Two in Kathmandu

Beautiful (and sometimes startling) Life in Nepal

2010-05-15T00:16:00.000-07:00

Maximum City: Mumbai!

2010-05-14T23:59:00.000-07:00

Goa- Palolem to Panjim

2010-03-02T23:44:00.000-08:00

Pokhara!

2010-03-02T22:40:00.000-08:00

C: If you look closely you will see a common result to an innocent "local bus" bus ride...

C: There you have it... Annapurna. Stunning.

P: The view was good, but without a good photographer....

P: The street festival! So much fun!

P: Which one is more hardheaded?

P: Mom found this thing in the cave. What the heck is it?

C: I almost didn't make it to see this. I have discovered I get a serious case of vertigo when climbing in caves. Thanks to P and a very nice, patient Nepali man, both holding my hands, slowly slowly, I made it to see this mega cave/waterfall.

P: Notice the people at the bottom to get an idea of scale. This was amazing. Before entering the cave, above ground, one can see the waterfall disappear into the ground. Then it is possible to access the waterfall from underground. Magical.

C: Magical indeed. (Thanks Liz for putting that word back into our vocabulary.)

C: So 100 Nepali rupees is like a $1.30. Peep the prices... hecksa cheep.

P: I love sassage!

C: Ah. Yum. I mean fried hot dogs on a stick. Fried anything on a stick. And none of us got a belly ache. Sweet.

P: Make it hot, oily, crispy and red. I'm talking food here...

P: Ohh, forgot to say, there was an amazing street festival here, so this type of street food was omnipresent. You'd just be waking down, and in the blink of an eye, an amazing sekuwa (a kind of kebabish thing) would appear in your hands. The distance between desire and satisfaction was shortened to the infinitely small, to the realm of the nearly non-existent.

C: Beautifully done P. Bravo.

P: Thanks C. But with this lake, it wasn't hard.

C: And that lovely splash of red.

P: I was just about to say...

C: See how its done.

P: Tan, Tan, Tandoooooooriiiii!

C: Homemade Tandoori oven. Gonna make one when we get home... or rather, P, will you make one when we get home????

P: I would say "sure", but I need to say "I'll try"! But keeping in mind the possible resulting deliciousness, I will devote max effort to the pursuit.

C: Great photo C. Got to pat myself on the back for this one.

P: Pulitzer prize, Pulitzer prize I say!!

C: Thanks big pimpin'. I love that he's so still and in focus and that nothing else is.

P: Just sayin'... I love it too. Also the colors!

C: Nepali hat~ P's still shy to wear one but he wants to soooo bad!

P: It's true. I love them. They also have some that are black-gray-orange with the coolest patterns, but can't work up the nerve...

C: Finally some water! and FRESH AIR!

P: And peace! It was, so great to be outside of Kathmandu, without a fever, and get some rest from the city, which can get really exhausting. Pokhara is a truly magical place. The lake's name is Fewa.

C: We've arrived! Yeah!

P: Ahahahahah!

C: The deluxe bus package dropped us at some super fancy hotel for a feast. Happy faces after eating tons of curried chicken!

P: And chowmein, my new favorite!

C: Landscape. On the way to Pokhara for New Years. Annapurna here we come.

P: Check the people at the bottom of the photo.

Shikarpur

2010-03-02T21:37:00.000-08:00

C: The home style in southern Nepal.

P: This was on our drive back. My hopes that my fever would disappear weren't met, and we had to leave after less than 24 hours of being there :-( I was soo sad, but the closest hospital was 4 hours away, and my fever was actually climbing.

C: Yeah, too bad we had to leave so soon. And wouldn't you know that once we got home, P's fever was over. But better safe than sorry... you never know what you've got or how serious an illness can be.

C: The view over a small hill in the village.

C: The cooking space in the home we stayed in. They generously served us one of their chickens that they killed only moments before cooking and other veggies. Super good. They had also gotten us local rakshi, super strong grain liquor, one cup and I was totally wasted.

