"What you think of me is none of my business." Photos from Bandipur.

"What you think of me is none of my business."
 ~ Terry Cole-Whitaker (and perhaps others)

Below, please to find photos from the beautiful village of Bandipur. This is a former trading post for India-Tibet trade, which explains some of the beautiful architecture and relative wealth. The road was only built in the last 10-ish years, so I hadn't even heard of it prior to this trip. Beautiful place - beautiful kids!

Love,
Dave

The main pedestrian-only road in town. I haven't even seen a single motorcycle on this lane, which is shocking. Motorcycles are normally accepted anywhere they can squeeze through.

This old woman hauls these bamboo poles all day long. She looks around 60 years old.

There's a great diversity of people here, but everyone is beautiful!

On a day off from school, this girl and her friends were wearing makeup.

Traditionally loads are carried like this. It's less needed now that there are more roads, but you still see people carrying heavy loads, even on flat ground.

The two beauties on the left are identical twins, Ganga and Jamuna, named after the holy rivers.

Going old-school on cutting reinforcing bar for construction.

This tall swing is a traditional Nepali feature in certain villages. Here a Buddhist nun is giving it a go. We spent a long time here, as it's just near a small Tibetan Buddhist temple that's being built.

I love this kid.

Hiking boots! We met a group of young Nepalis from Kathmandu who were here for the weekend. They didn't plan on hiking, which is why this poor thing was wearing these shoes on a two-hour hike. She wasn't happy.

We hiked to a large cave, which had no lights or path or safety equipment. It was pretty disorienting for me, especially when we first went in, since my eyes don't adjust to the dark very quickly.

We continued the walk from the cave down the hill to the highway and met many photolicious lovely people.

Awww!!

I love this photo.

Some guys were repairing the airhorn underneath a big truck. I stuck my camera under there and hoped for the best.

This 15 year-old might be the happiest mechanic I've ever met.

Who knows what the heck this is? They seemed to be retreading tires, but using a wood-fueled fire and some ancient metal contraption with a pressure gauge. I'm baffled.

Cage fighter!

A beautiful man a traditional Nepali hat. By the way, I didn't know when to use "Nepali" and "Nepalese" and discovered that there is no consensus on their use. Language, people, culture - either word is OK, apparently.

This is Kali, who I had to beg to come out for a photo. Mom rewarded her by offering her to us take to the U.S. Kali didn't like that idea! It's a common joke, but some tourists yesterday think it was offered seriously to them.

This girl is 15, and though she didn't want her photo at first, she sits with such composure. Beautiful.

This young woman is a laborer, with her hands covered in dust and nail polish hanging on in bits on one hand. She kind of gasped when she saw this photo - I'm hoping it's because she saw how beautiful she is.

More of on my favorite kids from the swing.

This is during a procession of Buddha's birthday, from the Buddhist temple through town. Most people are Hindu here, but they have a lot of tolerance for each other's views here.

This serious kid is only five or six. What a stunner!

Young lovelies in front of the Buddhist temple.

At the end of the ceremony for the Buddha's birthday, there's the traditional tsampa war. Tsampa is roasted barley flour.

Sonam, one of the head monks, was well into this part!

Get 'em, Sonam!

I'm running out of ways of describing how kids are cute. Cute-a-licious! Cute-a-lectable!

The swing, at its full potential.

All the kids are cute, but not equally so! I love this one especially. The girls were rehearsing for a dance performance.

Dance rehearsal.

Carom on the street, just in front of our hotel.

Just down the hill from here - 20 years ago, on my first trip in Nepal. We had to sit on the roof of the bus for most of the nine hours dirt-road trip - the same one that takes four hours now. Now that I no longer look like this, people are happy to tell me that I USED to be attractive. (Thanks, Jen - love ya babe!) I don't remember anyone telling me that then!

(The End)

"You show your worth by what you seek."

When you plant a tree

every leaf that grows will tell you,

what you sow will bear fruit.

So if you have any sense, my friend,

don’t plant anything but love.

You show your worth by what you seek.

