Durbar Square Mall is a new program designed to assist craftspeople and small entrepreneurs living in the oldest section of Kathmandu by bringing their goods and services to the global market. These people face several logistical problems in using the Internet:

• the high costs of telephone service, Internet access, and Web site design and maintenance;
• the even higher cost of a credit card merchant account (especially since Nepal has a soft currency);
• the language barrier: while these people have enough English to carry on business in person, e-commerce depends more on writing.

If you are interested in booking a room in any of the hotels listed on this page, you may contact them directly. If you need to make firm reservations, Bridges-PRTD can process payment of your deposit by Mastercard or Visa. (Email us at info@durbarsq.com.) We can also arrange for you to be picked up at the airport: if you've never stepped off a plane into a Third World country, you'll be glad to have someone waiting. And the cost is ridiculously low.

Why Durbar Square? Durbar Square, Hanuman Dhoka, and Freak Street comprise the heart of Kathmandu's old quarters. Compared with hyperactive Thamel, the newer tourist ghetto across town, Durbar Square is tranquil. The architecture is mostly medieval, the style of life is relatively traditional. Most of the lodges are cheaper, too: rooms can be had for $2-$5/night, and even the best rooms in the fanciest hotel are under $15. It may lack the glitz and variety of Thamel, but Freak Street has some of the best and cheapest restaurants ... and Internet Cafes! ... in Nepal.

Century Lodge If you are looking for what is left of the original Freak Street, this place is truly ground zero. It was founded by the Shrestha family in 1972, and quickly gained a reputation as the friendliest and most comfortable place on Jhochhen Tole. Suman has turned over most management duties to Tara ("Kanja", back in then), but every detail bears the mark of Suman's restless creativity: a lending library, now numbering in the thousands of volumes, lines the lobby walls; huge solar panels on the roof power the hot showers, surely among the earliest in Nepal (the rooftop garden, by the way, is an under-utilized gem, a great place to play chess or write postcards -- but watch out for the bee hive, if you're allergic); you can watch CNN or BBC on the satellite over breakfast (one of the best and cheapest in Kathmandu), or sit in the verdant patio among pouter pigeons and a menagerie of other protected species (including a vole!), sipping real expresso or cappuccino, or jamming with the unregenerate hippie types whose paths inevitably intersect at this crossroads of the countercultural world.

Kumari Guest House Located in the heart of Durbar Square, the Kumari is a monument in its own right. Quiet, cozy, intimate, it is a testament to the virtues of budget tourism. Mrs. Bhagabati Joshi, proprietor of Kumari, is a long-time social activist. She is president and founder of Women For Change, and has organized several programs of Nepali music and dance in Durbar Square.

Hotel Monumental Paradise is the newest and fanciest hotel on Freak Street. Unlike the older guest houses, Monumental Paradise has high ceilings and doorways. Most rooms have full bathrooms, and the plumbing is actually quite good. While somewhat pricier than the oldest lodges, MP is an unbelievable bargain by real-world standards. By the way, if you're wondering about the name... it is supposed to mean "a paradise in the monument district" of Kathmandu.

Sunrise Pashmina Back in 1999, Tsering Choekyap bought a pashmina loom, hired some weavers, and started production of pashmina shawls on a very small scale. Bridges-PRTD developed a Web Site for him, and now he markets the shawls, along with an ever expanding line of accessories (featuring jewelry produced by the legendary silversmiths of Jhochhen Tole), to an international market. More about Sunrise and Bridges-PRTD

Lila's Opulent hangings, pillow covers, lampshades... at Gujarati prices.