Traffic Jam

I just heard that living in Kathmandu is the equivalent to smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day! ahhhhh i didn't want to hear that......

These photos were taken on my way to Pokhara which was supposed to take 7 hours but took 16 due to the landslides and accidents on the narrow pass out of Kathmandu. This trip was a test of patience. I felt so badly for the drivers. The smells of the chicken trucks right beside me remain clear in my memory. Face to face with the dying chickens, wet, jam packed in their cages, from the 6 hours which we were literally stuck in traffic. Those smells and image truly makes me want to be a vegetarian! To keep from boredom I got out my sketchbook and started to sketch the decorated mac trucks which sat beside me. These trucks aren’t what you probably have in mind, they are decorated with lord shivas, lotus flowers, and other good luck symbols!

Teej Festival

I was excited to arrive in Kathmandu, just in time for the annual Teej Festival. It is a three day fasting festival for Hindu women. Married women observe Teej fast to honor Lord Shiva and wish their husband a long and healthy life. Unmarried girls also par take in the fast and pray for a good husband. All of the women wear red, to enhance success.
I spent the day wandering the holy area, people watching, and dodging the afternoon monsoon.

My new flat....

First few days in Kathmandu

“Contrary to popular belief, expeditions, like journeys of a more passive nature, do not begin in airlines, they begin in ordinary, everyday places, like kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, and garden sheds. They start unexpectedly like earth tremors when you are under the shower stuck in a traffic jam or flipping through a National Geographic, at the doctors office. They dawn as dreams, dream that wont go away.”