So little to do, so much time. Strike that, reverse it.
My last few days in Nepal are going faster than two cheese coneys in the hands of a fat man. Got back from trekking, went to Lumbini, and now its Dipawali (or Diwali) (or Tihar) and the city is going crazy! But [...]
Football here is that sport where you kick a ball around. The real football, however, is the sport where you throw and kick the ball the around. And there’s nothing like a little Saturday college football. Unless, of course, its Sunday. I woke up at 5:30 this morning (Sunday) and a [...]
I celebrated July 4th by visiting the American Club here in Kathmandu. Its normally by membership only (and no, being a citizen doesn’t mean “member”), but on the 4th they opened it up to all the US citizens.
Once you’re inside the compound, you really don’t feel like you’re in Nepal. You feel like [...]
At the Bhoto Jatra festival (see my last post) I was lucky enough to see the Royal Kumari, or living goddess, although I use the work “lucky” with a slight cringe.
There are many Kumaris found in India and Nepal, but the most famous one is the Royal Kumari of Kathmandu. She is a young [...]
Every year in Lalitpur, the Newari people build a giant chariot for the Rato Machhindranath and parade it through the city for a month. At the end of the procession, they hold the Bhoto Jatra festival.
The Rato Macchindranath is the god of rain (rato meaning “red”, macchindra meaning something like “fish”, and [...]
I visited the Narayanhiti Palace on Monday. The palace has not been opened long, so there are still long lines every day waiting to get in. I got there an hour before it opened to make sure I didn’t have to wait longer.
It was a strange sensation, to be honest. [...]
Yesterday at 9:15 a bomb detonated in a local Catholic church. Two people were killed, one of which was only 15 years old. Fifteen others were injured, some very seriously. The bomb was detonated by a Hindu extremist group. This is the first (and pray last) time a church has ever [...]
You reach a point when you’ve been somewhere long enough when what once was new and different becomes normal. When I first came here I was posting a new blog entry almost every day. Now its every couple of days. Things just become normal. I was encouraged by a friend when [...]
Tonight was definitely a cultural experience. Seeing a French band playing an American form of music (jazz) in Nepal with Greek/English and Brazilian friends. I saw the band Ozma (not to be confused with the American rock band Ozma). These guys could jam! It was a great time. Afterward I [...]
I ventured out a bit today and grabbed a few pictures of the Holi celebration. These guys were outside my gate much of the morning. All throughout the valley you could hear screams and shouts of excitement. There would be a pre-attack calm, then the shouts and screams of the attack, and [...]
