Kathmandu was one of the saddest places I've ever been. I had visions of the Cat Stevens song; serene, spritual, and otherwordly, but it was all poverty, squalor and disease. Everything authentic felt like it had been trampled by tourists long ago. (Boudhanath was an exception as the Buddhist monks kept it clean and stopped tourists from acting disrespectfully.) Nepal can't start turning tourists away without a huge financial hit that it can't afford, but I wish they would. In comparison, their neighbors next door, Bhutan, closely monitor tourism and charge for it. There is no grand poverty and the country is intact - both spiritually and ecologically.