#NAMASTE VOL. 6

▲▼

About six days into the Dasain festival, it is clear to me now why I decided to come to Nepal during their season of celebration. Besides awkward shop open hours and fewer running buses, Dasain is not the dreaded time everybody seemed to make it out to be before my arrival. 

Streets filled with people, returning home from the cities to their families in more rural and remote settings, out of town. Innumerable goats line the alleys, awaiting their inevitable doom at the slaughterhouse. Strings and strings of the most brightly coloured flowers you will ever have the fortune of seeing. Hundreds of chickens, tangled in handmade, woven baskets, ready to be loaded onto buses and the cars of distant cousins'. We have to weave our way around all these obstacles; a random cow gone astray; little Nepalese women in a tailspin trying to frantically bargain for rice and fresh vegetables; the usual annoyance of motorcyclists trailing sometimes just as inch behind you which gets you wondering, 'is this even a road in the first place', they must be going 2km/h (if that). It's the frantic nature of the whole ordeal that is somehow endearing. It's colourful and vibrant and exotic and - with want of a better word - quite, 'cool'.

SHANTI TOWN

▲▼

Just a short film clip of footage from our hike up to Namobuddha Monastery, Nepal.

Animal Collective - Taste

#NAMASTE VOL. 5

 SHANTI TOWN

                                           Shanti// 

(from Sanskrit शान्तिः śāntiḥ) means peace, rest, calmness, tranquility, or bliss.

▲▼

This past weekend I hiked up to Namobuddha, a renowned and scenic monastery situated in the mountains. Along the way we got to experience genuine Nepal; limited English and extremely poor and rural living conditions. The Nepalese countryside is a myriad of slaughtered kites on telephone wires and a collection of abandoned shoes on dusty pathways and roads. Cows roam freely as the air gets cleaner, away from the bustling cityscape.

It's difficult to not feel content once nearing the majestic and opulent monastery that is Namobuddha. The exhaustion and frustration from a day spent in the unforgiving sun, steeped over intense uphills, quickly faded away as the sunset rolled in from the distant hills roundabout the proud edifice. "One of the three holiest Tibetan pilgrimage sites south of the Himalayas", says the Rough Guide, Namobuddha is definitely worth a visit when in Nepal.

#NAMASTE VOL. 4

"City of Beauty" 

Filled with culture, artisans and a distinct Buddhist atmosphere, Patan, or, Lalitpur is a sophisticated and almost peaceful city of temples, stupas, statues and shrines:

▲▼

Yesterday (Sunday), Nikolaj, Ugo and I set off on an adventure to Patan; a city just south of Kathmandu metropolitan. Much more peaceful than Kathmandu, Patan boasts magnificent art artifacts and other cultural relics. Patan's Durbar Square displays Nepal's Buddhist and Hindu heritage extremely well with a colourful (as always in Nepal) backdrop. Worth a visit. Many picturesque bistros and cafes line the outskirts of the grand plaza that are sure to attract one's attention after a long day of exploration.