 ~ Rumi

Prepare yourself, lovely readers. Today you'll see these photos from Kathmandu. Tomorrow you'll see photos from Bandipur, a spectacularly charming  village halfway between Kathmandu and Pokhara. And the next day, if you're still with me, I'll be posting a set of on-the-scene newsletters with unpublished photos from 2001, when Nepal's entire Royal family was gunned down by a drunken and grumpy prince. Or was he really the culprit? Riots, tear-gassed tourists (OK - one tear-gassed tourist,) intrigue and a nation in mourning. It's a good and tragic story.

The non-photographed drama from this trip to Kathmandu involved a group of drug-addled street youth. When I first came to Nepal in 1991 there were large numbers of street kids, begging, going through piles of garbage looking for food, and befriending well-intentioned tourists (like me) who didn't know enough to know that they didn't know enough to really help. Leftover meals might actually encourage these kids to stay away from home, or keep them from going to school, or put themselves in other types of street-life danger. The last few times I was here (2001 and 2003, most recently) the street kids appeared to be gone, and I thought the problem had been resolved. 

Well, they're back, in a big way. Jen and I were walking towards our hotel one evening and came across some filthy, rough-looking kids between about 15 and 20-ish. I stopped when I noticed they were handling crumpled money and spreading it out among themselves. It was dark, but I could see the oldest guy had a swollen cheek near his eye. The youngest kid said they needed money - "Look his eye! Look his eye! Cutting, cutting!" I pulled out my flashlight, reluctantly, and saw a deep gash, maybe 2 inches long, just near his eye, obviously needing stitches. The young kid kept showing me the blood and wound on his head, from the same attack, if you believe their story. If I'd had any sense I would have kept walking, but I don't. I was thinking about what I'd written about the leprosy volunteering - it's easy to not get involved, but it's tough to get involved a little. We told them we wouldn't give them any money, but we'd go with them to a hospital and pay for the doctor. These guys were so stoned they could hardly stand up. Mr. FaceGash was inhaling glue from a bag right in front of me until the young kid told him not to. They insisted on money, to no avail, and eventually agreed to the 20-minute walk to the hospital, with me and Jen in tow. Even stoned they walked twice as fast as me, and they disappeared into the crowd, coming back to find us and wandering off again. Jen was really trying to keep up, but I thought it was their job to stick with us, not the other way around. I'm not sure they saw it that way. 

Eventually the young one wandered off and didn't return, and then Mr. FaceGash indicated that he wasn't going to the hospital. We stood in the intersection and watched him stagger away. We waited for a while in case he changed his mind, and that was that.

As they say in Nepali, "ke garne," what to do...

Love,

Dave

In my world view, these women are stunning.

This woman seemed a little kooky, but she was SO happy to see her photo.

A beautiful, clear-faced boy holding his hands in the "namaste" position.

I think he's happy. It's hard to say.

Air pollution makes for nice sunsets, at least. The air's not as bad as I thought based on other's reports.

The burning ghats at Pashupatinath. Someone famous is being cremated in the center of the photo, based on the number of people who came to view the ceremony. We stood on the bridge directly above him and watched as they took off his clothing, stacked wood on and under his body, and lit the wood on fire.

Incredible stone carvings in the Pashupatinath complex.

I believe this is a Garuda, a mythical winged god who serves as Vishnu's mount.

Shiva lingams are lined up in small temples.

Another entry in the cute kid contest.

Twins and their friends.

A construction site, which you see all over Kathmandu. That's an older woman working in the front, wearing traditional dress and wearing construction flip-flops, most likely.

We're entering the ancient city of Bhaktapur.

This is not a zoo.

Inside a small temple in Bhaktapur.

I call this photo "A bird and stone dog-looking thing." Lyrical!

This man was making small clay pots by hand. Someone said he'd been doing this since he was 10 years old.

There are stunningly beautiful girls, of all ages, all over Nepal. Amazing.

This is Sona, who invited us into her grandmother's home. Such a sharp kid.

Nurses, maybe?

I started practicing shooting photos from the hip. This is one that I like.

You still see old men using this method of carrying loads. I haven't seen it so much with younger men.

Sunset at a traditional Nepali temple.

The vegetable market just down from our hotel.

Colorful.

A flower seller and her garlands.

Baby. Aged 25. Does he look like an adult, or is it just me?

Necklace sellers behind egg sellers. I love the colors.

A busy street scene at dusk.

When the exposure is long, people that are moving appear blurred like this. 

An unintended optical illusion. These are two different men, one deep inside the temple.

(The End)