Beautiful Bonifacio

Yesterday we went to Bonifacio - a beautiful medieval town set high on limestone cliffs at the southern tip of Corsica.  It is a location that has had strategic importance over the years, and has been occupied by various countries.  It has a rich history, and very interesting buildings.  We ate lunch at a nice little place that served authentic Corsican food - eggplants Bonifacio, a liver pate, charcuterie ( smoked meats that Corsica is famous for) little coppas - dried tomato paste on toasts of sweet bread, and meat lasagna.  Dessert was creme brulee corsica style with chestnut flavoring.  Here is Juniper perusing the menu.

We spent the afternoon wandering the streets, looking at the fortifications, and viewing the city from a nearby lighthouse.  Here are some photos.

Porto Vecchio, and Baguettes

We are now in Porto Vecchio.  We left Ajaccio after visiting the market, and the Fesch Museum.  The Fesch Museum is mostly an art gallery with a lot of important Italian paintings, including a lovely Madonna and child piece by Boticelli.  Here is a poster advertising the museum, with a portion of that painting included

Corsica is a mountainous area - from some of the exhibits we saw it appears that the range of mountains was somehow part of the Alps.  so you can imagine that driving from one part of corsica to the other is driving on the sides of very steep mountains, with a sharp drop off on one side and an unforgiving solid rock on the other.  and still they manage to establish towns along the way.  nice view for the passengers, but Clark could not take his eyes off the road for a moment - the road is two lane, and narrower than we are used to, and we were travelling on the main highway.

Our accommodations in Porto Vecchio are in a resort, but aside from a few feral cats we are the only inhabitants.  It has lovely grounds, with palm trees swimming pool, and tennis court, but it is not really the right weather for either the pool or the tennis court - a little chilly, and quite windy.  we do have a good view of the ocean, and the town, and are close to a gas station, the grocery store, and a very famous beach.  As in Ajaccio we have kitchen, washer, dishwasher, and crib etc for Juniper.

Yesterday we drove in to the mountains to an archeological site, and visited a small but lovely museum in Levie.  it showed the remains found in these hills of the Dame de Bonifacio - a 10,000 year old skeleton , and several other ancient artifacts unearthed in these parts.  The walk to the archaeological site was through gnarly woods, periodically coming upon rocks which had been eroded in strange ways .

Today we went to the beach at Palombaggio  - the one they show the pictures of in the tourist brochures. We were not the only people on the beach, but we were the only ones that got our feet wet.  The water was warm enough for swimming, but the wind was a little cold, even for us.

Now about the food here.  We do not often eat in restaurants, because they are either closed for the season, or only open at hours that are inconvenient for us with a little one.  We will try one of the local eateries tonite.  But in the meantime we have been having our fill of baguettes, and croissants, and lovely produce, and chicken.  The fish here is very pretty to look at , but quite expensive.  I have not seen anything that is what we would consider reasonably priced.  but you have to love a country that although its fish is expensive, its chocolate and patisseries are not.  

Sunday and Monday

Sunday was our first full day in Corsica. By then we knew how beautiful it was, and how magical the sea and sun can be, especially at this time of year for Canadians.

We were invited to have lunch with Carolina - our landlady. She also runs the esso near the airport, and she and her friends always have lunch at this little seaside cafe near her gas station. we arrived before they did, and went walking on the beach. the water is mediterranean warm, and the sun was high and air temperature warm. it was a delightful place to walk and gaze.

Carolina and her friends arrived, and all sat at outdoor bistro tables, drank wine or beer, and ate french fries. Juniper really thought that was a good way to do lunch. only french fries, fresh from the fryer. She eventually decided it was time to go back to the beach and meet a little guy down there who would have been about 3. His father yelled at him from the cafe - in french - get her phone number, get her address, learn to chop wood ( all in what he called a Montreal accent).

we sat down at the tables for eating and ordered fish, caught by the owner earlier in the day, and squid. It was very tasty.

Then we headed south to Porticcio to see the beach there, and then north to les sanguineres, a road that took us to a Genoese tower high on the promontory. Many many of the locals were walking that trek that day. A surprising number of the smoke. Its quite a trek for those who are smokers I would think. Bob and I stayed behind, still a bit jet lagged from the trip.

on Monday we took the drive from hell to see les callanches - geologic formations which are unusual enough to warrant a UNESCO designation as a world heritage site. the road travelled along the edge of very steep inclines, was barely wide enough for two vehicles, and guard rails for the most part consisted of a single brick. The switch backs were scary - you were never sure if there was someone coming towards you. Clark did the driving, thank goodness. But the Callanches themselves were truly spectacular, and the sun angle on them was just right.