P: C, you forget the fish that my crazy mamma bought on the way and that we strapped to the back of the 4wheeler. The rakshi created the illusion of curing my fever for about 10 min. After, I was drunk AND feverish. But the food and the hospitality was totally delicious. We ate at the bottom floor of the house we were staying at with many villagers, on a dung-and-straw floor. It was an incredible experience.

C: One of the purposes of the trip was for another organization that we were traveling with to assess the situation of the school for kindergardeners/1st graders. Behind these children, is the only school in the village. It serves over 100 children. They somehow divide the room in two and teach both levels. Its insane, the space is so small and built with reused wood, dirt floors with holes and cracks etc. But these kids are so anxious to learn and they make do. They were all holding their tattered school books in their best school outfits. All the little ones greeted us in a line, extending their little hands with flowers for us. I nearly died and burst into tears from their sweetness. We are officially the second visit of Westerners to their village. We were aliens to them- I'm sure as surreal for them as it was for us. One can imagine poverty but when you are confronted by it, it fills you with mixed feelings- I was struck by the resiliency of human beings, the ingenuity of people with little resources, the imaginations of children to make fun with next to nothing, the beauty of simple life and the consequences of the lack of access to economy and basic resources.

P: I agree. It was such a difficult experince in many ways. But beautiful in others. The kids were so nice and cute. And the villagers were so curious of us, as much as I was curious of them. It was truly like a meeting between aliens. I wish I hadn't been so sick also, because I was on the verge of death. Everything had a bit of an hallucinatory feel.

P: Dharmadhatu is doing such interesting work too. Currently they are running a woodworking workshop to train local villagers, mainly women, to prevent the constant drift to the Kathmandu valley, and to improve the economic situation at the local level.

C: Food on the road. Dal Bhat, the official, traditional Nepali meal. Always sooooo much rice.

P: And free veggie refills!!

C: If P and I move to Nepal, this is where we'll build our house!

P: It is amazing how Nepalis have developed techniques to farm in the most incredible conditions. Driving you can see farms that extend on nearly vertical faces of rock.

C: On our way to Shikarpur, the sight chosen by Dharmadhatu for their development work, also the organization that me and P have done some work with. It was our first official trip outside of the Kathmandu Valley. Nepal is a spectacularly beautiful country. Very diverse in its architecture, people and landscape. The terraced hills give the land such a texture, its crazy picturesque.

P: The road there was absolutly crazy. It took some 4 hours over a high pass to get to a town called Hetauda. You could look down into valleys that extended thousands of feet beside the dirt road. Scary. Then another 4 hours in the jungle 4 wheeling through streams, in the more tropical Inner Terai area. I also have to mention that the day we left I woke up with 101.8 fever, and decided to brave it.

Neigborhood Kids

2010-03-02T03:27:00.000-08:00

Mamma and Momo

2010-03-02T03:16:00.000-08:00

C: Giulia's welcome Momo dinner at Buddha's and Bimal's. Like potstickers, filled with curried ground water buffalo. Very Nepali, very delicious. I think we made 1 million and I ate 100,000.
P: Clouds of steaming heaven!!

P: La Mamma is here! She also has a blog going: http://kathmanduboundtovisitthekids.blogspot.com/

Banepa

2010-03-02T03:00:00.000-08:00

P: The Boyz!
P: The Galz!
P: The Gorkha soldiers!
P: The Dancers! I went for a fundraiser walk to raise money for schools about two hours outside of Kathmandu. We hiked to the top of a hill, had great Newari food (home-cooked by the moms of the kids), crescendoing in a series of dances.

Patan

2010-03-02T02:40:00.000-08:00

C: The kids in Nepal are always so gracious in front of the camera. The tall one did his best to collect his little friends to face me for a photo. One of my favorites.
P: There was a crazy horn marching band playing also (that's what they're so intently looking at). I love this one too!
C: King's palace in Patan, south of Kathmandu. Really beautiful, old Nepal.
P: This city is also the home of one of my teachers, Sudarsan. He is amazing. I'll post some pictures soon.
P: Mhhhh bananas... (they are the best here)!

