At a sandwich store yesterday, I order in English. The guy behind the counter is big, with a coarse face. Somebody you’d see as a bad guy in a James Bond movie. While we wait for my order, he asks if I speak any French. “Only a little bit”, I reply in French. A smile […]
Flying over Ice
There’s icebergs floating down there. Somewhere between Greenland (unfitting name) and Canada, the sea looks incredibly cold. I’ve spent a fair bit of the flight with looking out the window and thinking about going to a country I was never much interested in. Thinking about how it came to that. Retracing my steps, it started […]
102 Days Nepal
The old lady horks forcefully and then spits a ball of phlegm unerringly into the gutter a few steps away. It is one of the many sights and sounds I had to get used to in Nepal, the country of mountains and endless dust. Life in Nepal is not comfortable, it is a developing country. […]
Bunga Dyah Jatra
Bhaktapur has a Jatra and it has a chariot. Both are huge. But Bhaktapur is not the only city in the valley that sports these kind of things. I had heard marvellous stories about the Bunga Dyah Jatra in Lalitput, supposedly featuring a 20 metres high chariot. I couldn’t believe that and put it off […]
Music and Dance
It’s the last day of Bisket Jatra today. Or second to last, I lost track. In comparison to huge chariots, even bigger poles and pools of chicken blood, today was almost mundane. Devotees of the various gods and goddesses walked through the streets, visiting their favourite temples. Many of them were wearing traditional Newari dresses […]
Morituri in Bhaktapur
Happy Nepali New Year, everybody! Around here, the first day of the new year is not greeted by littered streets and hungover masses. Instead, people flock to the holy places to bring offerings. I joined my guest family on their visit to the chariot, where they wanted to offer rice, fruits and a chicken. The […]