Nepal - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture

Don’t miss out on Nepal’s greatest asset – its people. Learning about their culture and way of life has had such an eye-opening effect on me and thoroughly improved my trip. I read the book on the plane over and because of it felt ready and competent when I landed.Nepal is not a simple place, but if you learn how things are done, and why, believe me, you will have a much better trip. The guide is travel-sized, enjoyable to read, and packed full of info from history, customs and festivals, to explanations of their values, world view and what’s important to them. The info on etiquette, socializing and communicating was invaluable.

This book prevented me from being the ugly American when in Nepal. Much wisdom to be learned from this guide. I will always rely on this series when traveling off the beaten path.

This book provides a short but very helpful synopsis of many of the things that make Nepal unique. History, religion, politics, food, family... it is very useful to know a little more about what makes the country what it is, and the people who they are. It will leave you wanting to know more, but also more appreciative of your everyday experiences.

I wound up listening to the digital audiobook of this, which I checked out from the library. It was a great 3ish hour listen. I'll now go through and sticky note the sections I want to have quick access to during our trip. Useful, concise, and sometimes humorous.

This is an interesting excellent book about the country of Nepal. I liked this book because I learned some new things that I did not know before reading this book. Some of the interesting facts that the author of this book mentions in this book include the following information: Nepal was isolated from the rest of the world for centuries. Nepal has never been a colony of a Western foreign power. The word privacy does not exist in the Nepali language. The nature of Nepali life means that much activity is conducted in the open. Complete strangers may walk into a person's house uninvited in Nepal. Their only pretext is to see how the person lives. The language of Hindi is closely related to the Nepali language and is widely understood in Nepal. Eight out of ten of the world's highest mountains are in Nepal. An indoor lavatory is still a luxury for a considerable number of Nepalis. Often people in Nepal use an outhouse shared by several families. Toilet paper is also not common in Nepal although it can be bought in Nepal. In Nepal's shops, it is usual custom to ask to be shown items, rather than take them from the shelves.

This is the only book that I've ever owned – and there are hundreds of books in my house – where I can truthfully say that it stinks even though I have not read the first page. Removing it from the box, the odor of chemicals was so strong that my wife immediately asked me to take it outside. The book has been sitting on a table on the porch for 24 hours and still smells bloody awful. I don't know how this was printed or processed or whatever, but I would suggest keeping this book far away from you. I'm going to give it another day or two to air out But I doubt that will be successful. It'll be another Amazon return.

I found enough incorrect information in this book to cast doubt on the veracity of the whole book.

It's a cute little book packed full of information. My son is a traveler and he appreciated the gift! This book is small and compact enough to travel with but is large enough to read easily. Good buy!

The book is enjoyable to read and contains a lot of useful information for those who really want to understand the culture of the country, not just spend their vacation there. I got it in kindle version and highlighted a lot of interesting things, read it all in a few days as if it were a novel, and I keep coming back to the points that interest me most. I also bought the book in the same series on Uganda for a previous trip and the one on Botswana for a friend. More are sure to follow.