Nepali Family Portrait

2010-03-02T02:32:00.000-08:00

C: The great people that make Nepal feel like home...
P: Yes! It is really our family here. The two on the couch (Nabin and his wife) just had a baby!

Learning to Cook Nepali by Candle Light

2010-01-08T02:12:00.000-08:00

C: I am a diligent student of culinary delectable delights.

C: A mixture of tomatoes, green chilies and jira seeds (can't figure out what jira is, some say cumin but I don't think so) to mix in with my most favorite, saag- usually mustard greens.

C: This will be one of my best memories of Nepal. The intimacy of sharing the kitchen and family recipes...

C: Too bad this picture isn't quite clear, but Bimala is using a traditional Nepali knife that is connected to a board that you position underneath your foot and pull the food against the blade. Efficient.

Around...

2010-01-08T02:03:00.000-08:00

C: P with our new friend Buddha, also teacher to us of Buddhism and Buddhist Iconography. This joint serves a killer milk tea.

C: Ahhaha tourists who's taking pictures of who! Ha!

C: The backs of the devout.

Trek 2

2009-12-29T01:56:00.000-08:00

C: These structures/swings are amazingly sturdy and seem to pop up all over the place during Tihar.

C: A bit of street gambling.

C: I vowed after taking this picture that I wouldn't eat goat again... the little ones are soooooo cute. Sorry to say that didn't last long. Not only are they cute but they taste sooooo good.

C: I spy our first water buffalo.

Tihar Day 2

2009-12-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

C: Brothers day, where all brothers get tikka(ed) by their sisters... then the brothers give their sisters cold hard cash. But all jokes aside, it was really great to have been invited to this family event to experience the ceremony (thanks Bimala & Buddha!)

P: The food was off the hook! We had chicken, mutton curry, wild boar, and village-smoked-pork-fat-on-a-string. The latter was particular.

KTM Punk Rock

2009-12-29T01:37:00.000-08:00

C: This was totally insane...so we got home late one afternoon and heard the sounds of electric guitar off in the nearby distance. We walked for a few minutes, just below our house and came upon these dudes! Check out this kids Metallica hat! The crowd was a mix of young and old, everybody hopping around. It was rad.

C: One beautiful little girl in the crowd... with incredibly piercing eyes.

Puja-Tihar

2009-12-29T01:18:00.000-08:00

C: OM!
P: We were invited by our friends Buddha and Bimala to celebrate Tihar with all the youth of Dharmadhatu Foundation. Tihar is a multiple day festival. Each day has its own significance. This particular evening, girls go around the neighborhood dressed up asking for money and candy. Then fireworks extravaganza! Every family creates a small design on the floor for puja (worship).

C: Buddha & Bimala's puja room where P and I made our first prostrations.

C: Far off in the distance you can see fireworks.

C: The city reflects itself as if there was a lake below...

Thangka!

2009-12-28T23:52:00.000-08:00

P: My first Thangka!! It is a Sakyamuni Buddha (also known as Siddharta, Gautama, the historical Buddha, the man himself!). In Thangka every representation is highly "codified." The posture of this Buddha is always this, left hand at rest on the lap, sometime with bowl, and right hand touching the ground. The whole body-face-lotus composition is constructed according to sacred geometries.

P: The background is where artist freestyle the most.

P: Prakash Lama (my teacher) instructs me on the preparation of the surface. I find this technique fantastic! It gives a super smooth transportable canvas. One starts with muslin which gets stitched and stretched, then rubbed with something I think is gypsum, hot yak skin glue and water. Then it gets polished between a wood board and a smooth surface (traditionally a stone, now a quart bottle of rum!)

