rana of Nepal.
Sitting down to a meal of smoked salmon with wasabi, excellent borscht and baked Alaska in the Lal Durbar’s Chimney restaurant, I paused to consider the equally unusual history of this opulent establishment. The founder of the Yak & Yeti was Boris Lissanevitch, a Russian nightclub owner and former ballet dancer who formed an unlikely friendship with King Tribhuvan Shah during hedonistic nights at the 300 Club in Kolkata. In 1954, Lissanevitch was invited to launch Nepal’s first hotel, opening up this secretive kingdom to the outside world for the first time.
A lot has changed since then. For one, Nepal is no longer a kingdom. On 28 May 2008, the monarchy was formally dissolved by the new Maoist government and Nepal was declared a federal democratic republic. King Gyanendra Shah, the last ruler of the Shah dynasty, was relocated to a modest two-storey house in Nagarjun, and the 54-room Narayanhiti Palace was added to the growing list of former royal palaces in need of a new owner.
The towns that dot the Kathmandu Valley are awash with the palaces and private residences of kings, queens and Ranas, spanning 250 years of Nepali history. Some are still occupied by members of the extended Shah and Rana families, while others have found new life as hotels, restaurants, art galleries, museums and shops. The upshot of this is that there are dozens of ways for visitors to relive the opulent lifestyle of the Nepali aristocracy.
If your budget won’t stretch to the Yak & Yeti, consider a stay at the Shanker Hotel in Lazimpat, constructed by a 19th-century Nepali aristocrat who was obsessed with the style and tastes of the European gentry. His palace was erected as a tribute to the grand country houses of Europe, with ostentatious Ionic columns, tall Venetian windows, and sprawling lawns and gardens for such genteel pursuits as outdoor bridge tournaments and croquet. Burgundy-liveried staff still shuffle around the place like butlers delivering tea to the lord of the manor.
Even the budget tourist district of Thamel – the maze of alleyways where trekkers and backpackers haggle for trekking poles and Tibetan rugs – has its Rana-era gems. Set in a once-neglected Rana palace in the backstreets southwest of the Narayanhiti Palace, Tamas Spa Lounge was inspired by the trendy cocktail bars of Europe’s big cities. Nepal’s bright and beautiful young things gather here like moths around a flame, lured by an innovative cocktail menu and an ambience that falls somewhere between Buddha Bar and Bali Hai.
A short stroll east, through streets crowded with rickshaws and Tiger Balm vendors, the Garden of Dreams invites passers-by to step into its calm, green enclosure. Created by the impressively titled Field Marshall Kaiser Shumsher JB Rana in the 1920s, this lush haven resembles a miniature Versailles, with elegant stone walkways and balustrades, rippling ponds and fountains, faux cascades, arcades of palms and fanciful summer pavilions.
According to legend, Kaiser Shumsher built the garden for the sum of Rs100,000, won from his father in a game of parchesi, an ancient South Asian board game which uses cowrie shells as dice. After Kaiser Shumsher died in 1964, the gardens crumbled into ruin, until the Austrian government stepped in to fund a multi-million-dollar restoration project in 2001. Now returned to their original glory, Kaiser’s gardens offer sedentary pleasures in a far-from-calm part of Kathmandu – expats flock here on days off to read on the lawns or sip tea in the Kaiser Café, a tasteful eatery with seats scattered around the summer pavilions.
Just around the corner, tucked into a courtyard off noisy Kantipath (the main street to the east of Thamel), the restaurant 1905 occupies another Rana-era palace, built at the height of the Nepali fad for all things European. Constructed in an orientalised neo-classical style, it looks out over a dainty artificial lake – another fancy borrowed from the grand houses of Europe.
The menu at 1905 was conceived by Italian-American chef Vincent Ginocchio. It fuses elements of European and Asian cooking, matching the fusion of European and Asian design ideas seen in the restaurant. In a city more famous for banana pancakes than fine dining, the opening of 1905 caused quite a stir. Restaurants around Kathmandu were forced to up their game to compete with such haute cuisine ideas as crab cakes with bok choi and Nobu Matsuhisa-inspired salads and maki rolls.
Across the sacred Bagmati River, Patan (Lalitpur) was a rival to Kathmandu in the 17th century, when the valley consisted of three separate city-states. After the valley was besieged by King Prithvi Narayan Shah in 1769, Kathmandu emerged as the capital of a unified Nepal, but Patan’s Durbar Square is still regarded as the zenith of Nepali temple architecture.
Strolling across the square, surrounded by a curtain of fluttering pigeons, I picked my way between the plinths of step-roofed temples to reach the ornate gilded gateway to the former palace of King Siddhinarsingh Malla (1619-1660), the greatest of the kings of Patan. Magnificently restored in 1997 with support from the Austrian government, this looming edifice now contains the Patan Museum.
Behind the public galleries is the Museum Café, set in a calm courtyard cooled by the foliage of tropical trees. Sipping a fresh lime soda (a Nepali thirst-quencher made from soda water, fresh lime juice and salt) and surrounded by gently rustling bamboo fronds, I could almost imagine myself as a Nepali king, seeking respite from the demands of state in my own private garden.
On the northwest side of Kathmandu, the fading National Museum, housed in an old Rana mansion bristling with arms and armour from ancient Nepali kings, is in the process of being upstaged by a new museum in the Narayanhiti Palace. Vacated by the last Shah king in 2008, the palace is slowly being opened up to the public, offering a fascinating window onto the life of an absolute monarch. Before you leave Nepal, take a peek at the portraits of former Shahs dressed in leopard skins and pearl-and-diamond-studded tiaras. The king may no longer be able to enjoy this lavish lifestyle, but visitors can.
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