A potter operating a manual stone wheel in Pottery Square, Bhaktapur, Nepal. Everything is handmade there. You can see the whole medieval pottery process in action. See here for the original post.
A Word A Week Photo Challenge: Create
Home in Nepal
Visiting Nepali Schools
A public school just outside of Kathmandu
One of the best things I do here – and sometimes one of the hardest – is visiting schools. I get to see all kinds of age groups, public and private schools, as well as college level students. Education here is not available to everyone, and public education is hugely underfunded and mostly leaves a lot to be desired. There are some amazing dedicated public school teachers who operate the best they can with very little but often this isn’t the case. Sometimes it can be very hard to see how little they have. Many schools have virtually nothing in the way of facilities and school libraries are a rarity, which is why we have a mobile library that travels to road-accessible areas all over Nepal to bring books, educational presentations and internet technology to kids that have sometimes never seen them before.
Embassy book bus on a school visit
The upside to the visits is always meeting the kids and seeing/hearing their questions, enthusiasm and curiosity. They love the books – which many of them don’t get to see very often – and it’s very rewarding to see them absorbed into the world of reading. I can’t help taking pictures. Here are a few of my favourites:
Share this on social media:
Railway Relics
My contribution for this week’s photograph challenge “Relic” is about Janakpur train station, in Southern Nepal, which is very close to the Indian border. Its the main stop of what was the only train line in Nepal and is now, unfortunately, closed. Relics of the carriages still remain, some only mere frames and other still full of broken seats and traces of animal life. Its very spooky…and sad too. Hopefully, they will reopen it some day and connect the line with India, creating a much needed rail transportation system. For now it just sits there.
For more pictures of busier times at the station and other railway relics that remain today see: Janakpur No Blast From the Past.
Share this on social media:
Mr. Momo
The A Word A Week Photo Challenge this week is “Kitsch” and there’s no end of it here – at least by Western tastes. Let’s start with Mr Momo, a steamed dumpling with legs! The animated personification of Nepal’s favourite snack!
But why stop there?! Bhatbhetini Department Store is a treasure trove of perfect gifts for that persons that likes to make a statement. Classy, tacky, kitsch? You decide:
Share this on social media:
Birds of Nepal
Birds are everywhere. Waking up in Kathmandu during our first few weeks, it was a surprise hearing birds in the morning. On the 21st floor of a high rise tower in Manila we never heard them at all. In fact, we rarely saw birds at all in Manila. Kathmandu is packed with crows (that probably deserve a post all of their own)…but they are loud, obnoxious, and omnipresent. Many of Kathmandu’s religious sites are packed with swarms of pooping pigeons so, between Kathmandu’s two biggest bird populations, there aren’t the best examples of bird life. But fortunately they aren’t alone. I’ve seen green parrots in the mango tree, elegant yellow birds digging for worms on our lawn and little black tits flying around our yard.
But the best birds – and there are some amazing ones – are outside of the city. Chitwan was teeming with beautiful peacocks and tropical varieties, and birds of prey are everywhere here. Here are some pictures from our travels:
The omnipresent crow…there always one looking down on you from somewhere…
…always. They are just waiting from a moment to fly down and swoop the food from your plate
….and they sneak up on you when you’re not looking. The farmers here had left their lunch unattended. Spot the crow!
In Shivapuri, we marveled at the incredible number of birds of prey in flight all at the same time: hawks, kytes and vultures circled overhead. Just look at them all….
My favorites though are the egrets, who just arrive and hang out for a while. They aren’t skiddish unlike most birds and loved to pose for pictures
Missing here are some photos of the beautiful, colourful Chitwan birds…so part two needs to follow later…
Share this on social media:
Boudha in the Rain
Entering Boudhanath Stupa
Boudhanath Stupa is one of the most popular places to visit in Kathmandu. Its in the Buddhist section of town and a huge center of Buddhism in the city. We visited a while back when we first arrived in the city, but I didn’t have the chance to take pictures until now.
Dusk was falling and so was the rain. I was disappointed because I finally had my camera and a chance to capture the experience on film and the rain threatened the opportunity. But it quickly became intriguing how the umbrellas added to the atmosphere and pretty soon I found myself taking pictures of a very different Boudha. Here are a few of my favourite shots:
The parade of umbrellas traveled clockwise around the Stupa. The clockwise only rule still applies in the rain!
As dusk fell, the decorative lights started to turn on…
…and the Buddha eyes looked down.
The stores selling Buddhist trinkets and religious items started to close….
…but the devout carried on with their prayers.
The whole stupa was lit with thousands of fairy lights, which washed the temple with colour…
…and a spectacular sight when darkness came.
Share this on social media:
Its Rice Planting Season
A little photo essay this evening on the rice planting season that is upon us in the Kathmandu Valley. We stayed at a place in Shivapuri, very close to a hardworking Newari family who were busy getting the crop to field. The rainy season is late and they complained that planting was late as a result…but they were still willing to take a break and let me take photos.
First step is to gather seedlings from the nursery field. The ladies grabbed bunches of seedlings, washed off the dirt from the roots and tied them in bundles ready to be transported to larger fields.
This little guy was very curious about why I was there.
The ladies made the hard work of planting look easy and fun. It’s not, it’s back breaking. But they still laughed and smiled for the camera, and broke into song occasionally too.
This is the grandmother and the aunt
Time to take a lunch break in the fields…..