P: Talking with Buddha Moktan, the founder of the Dharmadhatu Foundation, which among other things is a social enterprise that instructs, produces and sells Thangkas. The profits from the sales are used to support indigenous peoples of Nepal and in particular to provide scholarships to Tamang youth from rural areas to study in Kathmandu.
C: I have been so impressed by the patience of the painters (some of which are quite young) often sitting for several hours at a time. The concentration and skill level are so high and the work is amazingly intricate. The stories of workers/painters vary- some come from generations of painters, many have come to it for economical reasons. Its been fascinating seeing the contrast in quality and learning more about the conditions under which they are made. Beware of the Thangka art school/gallery/showroom/sales space, they often are work factories that favor seller over artist.

P: Work in progress.

P: My first Buddha head sketches!!

Kopan Trek

2009-12-16T22:20:00.000-08:00

2009-12-16T22:09:00.000-08:00

Monsoon Clouds

2009-12-16T22:00:00.000-08:00

C: Check the lighting!! So many nights we've been completely in awe of the clouds and sky.

Fonts, Graffitti & Signage

2009-12-16T21:53:00.000-08:00

P: This one is tight!
C: Loving all the Sanskrit signage and fonts... thinkin of a Sanskrit tattoo...
C: Haha, so I guess the directive on the wall didn't mean much!

The Homestead

2009-12-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

C: Finally, our new spot. We were blown away when they brought us here, its like the White House of Kathmandu. The inside is all marble, hardwood, gold finishings etc. I have to say it took some getting used to, the idea of living in such a place, it felt like WAY TOO MUCH, considering the poverty that was just down below us. I've come to appreciate the solitude of the place, its distance from the road that makes it dust free-ish and its certainly comfy I'll admit.

P: It is also in Boudha, much closer to where the crux of my research and project will take place. Is this Beverly Hills, Kathamndu?

C: The tail end of the monsoon, bless the rains cause it brings the electricity!!

P: And all the good saag (greens) we're eating now!!!

Food

2009-11-18T21:49:00.000-08:00

C: Street markets are where we buy all of our fresh veggies. Lots of familiar things, most I'd say, then every once in a while a mysterious item comes into season and finds its way to the market. We experiment, most of the time successfully. The one thing we've agreed on, cause P generally likes EVERYTHING, but we both dislike, detest, gag at the sight of- gooseberries. Has anyone tried one? They are bitter and sour and astringent- people generally dip them in a mix of salt, sugar and chilies. Funny little detail, but most things, fruit included, are green even when ripe. Our bananas and oranges are all green on the outside but sweet and delicious on the inside. Its a funny mind trick.
P: I also really like the way veggies are displayed. Something about it.
C:I agree, beautifully abundant and organized. But, one time, I saw a dog lift his leg and piss all over some cilantro. The stands are all at about knee height and there are so many free roaming dogs... beware, or just wash before eating. The stand owners don't seem to really give a #$^%.
P: C'mon is just a little dog pee. Very nutritious.

2009-11-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

C: I'm in chili heaven. Nepali food isn't too spicy though.
P: Mhhh, custard apples.... I love these!!!
C: Grocery store fruits. Surprisingly similar to the U.S.
P: True... except I can never find custard apples at Safeway...

Durbar

2009-11-07T01:19:00.001-08:00

P: These pictures are from our excursion to Durbar square. Here is some further historical info for the curious: http://www.spinybabbler.org/art_complex/kathmandu.htm

2009-11-07T01:03:00.000-08:00

C: Again, if you squint and use your imagination, under the carvings that look like bodies with many arms (the various deities) are Tantric sculptures and are a bit risque. It is still debated how they should be interpreted...

C: If you squint and look closely, see the beautifully, intricately, carved wooden details on the building. Kathmandu was once revered for these carved frames, now a days, buildings are thrown up quickly to accommodate the wildly growing population in the city. They are a rarity as such.

C: Nepalis. The streets were full for the Dashain(look it up) festival, my overhead view.

