More about shopping in Kathmandu

Thamel district of Kathmandu Nepal

Yesterday I wrote about the retail outlets for clothing in the Thamel district of central Kathmandu. These shops are not just confined to this area and similar outlets can be found throughout the city. Sometimes they are not shops but merely displays of clothing or materials right on the footpath.

In the case of the vendor in the photo above, their ‘shop’ was in the square in front of the temple shown in the background. I would imagine that they could not afford to rent a shop space in the commercial heart of the city so they set up this street outlet to tap into the extra trade brought about by the heavy pedestrian and tourist traffic in this area. They might also have lived some distance away because they could not afford accommodation in the central area of the capital.

Whatever the reason, their ‘shop’ added some brilliant colour to an otherwise drab square.