After that we traveled back roads to a secluded beach. and we all got our feet wet in the Mediterranean again. This time although the water was warm, the air temperature and wind force us to wear something warmer. But it was a delightful experience.

Not so delightful was the end of our drive home. the streets of Ajaccio were built long before cars were invented, and are very narrow. we arrived at rush hour, and the street to our apartment was blocked by a tow truck at the top, and we were stuck in stalled traffic for almost an hour, with cars squeezing past one another with just centimeters to spare.

On Tuesday we have our last day in Ajaccio before heading to Porto Vecchio on the east coast. More on that later

Lovely Corsica

Corsica is a lovely French Island just north of Sardinia. Our first stop is in Ajaccio, on the west coast. The apartment has a view of the mountains and the sea, and the sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. Juniper is a good little traveller, no matter what her parents say, and she makes a point of including everyone in everything. internet has been spotty, but seems to be okay now. our landlady has been outstanding in going out of her way to accommodate the various needs that we have. weather is like late august in Fredericton - warm, sunny, but not hot.

Here are some photos from our first day.

award for Mum on Mar 8, 2010

Last Day in Nepal

Well today is my last day here. My plane leaves tomorrow morning at 9, and the journey takes me to Doha, London, Montreal and home. I am happy to be going home, but pleased as well that I had the opportunity to work here on this project. There are some things that I will miss – the exotic flavour of the city, the very pleasant staff, the ready access to inexpensive restaurants. There are other things that I won’t miss a bit – the bad air quality, the noise of the traffic, the care you have to take with food and water, the coldness of the apartment, and mostly, the being away from everyone at home.
Today was kind of a busy day, with everyone scrambling to complete their portions of the final report. We have started having lunch now, realizing that eliminating lunch was not good health-wise. Lunch today was apple slices spread with peanut butter. Rumo, the tea lady, brought me a box of red and gold bangles to wear with my Kurta. She is very sweet. She keeps trying to show me how to wear a scarf, but it is hopeless.

Yesterday when we arrived at the office there was a pigeon flying around. The windows are left open in these buildings, and the pigeon had come in by mistake and trying desperately to get out. On the way to work today there were long long lines of people waiting for gasoline for their vehicles. One line up I saw must have been 2 miles long.

Did I mention that a surprising number of men have red hair? It appears to be compliments of a strange dye job rather than the natural colour. Kind of strange.

Last night we ate at a pizza place in Thamel. It was particularly nice – called Fire and Ice, frequented mostly by foreigners, and a little bit expensive (about $18.00). The pizza was big enough that there were leftovers for breakfast. The coffee there is really the only good coffee I’ve had since arriving.

Tonite the whole team is going to have supper at a nice restaurant called Dhulikels. The owner salvaged a lot of the Newari carvings from buildings being demolished, and incorporated them into the décor for the hotel. Rooms there are very expensive, like over $100, which is really high for Nepal.

So unless something really interesting happens on my journey home, this will be the last entry on my blog. Until the next time I go someplace exciting.

The second focus group

Today’s crowd was not as big as yesterday’s. Yesterday were the survey types. Today were the land records types - those who work in the land registry offices. Some I had met before in the field visits. Others were new.

Nepali men wear their hats to meetings – indoors or out. Mostly they are the typical Nepali caps, others wear baseball caps. The other dress was either western garb, or a nepali suit with a suit jacket over the top. There were some unexpected visitors invited by the joint secretary. One was from FAO – the food and agriculture organization based in Rome, that promotes agriculture in developing countries, and is often a donor agency for projects. The others were from the Asia disaster relief organisation – three earnest Japanese who did not stay long.

I wore my new vest and looked stunning.

As per the agenda of yesterday, after an introduction, a local consultant spoke about the Business Process Re-engineering exercise that had been done for the project. He spoke in Nepali, and there were lots of questions. I spoke next, in English, and there were some questions from those who felt comfortable enough in English to ask them. It seemed to go well. You never know…..

