House Hunters International

We arrived in Kathmandu with a temporary place to stay with the expectation that we would find an apartment while we are here. It was interesting. Our first day of hunting was spent just walking around looking for "to let" signs. It was exhausting as we didn't really know the backroads yet and after awhile the dust and honking start to grate on the patience. We found a few places that way, but couldn't get ahold of the owners. We did find a few real estate agents and were able to set up some time with them for the next day. All of the apartments we saw were furnished so they were a little more expensive than the average flat. But, since we are only here for three months on this trip, we decided that it would be much simpler to just spend the extra for a furnished place.

Real Estate Agent #1:

Flat #1 - ($245 month) 2 bedroom, (with carpet!), small kitchen, has TV, phone and internet. Security guard at the gate, but would have to pay him separately, toilet is not flushing properly. Overall a nice cozy size and well away from honking and traffic but the walk up to the apartment had an empty lot with a lot of brush (aka, hiding places for bad people).

Flat #2 - ($216 month) 2 bedroom, nice size kitchen with good table for entertaining, big sitting room, no security guard, but Nepali family lives next door. Australian family lives on 2nd floor. (Note: when we arrived a Nepali woman in her 40s, maybe, came running out of the other house to open the door for us. You don't see too many women of her age just running for no real reason like that. I liked her.) No internet, no TV. I liked the place overall, but not having internet was going to big problem.

Flat #3 - ($405) Big building, almost a high rise residential building. Lots of security. Flat was on the 4th floor. Carpet, has nice balcony. 1 bedroom, very tiny kitchen with only one burner. But, it had a water purifier and a water heater and 24 hour internet. There was a maid that came once a week and also did your laundry. Also the view from the roof was amazing. However it was very expensive and I thought the security was intimidating for any new friends who might come to visit us.

Advertised at Helmer's Baker:

Flat #4 - We found this place while we making a quick stop in Helmer's Bakery. This is a tiny, but very busy little bakery because it is the premier place to get all kinds of locally made cheeses (Yak, Swiss, Gouda, Tom cheese - named after a French guy named Tom, and the ever available Cow cheese). They are not all named properly, but they are pretty good nonetheless. While Tom was getting us some chocolate filled croissants, I noticed an ad telling about the apartment above the bakery that was available. The owners sister took us up to see it. The entrance was quite rough. There was an old guy spitting up phlegm, a couple of rabid looking dogs and the lock to go up was in a sheet of tin nailed to a wooden fence. Going up the stairs there was a friendly "clean" dog tied to a door. We got to the 2nd floor and there we piles of dirt everywhere, even the woman showing us the place said "wow, very dirty." However, we suddenly noticed the smell of cookies! In a place where the pollution makes the air feel thick with dirt, this sweetness was a welcome change. The apartment was fine. It was basically one big room with the bed sectioned off by sheets hanging from the ceiling. The kitchen was the nicest yet with a 4 burner stove, toaster oven and a microwave! We thought if the price is right, we can deal with the dirt outside. However we found that it was $230 and it didn't have internet.

Real Estate Agent #2:

Flat #5 - ($235), This was in the center of Jawalkhel, so very easy access to "Tuk Tuks" (cheap public transportation on 3 wheels, sort of like a go-cart bus, that fits 6 people comfortably, but usually has 10 riders). This was a 1 bedroom apartment with an amazing kitchen. Gas and electric heat for water. The bedroom was huge with a nice balcony and they whole place was set up for back up power and wireless internet. There was a Korean woman staying there at the moment and it wasn't available until April 1st, which was too late for us.

Flat #6 - ($400), This was in the same building as Flat #5. It also had gas and electric heat, a great kitchen, wireless internet and back-up power, but has 2 ridiculously huge bedrooms. One bedroom was all windows on two sides and was probably the size of our entire apartment in Eastern Market. That may sound nice, but considering how that the inside of homes get as cold as the outside (right now as low as 39 degrees) that makes it very hard to get the room warm. Smaller rooms are better for keeping heat in.

Flat #7 - ($216), This was a little farther away from Jawalkhel (about a 20 min walk) into a quiet residential area called Sanepa. The farther we got from the honking the happier we were, so we were delighted when we opened the heavy iron gate to see a huge vegetable garden and a lovely brick home with ornate wooden shutters. Before we went inside I turned to Tom and mouthed "I love this." The flat was on the 2nd floor and there were some American hippies staying there at the moment. It was 2 bedrooms, a sitting room, a nice kitchen with south facing windows. The toilet worked and there was wireless internet. The walls were brick and the doorways were arched. We could also access the roof! There was a Nepali family living downstairs on the first/ground floor and their son who is studying to be a doctor lived above us on the 3rd floor. It was perfect, but not available until the 15th of February (or earlier … alas, those noncommittal hippies!). However, this was the one and we are happy to wait a bit longer. Photo of the chosen apartment is shown above.

Yesterday we moved (or shifted as they say here) and are staying in the Shalom Guest house until the hippies move out. We are happy with our choice and process for looking for places to live was actually a lot of fun.