Comfort Zone

2009-11-02T02:23:00.000-08:00

P: There's my friend Robert playing the clarinet. He's also beginning to teach me a bit more about music from a structural point of view, and we may soon do some musical experiments together.
C: This was a brilliant "mash up" of sounds and culture: gentleman on the far right is from Nashville TN and has brought country music to the streets of Kathmandu. Far left, the singer and wife of the man on the far right, straight from Kathmandu, singing traditional Nepali songs to the tune of standard country. All night we kept repeating "where are we..." The sights and sounds so untypical of Nepal but yet so typical of Thamel- the part of town where all worlds seem to collide. It was beautifully strange.

P: That's the entrance of the lounge.

2009-11-02T01:40:00.001-08:00

C: Our first night out at a shi shi night spot in Thamel (the super touristy part of town) where I typically dread going because of all the tourists and the street vendors stopping you in each moment to sell you the same trinket that the previous store owner just tried to push on you. We ate super good Korean food and lounged. This is what shi shi looks like in Nepal.

P: Thamel can truly be extremely exhausting. The hassle is incessant. But it is also where most of the nightlife actually takes place. So this night we actually came to see our friend and fellow Fulbrighter Robert. He's an ethnomusicologist and a great clarinet player, and after a few weeks of staying in Kathmandu he was already playing around town!!!
P: C took a picture of me while taking the picture below...
P: Something about certain angles of this city are beginning to remind me of my birthcity, Rome. It is not that it looks the same, but it ... resonates with it.
C: That neon drink of mine is indeed a mountain dew. Thought they only sold those at nascar racetracks in the south. Ha.

P: Doing my first coast to coast I lived on the Dew and beef jerky. Mhhhhh....
C: This is a standard scene for Kathmandu- colorful, crowded, unfinished, finished, dogs, bike, motorcycle, earth, sky. This is one of my favorite pictures that we've taken here so far.

P: I like this pic a lot too. In fact, it is our blog title image... It has been since the beginning. This simply means that today in blog time we have finally caught up with when the blog was started, which means that in real time we're hell of in the future, you know what I mean?

Blackout!

2009-11-02T01:01:00.000-08:00

P: C didn't want us to post this one, but I think it's funny, particularly as I remember us playing glamorous with our Sanskrit Coke. Note that the spark in C's mouth is not a digital effect, but an actual old school visual effect. Analogue. Light and all.
P: This is Scary P on the Chair...

C: Blackouts happen each day, usually in the evenings. Apparently, they will get longer as it gets cooler and dryer as electricity in Nepal is generated by hydropower. At the moment they last for about an hour or so. Not to bad. We try to make them fun.

P: These blackouts are coordinated by the local government to "load-share" the grid: I believe that the entire city is in fact powered by only one hydroelectric plant just north of the city, and it just doesn't produce enough electricity.

The Famed Stupa- Boudha

2009-10-28T02:57:00.000-07:00

P: Here I am eating Thugpa, a typical Tibetan soup, in a little restaurant of the Boudha Stupa. Actually this is a bit modified, it is a momo soup. Momos are Nepalese yummy little dumplings. The empty bowl next to it, now, that was the Thugpa!!

C: I had the same although you do not see me. It was really good. P didn't mention that we tasted our first Yak milk, salty, butter tea here. Not soo bad but not good enough for me to ever want another in my life. P: And this is the Stupa. It is located a bit on the outskirts of town, in the Boudha area. From the always reliable wikipedia:

A stupa (from Sanskrit and Pāli: m., स्तूप, stūpa, literally meaning "heap") is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, once thought to be places of Buddhist worship, typically the remains of a Buddha or saint. In other Asian languages such monuments are called

chorten (Tibetan མཆོད་རྟེན༏ (Wylie: mchod rten), "dharma place/seat")
chedi (Thai, from the Pāli chaitya)
dagobah (Sinhalese, from the Sanskrit dhatu)
tope (Hindi, from the Sanskrit)
garbha (Sanskrit, meaning a storehouse or repository)

P: It's a really amazing place, with a great energy. When we had to decide where we were going to live, the Fulbright peeps had recommended this neighborhood, but we thought that we should leave more centrally. The square that houses the Stupa is lined with Thangka painting shops (the objective of my Fulbright is research on this painting tradition- more on this later). So as we walked into one of these shops we immediately started making contacts. That in conjunction with the feeling of the place itself, which is quite striking, started to make us feel as we did a mistake, that we should have decided to actually live here.