I know you are waiting to hear what was on the menu – rice pilau, and several salads, and naan and roti, and a dahl, and several Chinese dishes, and a lamb meatbally kind of thing. All very tasty. Gulab jamon ( which I do NOT like) black forest cake and a halwah were for dessert. I may have eaten too much.

Afterwards we met to discuss the content of the final report, and then back to the apartment. I will wear my new Kurta tomorrow to work. It is red.

Focus group sessions

Well today was the first of the two focus workshops. This one was on survey and cadastre. Tomorrow’s (mine) will be on land records. To those of you not in the business I suppose you are wondering what is the difference. No need to go into that now.

The sessions are held in the Everest Hotel, a quite nice hotel on a very busy street. The lobby is grand, with some wonderful Newari carvings above the reception desk, and others on walls and posts around. The room for us is very similar to ones at the Delta, the staff as usual are pleasant and helpful. There were presentations and discussions in the morning, and then about 1:30 we broke for lunch. There were about 15 dishes you chose from buffet style. 2 kinds of dahl, a rice pilau, naan, roti, fish deep fried, lamb in a stew, paneer, papadums, 4 types of salad, and three desserts. The meal will be different tomorrow. I can’t think of anything they did not have today, so I’ll be interested to see what it is. However, for a nice hotel the bathrooms leave a bit to be desired.

The sessions seemed to go well. There was lots of participation from the group, and they had been brought in from across the country. No one seemed to think that it was a good idea to turn off their cell phones for the event, so there was a fair bit of ringing during the morning. One guy has a really nice Buddhist chant for his ring tone. Another person’s ring tone has a bit of music, and then someone yelling Hello, hello. Bizarre.

One of the local consultants told us a disturbing story. The land records here are really in a sorry state, and for any number of reasons they are easy to tamper with. So Mr. A sells a property to Mr. B. a very expensive property – several million US dollars. Only Mr A does not own the property. He takes the money and disappears. Mr. B is left with no money, and no property. It is clear that in order for the transaction to have been finalized someone had tampered with the records. And three low level clerks were implicated. As a result, one of them committed suicide. This happened in June.

Dominic

Today we met Dominic. I have known his father for some years. He lives in Fredericton but has worked internationally a lot. When his father heard I was going to Kathmandu, he suggested that I look Dominic up. Today was the day. We shared tea at Mike’s Breakfast.

Dominic works for a non-government organization that promotes democracy by helping to build institutions around the world. He has worked in several parts of Asia, but will be heading back to Ottawa shortly to start working with a similar organization. In Nepal he has been working with the some of the new parties.

He said that Elizabeth Weir is scheduled to arrive next week, but that her flight goes through Bangkok, so whether she in fact gets here is uncertain. Mumbai is no longer a good option. I’m sure glad my flight returns home via Doha.

After meeting with Dominic we headed to New Road and Durbar Square. I needed a new battery for my watch, had not yet seen Durbar Square this trip, and wanted to tidy up shopping. The shop where they replaced the battery was a tiny little thing. I can’t think of a space small enough to compare it with. But it is certainly smaller than our upstairs bathroom. And there were 2 guys in this stall, one squatting on a stool, who knew how to do these things.

It now costs a small entry fee to get into Durbar Square, and I don’t know if that is good or bad for the vendors there. Certainly there was not the crush of people I remembered from our last visit, but the vendors were just as pesky. If they decide they want you to buy something they just don’t leave you alone. It gets exhausting after a while.

We walked from Durbar Square to Thamel, past the vendors that cater to the locals – the vendors with fresh fruit, onions, mushrooms, greens, track suits, sneakers, winter jackets, saris, pots and pans, spices, street food. Then stopped at the Big Belly for beer and something to eat. Gabriel has had stomach problems and I explained to him that beer is the best food in that instance.

Back to work tomorrow.

Biratnagar

So tonite we are in Biratnagar, and the Hotel Ratna. It probably was a very fine hotel in its day. Now it is a little threadbare, but the rooms are spacious, the staff are nice, and I checked - there is hot water. There also seems to be a very good restaurant, and the building is adjacent to a school for hotel people. There is however no internet. I will check tomorrow to see if there is a cyber café nearby. I wouldn’t dare go out now – it gets dark soon, and the vehicles might not see me in the dark.

