Freak Street

Historic street where western hippies seeking enlightenment would stay in the 1970s and 80s. Now just a few restaurants and hotels but the iconic Snowman Cafe is tucked away here. Opened in 1965 as a full functioning restaurant, Snowman is now a cafe shop with new Nescafe machine and paper cups, but still run by the same family. Since the family owns the property, this cafe shop survived from the pressure of rent. However, it's mostly a one-man shop, and that man is 50 years old. His father is too old to work and the next generation of the family are studying in Australia and seemingly won't take over. No one knows how long this final bastion of Freak Street will last.

• history
• family
• coffee

Getting there

south of Kathmandu's Durbar Square