C: I'm not sure how to write about the first experience of the Stupa. First of all, I did not come to Nepal expecting a "spiritual experience," as many of the visitors to Nepal anticipate. But to understand what the moment was like coming into the Stupa circle for the first time, you must first understand the context of the moments leading up to our visit. We've mentioned this a bit but, being in Nepal, the first days were filled with dust, hectic streets, very early mornings with unfamiliar sounds- albeit beautiful, but sounds none the less, intense smog- just sort of all around chaoticness. Then we arrive here to this pristine white structure, surrounded by the gutteral sounds of chanting monks spilling from the monasteries, recorded chants from all of the little shops, and many many Tibetan women and men, Monks and tourists walking in meditative circles around the Stupa, millions of prayer flags blowing in the wind. It was powerful. Hard to deny feeling touched, deeply. It was a very spirit filled moment for me and I think also for Piero. All of the chaos fell away. In the moments we spent there, we decided that we want to live here, near this kind of peace. Now it is a place that we go to almost everyday. It is also the place where P and I both slowly, respectfully (as some of the holy places here are not open to the public- but as we are now learning, Buddhist monasteries are mostly open to the public as opposed to the Hindu temples that are a bit more off limits to the general public) entered our first Buddhist monastery and received our first blessing.

Hadigaon Streets

2009-10-17T03:32:00.001-07:00

P: This is an archetype of the storefront here. There are thousands of these around town; some are food oriented (the majority, it seems), others are almost like pharmacies, others are hardware stores, others sell liquor and beer, and others again sell stationary.

C: Its amazing how small these spaces can be, sometimes there is only room for a person to sit, in the lotus position at arms height. (By the way, Nepalis are some of the most limber people I've seen.)
C: The latest in pollution fashion. It is an absolute must have.
C: Beautiful.

2009-10-17T02:59:00.000-07:00

C: A bit of (what I'm thinking is) Maoist propaganda.

C: Finally, the streets of Kathmandu, in and near Hadigaon.

Hadigaon

2009-10-17T01:20:00.000-07:00

C: Images from our first home in Nepal. I think we were there for only a week or so. We had no idea what to expect as the Fulbright makes it their policy not to show any pictures of the apt you choose prior to arrival. It was a crap shoot. Upon arrival, I was comforted by the fact that it was an apt in a private dwelling. The owner was the former Police Chief- we felt safe, the family was super nice, helpful and accommodating. We had our only internet connection thus far at that place. Unfortunately, as it was a basement apt, it was quite dark, a bit moist, and very dusty (not to mention the mint green walls and blue curtains). Not so conducive to Piero's painting and way to conducive to my "weather induced depression." (Please consider that blackouts increase exponentially as the year comes to an end.) Hadigaon is full of Hindu shrines and temples and living just across from the Ganesh Temple, we were awakened everyday at 4am by bells, a marching band of sorts and many many dogs. (Dogs roam free everywhere) I miss it a bit, it's funny how quickly you'll attach yourself and make "home" when you're in such unfamiliar territory. It was nice while it lasted but we moved on to finer pastures. In keeping with recent tradition, we moved.

P: The first morning, or I should say night, it was very surprising, because we didn't know. At a certain point, in the midst of 13 hours difference surreal jet lag, the kind where you feel like you have taken acid, the sounds of cymbals and the symphonic barking of dogs, each performing a singular melody, started to distill our first dawn in Kathmandu. As the week progressed the cymbals where accompanied by a full horn band (as C mentioned), which would sort of roam in front of the temple. I tried to make some sound recordings, but they would only play for a handful of seconds at a time, causing me to repetitively get up turn on the mic only to have them stop for an indeterminate amount of time. I would then turn the mic off, and they would begin again. I repeated this for a number of times and a number of days.