There is one peculiar thing about the bathroom. In the drain of the sink is a walnut shaped piece of urinal cake. Why? I don’t know. And I don’t want to speculate!

We flew on a bigger plane this time, and could view the Himalayas quite nicely from the air. I sat next to a dear man, with good English, who ran a business upgrading the training of the high school teachers. He told me the name of the mountains, and rivers, and since he had the window seat, took a couple of pictures for me.

Biratnagar is SOOOOOO much nicer than Birganj. It is obviously more prosperous, there is a lot more asphalt, people look healthier and better dressed, and is quieter. There are, like in Birganj, many rickshaws, which is not surprising because the land is so flat. It has occurred to me that my travel wardrobe is drab, especially compared with the beautiful saris and kurtas that the local ladies wear.

We visited the office here this afternoon and will go back tomorrow. Security here is a problem as well, since the Maoists operate in this area too. They had a bomb blast last year in front of their building, but no one was hurt, and it did not do much damage. Although the building is dark and smelly it is a far sight better than the one in Birganj.

Well I must call downstairs. Don’t think my room has any power. And I’d like to follow that blast in Mumbai. There but for fortune……..

Finally some progress

Well today I feel much better than you very much. Even had supper tonite. Buffet at the Yak and Yeti – one of the best in town. How nice to feel back in the land of the living.

The day started with a knock at the door. I hoped Gabriel would hear it and answer, but no, so I got up, made myself as respectable as I could, and found Achute Rana at the door. Achute is our landlord. I originally though he owned the whole building, but what he owns is our unit. He is also the husband of Yasmine who made my wonderful vest. I showed Achute the vest, and he said that he had designed the fabric. That it was inspired by a Tibetan Tiger rug, and had it especially woven in India. He is a particularly nice man, very gentle, obviously an artist. I was glad to get to meet him.

We had some animated discussions at the office about the format of the focus groups, and attendance list, interspersed with calls from the secretary about details. I was happy to be more up to par for the discussions.

I have not told you much about life in the apartment. It is a very large building, with many units, a gym and a swimming pool. The ceilings are very high, there are at least 2 security guards around all the time, and there is office staff who are happy to mail your letters, get you a new transformer, arrange for more bottled water etc. And these people are so very nice, with quick smiles, and a genuine desire to help. There is a washer and dryer in the basement, which is a plus until you discover that it will fill with water, swish it around a bit with the soap. And then stop. And it takes days for anything to dry here. So I have had to become a philosophical about how many times it is possible to re-use underwear. Also about how often to wash your hair. It used to be – when it got dirty. Now it is – when there is hot water.

Our unit has a big living/dining room, with lots of appliances – microwave, TV, two heaters, two fans, blender, gas stove, iron. Each bedroom has its own bathroom with toilet, sink and shower. My apartment mate is Gabriel, who is Canadian, originally from Chile. He does a lot of this international work. He is a pleasant enough apartment mate – cheerful, game for excursions, good cook, pushing 50 I would say, with a new wife and baby back in Gatineau. It is a nice set up. We get food at a local “supermarket” and prepare many of the meals here, which leaves more money for shopping.

Tomorrow we are off to Biratnagar in the southeast of the country. It is where the Bhutanese refugees have settled. The Tibetans are in Bouddha, the Kashmiris run shops in Thamel, and the Bhutanese are in Biratnagar.

A Wedding Invitation

Today I came back to work, although I must say I am not really up to par. We are getting ready for some focus group sessions and it was important to be here, discuss some things, and prepare the presentation. Mid morning, one of the local consultants came in with a wedding invitation for me – his son is being married in Baratnagar, in the south east part of the country, on Dec 7. I will not be here anymore, but if the timing had been different it would have been wonderful to go. It will be a traditional Hindu wedding, with all the ceremony the days before. The fellow who is hosting the wedding is a short little guy. Shwarma is his name, not sure if that is surname or given name, that’s just what we call him. But wasn’t that a nice thing to do?

Gerald McGrath, one of the fellows who was here earlier as part of the team, arrived. He is an expert in cadastral systems, from Ontario. He is 72, ex professor, British accent, and I am impressed with his knowledge and his ability to articulate issues. It is nice to be working with him. He has worked all over the world. Although I enjoy a little gig now and then, I do not think it would be much fun to make your living as an international consultant. Too much time away from home. Too vulnerable if you get sick.

