When I first came out to live here in 2004 nightlife in Kathmandu seemed pretty tame, with pubs calling for last orders at around 10.30 p.m. as the shutters came down on adjacent restaurants. Then with a breakdown in society's values - or a liberalisation depending upon your point of view - Kathmandu went through an entertainment revolution. Dance bars and massage parlours appeared on the scene and, as I wrote in a recent blog, recently you'd even see signs advertising "Striptease". Those of us in the development sector were very concerned at this deterioration as we witnessed Kathmandu becoming a sin city, a new venue for the sex tourists and final destination for naive and vulnerable girls trafficked from their village areas.
Last evening over dinner a friend of mine told me that apparently Thamel has changed within the last couple of weeks with it reverting to its former benign self. I hadn't noticed this - I don't go for nightlife so much as I once did - but his impression was confirmed when I read in the papers today that the new Government has vowed to shut down all dance bars within a few days. I think this reflects the conservatism of the Maoist-led government and this decision will go far to prevent Kathmandu's descent into becoming a cess pit.