C: Oh and by the way, our first steps alone, beyond the gate above, were how do you say... terrifying. Not only was I nervous that we would never find our way back, being that in Nepal there are no street addresses, so we had none to give if we'd gotten lost, no phone to call anyone for help, we were also the total spectacle. Deep inside my secret place, deep in my soul, I have to be completely honest, it made me feel damned crazy (and still do, of course without all the insecure stuff) having people stare at me ALL THE TIME, I wondered, what have I done wrong... I'm wearing the most conservative clothes I have and I've covered myself with a shawl. There is nothing that you can do to "downplay" the fact that you are totally and utterly foreign.

P: I felt terrified as well, but also really excited. As I took those first steps out my head was almost spinning, my mind was a cloud of a million thoughts, and through my veins ran something that had a lot in common with electricity. I remember feeling like I was floating all the while feeling ultra-aware of myself and somewhat awkward. The surroundings were completely unfamiliar.

KATHMANDU!

2009-10-07T01:08:00.000-07:00

C: P just as we found our contact from the Fulbright. His body language, at least from my point of view at the time said a lot. I've been to some ragtag airports in my time, Sicily at the top of my list thus far, until Kathmandu. The valley is relatively small, so when you come down, you come straight down. You walk right out of the plane into the Kathmandu smog and humidity.

P: Two things not shown in the pictures. A) Thai Airlines shows you the landing on the screens in the plane. At first it was all clouds, which opened up to a green valley framed by sharp ascending hills. In front of us one runway and a little airport, made of orange bricks. B) When I first saw the airport from the plane I have to admit that I said to myself "Holy Shit!" The thing had one runway, and was so rundown. The reality of it all, after such a surreal and long trip through aseptic airports, hit me like one of those bricks that the Kathamndu airport is made of.
C: I was busy chatting with another Fulbrighter when my first free roaming (holy) cow caught my eye... and here she is. Overwhelmed is a complete understatement for what I was feeling at this very moment. It was complete sensory overload. I think the general condition of things- the mess of roads, the garbage, the traffic, the air quality, what seemed like millions of people, the cows, the buildings, garbage, saris, bare feet, babies, bright colors, nepali script, car horns honking, dirty water holes- all smacked me upside my head. The ride from the airport to the Fulbright office is not the prettiest of ones. I had this sort of sinking feeling and this feeling of we're really doing this, we're gonna be here for 10 months, straight up, no visit before hand just straight up living here. I also think we both had the ability to see beyond the surface of the moment and felt excited. Our adventure. Holy @#$%ing %$^t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd always thought that I had seen poverty, but I have never seen anything like this.

P: I felt the same way, although I only told C after a few days. I was like "this ain't nothing!". Well, partly I really did feel quite calm, but partly I was questioning what did I get my self (and C) into. But I also felt super exited, just trying to absorb it all in a sense. C's description does the situation justice, although I would add: tin shacks, a million store fronts involved in as many activities plus some unidentified ones, goats ready to be sold, trees growing out of shrines, banana plants; it was a completely different place than any other place I had ever been to. I was struck with what I perceived, however problematically, as poverty.

Bangkok Decadence (wee hours in the morning)

2009-10-07T00:36:00.000-07:00

C: Grandure.
C: Ah yes, we have matching backpacks. Scootin around.

C: Boredom + MacBook Pro= 1 million PHOTO BOOTH pictures!

P: There is no end to the amazing fun that can be had with this. It's the contemporary version of the fun house deforming mirrors. I think one of my favorites is the third one down, from the top all the way to the left. There is something understated but hilarious about that one.

Bangkok Thailand!

2009-10-06T23:42:00.000-07:00

(C: Side note- This may have been completely obvious to everyone but me, but we just found out how Nepal has managed to be free of the likes of McDonalds, Burger King etc.- IT'S A HINDU COUNTRY. DUH. (not nationally anymore but the elite, folks in power are) so no Holy Cow Big Macs here. Dag, I was hoping, just for that rare occasion....)