Today I picked up my new vest from Yasmine’s. It is quite lovely and I can assure you that no one will have another one like it.

So I left the office early because I had finished the things I needed to do, and was not feeling well at all. When I got to the apartment I called Dr. Ravi and he said come in and he would give me some more powerful medicine. So I went out to the street and said “CIWEC clinic, Thamel – how much” and the driver responded like he knew how far it should be, and off we went. But he did not have a clue. And would NOT ask for directions, and I said – across from the embassy, and he said embassy? Like that was where I wanted to go. And my book said the clinic closed at 4, and we were still wandering the streets of Thamel at 4, and at 4:10. So I finally got out of the cab, and took the one behind us on the street. Lo and behold it was the guy who drove us on Sunday, Thanks goodness. I was so angry at the first taxi driver. When you are not up to par things irritate you a lot.

Pain in the gut

Well on Friday life was starting to get back to normal. There were more vehicles on the road, more noise. We got to the meeting with the joint secretary, and then headed to one at Nepasoft. Partway through that meeting I started to sweat, and have stomach pains. I headed back to the apartment, and put in a most uncomfortable night. Saturday I was not much better. No vomiting or diarrhoea, just pain, fever, chills. I called my friend Oscar who knows about those things, and he suggested I visit a clinic. There is a vey good one here called CIWEC, with Western trained doctors. So Sunday I went early in the morning. After feeling my tummy and ordering urine tests and an x-ray of my abdomen, decided that I had two problems - a urinary tract infection, and significant constipation. In retrospect that was not surprising. I have been avoiding fruits and veges so as not to pick up any water borne diseases, and have not been diligent about drinking water. So I went home with medication for all those things, still not back to normal today, but improving. I’ll blog again when there is something more interesting to report.

The pros and cons of demonstrations

This photo is from a meeting in Birganj

We got a call this morning from the office administrator saying it was pointless to try to come to the office today because of the demonstrations. It would be very difficult if not impossible to get to the office, and even if we did, there would be no one else there. I am not sure how long this will go on, but having these demonstrations makes a big change in the city.

During a “banda” or protest, the whole city shuts down. Stores close, taxis are not on the streets, nor are buses or cars. The noise level goes down remarkably, and the streets are empty of vehicles. We had a meeting at the Annapurna hotel, which is within walking distance, so that is what we set out to do. Fortunately for us, one of the few taxis that ventured out came our way, so we did not have to walk the whole distance.

The Annapurna Hotel is one of the nicest in Kathmandu. Nice big modern lobby, tasteful decorations, staff in Tibetan costume offering tea. Although we met in the lobby, I presume the rooms are modern and well appointed as well. It is on one of the main streets in Kathmandu, and there are lots of tourist amenities nearby. It is within walking distance of Thamel, the shopping area.

When the meeting was over I headed back to the apartment to work from there. No taxis of course, so I took a rickshaw. The poor fellow had to cycle up hill with me in his carriage. Not an easy task.

The main task for the afternoon was to prepare for a meeting tomorrow with the Ministry regarding a possible extension for the project. I hope we will be able to get to that meeting. It is certainly not within walking, or rickshaw distance.

Back in Kathmandu

I was relieved to get back to the apartment in Kathmandu. After spending the night in dusty Birganj, there was no hot water for a shower in the morning. We went to the local office, and saw the Lekhandas (writers) all assembled under a metal roof waiting for customers. They are the Nepali equivalent of real property lawyers. They complete forms in nice handwriting, and navigate through the registration processes that have evolved over the years. The only qualification to be a lekhanda is good hand writing, as tested by the local court.

The office space in Birganj is really not very good. They have no money for repairs, or building maintenance, and it sure shows. But the staff are a gracious, intelligent bunch, who really want things to be improved. Even the lekhandas are hoping for a system that works better.

We took a little detour to the Indian border before heading to the airport. As you might expect it was packed with trucks, buses, rickshaws, and pony driven carts. Nepalis can cross freely, but if a Canadian made the mistake of crossing over the border without a visa they would end up in jail. A Canadian has been jailed for three months for that offence. Unlike other countries you cannot just get one at the border.

