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Article: Travel: Temples of doom Paul Gogarty returns to `one of the most magical cities on earth' to find it in danger of being overwhelmed by pollution and development
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- November 24, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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AS THE plane touched down and taxied towards Kathmandu's new
terminal building, I noticed a man grazing two goats beside the
runway.
The first rule in Nepal has
always been that the new
must accommodate the old.
But outside the airport such easy co-existence was obviously
proving increasingly difficult. Having run the gauntlet of hotel
touts, I found myself barrelling in an old beaten-up Indian
Ambassador through the polluted bedlam that Kathmandu has become
since I first visited the Hindu kingdom 13 years ago.
Washing dried on river banks as it always had, hamburger-sized
cow pats dried on walls to be used as fuel for domestic fires,
signs were still handpainted and women, as usual, were ...