Here is a completed field with the baby plants in place. In a couple of months the plants will be tall and green and ready to harvest.
The terraces were a maze of tricky mud paths. I hope to be back for the harvesting in September.
Thanks to the family for the photos!
Share this on social media:
Shivapuri Hike (with bloody ending!)
We finally got out of the city this weekend. Latham and I managed a short hike in the Shivapuri hills, just North of Kathmandu city. I am frequently told the area is covered with a labyrinth of footpaths and trails, but getting out to explore has been frustrating. And now it is the rainy season, the weather can turn bad unexpectedly, so to be on the safe side, we committed to a short walk in the forest to a small waterfall.
It was so wonderful to be able to just walk unhindered along a trail. No noise, no traffic, no horns. And the first outdoor exercise I’ve had in a long, long time. Here are a few photos from the trail – full of greenery, lushly blanketed forest floors, flowers and not too many bugs:
We could hear the waterfall long before we saw it. More of a waterslide really… a gentle babbling flow, not gushing roar
The cascade ended in a waist high “bathtub”. It would have been a great place to bath. We just stuck our toes in the water
Beautiful lantana growing everywhere, as only lantana can…
Loved the gnarly, multi-coloured tree trunks
Unusually, we saw quite a lot of stone work…something I haven’t seen much of so far in Nepal. This was an abandoned hut.
leaf close up
wall closeup
Look what we found growing wild…!
Before we set out, we were warned about avoiding leeches in the rainy season. I remember the same warning in the Philippines but we never did make it into the jungle during the rains, and I never got to experience them first hand. So, naively, we kept a look out for leeches. I’m not sure what I thought would happen. I guess, I thought if we could avoid brushing up against long grass or bushes, we’d avoid the leeches. But these aren’t ticks…. Little did I know that the little bastards live in the soil. They can lie there dormant for very long periods of time, and when it rains they rise out of the dirt..standing upright with their heads hungrily thrashing around for a blood meal, which they spot by heat and vibration from the victim. The hapless hiker stands a moment to admire the view and the well camouflaged leech makes his move…..
Latham stopped a moment and pointed at his shoe. ” Is that one?!”” We both recoiled in horror when we realized it was. It was tiny and thin, more like a threadworm that the slug-like creature I had imagined. (It turns out they only look like slugs once they are full of blood.) He kicked and squished it. It broke the spell and we couldn’t get off the trail fast enough! The initiation could have been worse…we could have been bitten….
…ironically it was Robert who was….as he never actually went hiking. The dreaded things inject the bite site with an anti-coagulant so it takes forever to stop bleeding. Gross!
And for the truly brave….here are a couple of leech pictures (from the internet I might add)…no way were we going to stop and take a picture!
Leeches before a meal….
….and after! They drop off when they’re full!!!!!
Share this on social media:
Word a Week Photo Challenge: Remote
Shivapuri National Park, Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
During the rainy season which is now upon us, you can just sit and watch the clouds roll in and off the mountains. Such a romantic feeling of mystery and isolation. Behind them, hidden in the rain and mist, are the mighty Himalayas.
This post participated in the Word a Week Photo Challenge: Remote.
Share this on social media:
Wrong Turns Down Dark Alleys
Daily Prompt: Wrong Turns. When was the last time you got lost? Was it an enjoyable experience, or a stressful one? Tell us all about it.
How funny to return home in the last hour to this prompt! We just got lost in the back alleys of Kathmandu, which was quite an adventure….
Kathmandu at night just closes down, and as the shutters from shops descend at the end of the day, things get very dark. There isn’t a street light in the whole city. It is sort of mesmerizing and scary at the same time. Not really scary in a way that you might fear other people, but scary because you can’t see where you are going in a city where sidewalks have missing paving stones, giant holes, obstacles, dog poop, and gutters with 12 inch drops.
Fortunately we were driving. So it was the driver who feared making a wrong move…which he did by turning right too soon. I knew that…but then I presumed he knew something I didn’t, which is often the case for me. I was wrong ( and he was wrong too), so we got lost. The road grew narrower and narrower and the crazy thing about Kathmandu alleys is that driving down them sort of feels like some kind of computer game. At every turn you see the dead end of a brick wall ahead, and is only when you are upon it that you realize that the road still continues by winding left or right around someone’s property. It always looks like a dead end for sure…but suddenly there’s still a way out…at least most of the time. The organic way that the city developed means that roads were never laid out and no space was ever planned for vehicles. The roads just wind their independent way around whatever property they come across. I lost all sense of direction in no time.
On and on we wound, until finally we turned right towards the main road and there it was….a giant dug up ditch the size of the whole street. Piles of dirt lined its edges and concrete drainage pipes sat waiting to be laid inside. It was completely impossible to pass. We couldn’t back up, so we turned left. On and on we wound some more, only this time we were heading in the wrong direction, at least I thought so. My internal compass isn’t great at the best of times, but in the dark, down endless alleys, it was hopeless. After about another ten turns, there was another car in front of us, heading in the opposite direction. It wasn’t going to back up..so we had to.. and we backed up around corners –much to the entertainment of onlookers – for about 50 yards until the road was wide enough for two vehicles to pass. Phew! And finally…God bless him… the driver found his way out of the maze and back onto the main street again. We laughed and it was an adventure. But I don’t need to do it again soon.
So that was my Wednesday night, how was yours?!
Wright Outta Nowhere 