We heard that there were demonstrations in Kathmandu, and were a little concerned about getting home. Things went smoothly though – the air was clear and the views from the aircraft were awesome. The Himalayan mountain range is in the north of the country. To get to Birganj you cross over a different range with a long name that starts with M. And you can see little villages and monasteries on the tops of the hills. And switchback roads, and then coming into Kathmandu we could see the stupa at Bouddha. It was really quite spectacular. It turned out the demonstrations were in support of two mothers whose sons had been killed by members of the communist youth league. The protests were in the Kalinki area – a place we visited last week.

Birganj

Well if its Tuesday this must be Birganj pronounced burr-gunge. Should be named burr grunge. It is in the Terai – the flatlands of Nepal, near the Indian border. Much of the food grown in Nepal is grown in the Terai. There were many rice fields as we drove in from the airport, and lots of animals as well – goats, cows, water buffalo, and other bovine species. Judging from the houses and dress of the people as we passed, this is not a prosperous area of the country. My guide book describes Birganj as follows: “unlovely would be a good way to describe Birganj”. It is also known apparently as the city of rickshaws. Certainly there are many in the streets. The drivers must have legs of steel. They go at quite a clip, often with 2 or 3 people in the chair. And they must navigate pedestrians, jeeps, motorbikes, cows, wagons drawn by donkeys, buses etc etc. It was quite a sight to look out the window of the hotel and just watch the action on the street.

The Terai is much warmer than Kathmandu, and it is mosquito country. We had a meeting at the local office, and at dusk the little damners came out in force. I brought repellent to Nepal, but did not have the presence of mind to pack it for this trip.

The hotel is a little run down, but the room is spacious and the bed is large and seems the right firmness, and it has its own bathroom, although you have to fill the tank with a bucket in order to get the toilet to flush. I think there might be internet but you need a password, and I am not at this moment up to going walking down the 2 flights of stairs to get the password.

As usual, the staff that we met with were quite impressive. They were articulate with respect to what their problems are, and very keen to have the right tools to do their work. One of their big problems is security. Land is a sensitive issue with the Maoists, who still operate in this part of the country, and they shake the staff down for money, threatening physical harm if it is not forthcoming.

We got here by flying Budda Air. The sky was a little hazy, so could not see much out the window. It was a tiny aircraft like the ones that fly to Halifax, everyone has a window seat. No one seemed particularly concerned that my backpack was on my lap the whole time. I don’t think they cared even if your seatbelt was done up. As the flight headed down the runway the attendant passed out candies and cotton batten. The cotton batten was for putting in your ears. Why? I don’t know.

Working in Nepal

As you might expect there are a great many people here who just eke out a living selling things from tiny kiosks, or acting as servant, porters, etc. Educated people though have occupations in the civil service, and private sector companies doing IT or engineering, or accounting, or law etc etc.
The work day starts at 10, and ends at 4. We work 6 days a week, taking Saturday off. They used to have a 5 day work week, but changed it a year ago or so. Nobody seemed to mind. The exterior of the building we work in looks quite dilapidated, but inside it is acceptable. The interior is clean, the ceilings are high, and there is adequate space for he people who work there. Lots of cubicles, with some offices on the outside walls. We occupy one of those.

Men do most of the administrative work. If a woman is there it is either to clean and serve tea, or as a senior professional. The ladies cleaning and serving tea do not have a taxing day. They sweep and dust around, and then twice a day bring tea and return to get the cups. In most offices it is men who do this work. Often very old men.

We have power most of the time in the office. There is a local area network that provides slow speed internet, but I am not hooked up to the LAN, and most of the time do not need internet.

You see all types of workers heading to work on motorbikes. Lots of people in suits with helmets. Several families with the babies in the front, no helmets. Women mostly wear saris or kurtas (a pants and mid thigh pants to match). Sometimes you see them in jeans or a western pant suit, but not often.

Today we went to one of the registry offices. It was remarkable that the deeds registry system works at all after seeing this office. The workflow has developed over years and has a lot of steps that could probably be done away with. The records are practically all paper, and a business has grown up of lekhandas – people who know how to write and how to move paper through the system. Around the office we visited were perhaps 40 offices of these lekhandas. Years ago we used to make copies of maps through a process of exposing the original on a large flat machine with a bright light and then putting the paper through an ammonia machine, but this as years and years ago. The Nepalis have this system too, except instead of exposing the paper on a large machine with a bright light, they expose it to the sun on the roof top. It was fascinating to see.