(P: You can get the delicious water buffalo burger from "King Burger"...)

C: Pork dumplings, spicy fish sauce, beer. Best midnight snack ever. (I was secretly dying for a Whopper from Burger King- syke!)

C: Bangkok by air. We landed at about 12 am. The airport was absolutely desolate. Having nothing else to do, we explored the eats in the food court. Hands down, best Thai food ever. Also, note Thai Air (our airline from Thailand to Nepal) had the absolute best airplane food ever- plus ceramic serving bowls and real cutlery. Wish we could have stayed a few days and eaten everything.

P: Yeah, the airport was crazy. It was nearly empty, but it had all this semi open stores until super late. And the restaurants were also open almost 24-7. In some areas it was entirely surreal

Big plane to Tokyo

2009-09-19T20:59:00.001-07:00

C: Reading material for the fully bright and musically genius.

P: And definitely not for the "ownhorntooting".... But seriously, the "Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking is a great book.

C: You're a dork P.

P: You can even see my ziplock pencil case under the reading materials. It's always good to be prepared :-)

C: Ok, so your a cheep European dork. Pencils for what P, to write calculations for dark matter considering the quantum mechanics of all things physical or living in a black hole.

P: Ok, enough is enough.

C: I had real high hopes for the food aboard this flight with all the appetizers, mid flight snacks, bbq beef entrée etc. Let's just say, it was completely, unrecognizably, Japanese.

P: But I still enjoyed the all-too-risky-plane-plain-shrimp!! No photos due to the graphic nature of the material. Sorry.

On the plane from Raleigh to Detroit

2009-09-18T03:54:00.000-07:00

P: Look at us! I have never felt like this before. This is really crazy.

C: Optimism in our hearts. (I can see already that I'll be taking a more sarcastic tone for this blog. Like I always say- I am the bitter to Piero's sweet.) But really, together we can do anything.
C: Cultural factoid: good luck charm of the Germans- the pig. My mom gave me this pig the day we left, her Glück Schwein. My heart melted, my eyes swelled with tears- it was her way of protecting us somehow, and when I think of it now, it makes me want to strangle her with all my love. Now we are protected by the collective force of German "witchcraft." Look how cute he is, how could you feel any fear with him on your side.

P: JAAA, with the german "vich Kraft" we fear none.
P: Which one is the piggy?

C: I already know I'm your good luck charm P. (Mom, look how happy he's making me- it works, it really works!)

The Overture

2009-09-18T02:41:00.000-07:00

P: Here we are at our gate in Raleigh. Ahead of us we have a really loooong trip. Raleigh-Detroit-Tokyo-Bangkok and finally our destination, Kathmandu. It will take some two days... I feel a lot of anticipation, while at the same time I can't imagine that we will be living on the other side of the world for ten months. It somehow doesn't compute. My brain doesn't accept the idea...

C: Piero, what have you done to my life! Ha, just kidding, I suppose we did decide this together. Actually in this moment, I was feeling quite excited, overwhelmed, and just plain happy we'd made it to the airport all packed. Notice how empty it is, that's the German in me ya'll. Had us on time, squared away, everything was finally done. It's so hard not to try to imagine where you are going, but you know in the back of your mind that you are setting yourself up. Ain't no way I know what Kathmandu Nepal will be like (and to let you in on my dirty little secret, and probably yours too, when P told me Kathmandu was where he wanted to go, I had to head straight for the Atlas). Thanks again P for being so smart.

P: You are really the smart one. I couldn't have done it without your help. Anyway, I also wanted to point out the surgical precision with which we packed our bags. All of them exactly within the puny 50lbs that regulation allows. That was a relief. I was praying to all the gods at the check-in. Every bag hitting the scale in slowmotion with the evil ticket-counter executioner ready to slice my wallet at any moment....