Head Count: 30,012

The Skinny: Gorkha is not a bustling town by any means, but it's friendly and located on a high ridge with great views and a cool old palace. It's a logical place to stop on the 200k trip from Kathmandu to Pokhara if you're interested in Nepal's political history and/or climbing many many steps up steep hills in steamy, tropical heat. Actually, we highly recommend Gorkha as a relaxing and quiet stopover between cities.

What Thar Be: The old palace of the Gorkha King sits on the ridge behind the town. It was built in the eighteenth century and is surrounded by mossy rock walls that look like they were smoothed out with hand tools and very carefully constructed. The hike is short and steep, climbing up sturdy rock stairs on the side of the ridge and meandering through fields of corn and rice. The old palace doesn't allow leather inside, so don't wear your riding pants or the military guy that follows you around the complex with a large gun will get a nice view of your naked bum. On the way to and from the castle, you pass through the old part of Gorkha, which resembles a little European city with cobblestone streets and cluttered shops. But what we ended up enjoying the most in Gorkha was the reeeeeeeelaxayshun!

Digs: The Gurkha Inn--an amazing value in the off season of early June (300R for 2 rooms, 3 beds). It feels more like a Spanish wonderland than a Nepali guest house, with beautiful impeccably groomed gardens, clean bright rooms with puffy mattresses, and sparkling bathrooms. The restaurant downstairs offers an out-of-this-world veg burger with chips for only 40R!

Vittles: We stuck mostly to the hotel restaurant, dining in the garden like royalty (more like three pieces of poop in a bed of roses) for good prices. The big menu offers filling meal for under 100R. Up past the bus stand are some vendors selling roasted ears of corn (5R) and slices of juicy cucumber (2 for 4R).

Hooch Factor: Inside the Hotel Gorkha Prince is this beer distributor who will sell individual bottles for 70R, or a case of 12 for 720R. But how to keep a case of 12 cold? Back home at the Gurkha Inn, 180 mls of Mt. Everest whiskey goes for 115R, and mixes quite nicely with their 18R Cokes.

Navigability: Very easy. Not much traffic, some steepness, but basically just one wide, paved street running through the middle of town.

Sliding In and Out: At Abu Khaireni, we turned north off the Prithvi Highway and traveled the next 24 kilometres (15 miles) up a well-paved, single lane road winding through several small villages and terraced hillsides.