Tomorrow we are off to Simara. I might not be able to post from there

Kids in Kathmandu

There are all sorts of kids in Kathmandu. Probably a larger portion of the demographic than in North America. Some are really lucky – you see them heading to school in their uniforms. There are some less fortunate – like the street kids in the Buddhist school next to us. They are a rag tag collection of little ones who may have lost a parent in the recent fighting, and have no family to look after them. Then there are the really unfortunate ones. You see them on the sidewalks, age 8 – 10, smoking cigarettes, playing cards, not making eye contact with anyone. Then you see the little kids that are the same all over, playing on whatever is handy, carefree, smiling broadly.

Tonite we went shopping in Thamel, and then had supper at the New Orleans Night club – on Sundays there is live music there, and tonite it was an Indian/western fusion band. First they had a set of tabla and flute, and then they were joined by a couple of guitars. The music was very exotic and soothing. They did not seem to be selling CD’s or I would have bought one. Supper was tasty. I had chicken satay, with a brownie Sunday for dessert. Gorka beer for beverage.

Thamel is where many of the tourists stay, and it was alive tonite with music in many places, and lots of people on the street. The shops and clubs must all close by 11 o’clock which is cramping the style of many of the night clubs, and the taxi drivers as well.

Tomorrow we go visit an office that is near Kathmandu, then on Tuesday we fly to Simara, which is near the border with India, about smack in the middle of that border. We return on Wednesday. I hope the air is clear and we can see the Himalayas. That brown haze which is covering a lot of Asia is starting to affect the sky here.

Pashpatinath and Boudhanath

Today was out day off, and we hired a taxi to take us to Pashpatinath , bouddanath and back here. Pashpatinath is a vey important Hindy temple in Nepal. It is really large, and sits on the bank of the Bagmati river, tributary of the Ganges, and therefore an auspicious site to be cremated. The temple site was surrounded by many many kiosks selling necklaces, brightly coloured powder for foreheads and for the small Hindu shrines. There are beggars, some of them with leprosy, mostly dressed as Saddhus, or holy men. You have to be careful of someone striking up a friendly conversation because they want to turn into your tour guide and be paid for the service. Non Hindus are not allowed in the temple, and we spent a lot of time on the terraces across the river from the temple. While we were there two bodies arrived for cremation. There ws a troop of monkeys scamper o the rooftops of the temples, and we wandered around some of the buildings, where some of the Saddhus lived in tiny little compartments.

In Boudanath is a very important Buddhist stupa, or temple. The stupa is surrounded by buildings and a town populated mostly by Tibetans who left their country when the Chinese arrived. They have prospered here and the whole area is very wealthy looking. It is clean, the buildings are well kept, and there are many many stores selling things of interest to Tibetans. It was really awesome seeing the prayer flags waving in the breeze from the giant stupa, and its eye peering down at everyone below.

Back to work tomorrow!

The Streets of Kathmandu

The sidewalks of Kathmandu are unlike anything you would see any place else. There are very many people on them, plus cows, and dogs, and sometimes goats. The animals just wander wherever they like, eat whatever they can find. They belong to no one, and no one pays any attention to them.

The streets themselves are a bustle of activity. There are cars and buses, many motorbikes, lots of three wheeled electric taxis, lots of regular but very small taxis, and gaily painted trucks. No one pays any attention to whatever traffic rules there may be. Crossing the street is a dangerous pursuit – 40% of the traffic fatalities in Kathmandu are pedestrians.

We met today with the director of surveys. He was not nearly as impressive as his boss. Had just been transferred to that job from the postal service, and probably felt out of his element. But he was so officious. As usual, when we arrived we were brought tea, and then shortly afterwards a guy came in to take away the cups, and this director fellow wanted him to pour him some water from a bottle behind his desk. Some of his staff were there, and they were very keen, very interested in the results of the project. All had good English.

Tonite I cooked buffalo meat for supper. In a nice tomatoey squashy sauce. It was terrible. I did not eat mine – way too tough. So we went back to the Chilean restaurant and had empanadas and chocolate mousse.

Tomorrow we are going to Paspatinath, where there is a very large Hindu Temple, and afterwards to Bouddha, where there is a wonderful Buddhist stupa ( temple). It will be good not to go into work for a change.