| the road bifurcates, that's how a nepali will phrase it, between the popular tourist areas of kathmandu - and the sagarmatha park which includes mount everest - and the places that no tourists go, where maoists continue their revolt against the king.
namaste or namashkar as the nepali greeting goes. the road bifurcates, between capital city kathmandu and elsewhere, where they would call it kathman don't. so i spent eight days in the world's only hindu kingdom, fleeting moments in kathmandu and longer time in western nepal to meet hilltribes and those who speak of the proletariat, reactionary forces and dialetics. but nepal is more than that. the people are absolutely friendly, the place is cool and capital city kathmandu is swinging - an indian city full of chindians is how i would describe it. from there, it was an hour's journey by air on an airline called buddha air to the western city of nepalgunj, which borders india. nepalgunj is in the area called the terai, the fertile plain and start of the great deccan plateau just below the tibetan plateau - the roof of the world. this is probably the parts of nepal that very few tourists would see. from nepalgunj, we made our way on road to dang, pronounced dung, before making the arduous trek to the maoist heartland. it took us hours to traverse a rocky road just 62 kilometres long on a three-litre four-wheel-drive tata sumo, to the dusty one-street tila town. along the road, and in smaller villages off the road, we met friendly, hard-working, always walking nepalis in the maoist heartland which is dotted by numerous arches and silver hammer and sickle logos airbrushed on red flags. it was an adventure with pictures just jumping out to grab one's attention. dhanybhad, thank you. |
a woman glances out of a window which is decorated with giant stuffed toys in kathmandu Buy Print |
giant pots and pans outside a kathmandu shop Buy Print |
a woman glances out of a building with carved decorations in kathmandu Buy Print |
a mounted traffic policeman in kathmandu Buy Print |
buddha the money changer Buy Print |
a nepali woman bears her load on her head Buy Print |
four nepali girls pose as one lone boy looks on Buy Print |
nepali girls thread leaves into plates and bowls Buy Print |
nepali children peer into the camera Buy Print |
nepali women and their leaf plates Buy Print |
nepali woman balancing a basket on her head Buy Print |
the ubiquitous corner shop in dang Buy Print |
