I’ve spent a lifetime assuming that moving large objects meant using large machinery. Call me what you will, but that just seemed like good common sense. Apparently I’ve been wrong. It took our time in Nepal (or India, for that matter) to illustrate that nearly anything, and I mean anything, can be moved by [...]
This is now my fifth post about garbage removal in Kathmandu, and I agree that it’s becoming a bit repetitive. Forgive me: when you’re wading around in trash, it becomes a bit of an issue. However, as the picture of the above gentleman shows, the garbage men are back on the job from today. [...]
I received some paperwork a few weeks ago from my Dad. With tax time creeping up, it was time to face some realities (boring) and figure out how I was going to deal with taxes. I’ll spare you the details, but it involved paperwork and signatures – one from me and two from witnesses. One [...]
You may recall that we had a general strike here the other day. Well, that adventure has run its course now, and life in Kathmandu is less bizarre. However, there’s one group of disgruntled workers that haven’t gone to work in a week now. The garbage collectors. People normally drop their garbage in [...]
I don’t know how Martin does it, but he’s successfully avoided any food related illnesses while we’ve been living in Nepal. Me? Not so much. After spending a fantastic (double) Christmas in our place in Kathmandu, I woke on Boxing Day to a nasty stomach ache. The stomach ache turned into debilitating cramps, [...]
One of the many things I miss about Sweden during Christmas (family, food, friends come to mind) is the Glögg – Sweden’s famous mulled wine. Normally, there is a wide array of options available at the liquor store. However, most of the spices that go into Glögg grow here, so I set out to [...]
We had a visitor today. She’s fuzzy and warm and nice. We’re going back and forth on the issue on whether or not to abduct her and have her live in our backpack. She’d fit just fine, I promise!
Yesterday, we went out to buy some butter for baking Xmas cookies. It took us about five minutes to realize that something was not quite normal here in Kathmandu. It took us another minute to realize what it was: everything’s closed, and there are no cars or motorbikes anywhere. In short: there’s a general strike [...]
Between general strikes, rolling power outs and a pretty unstable telecom infrastructure, we find ourselves without internet a lot of the time. If it isn’t a power out affecting our router, it is a power out affecting the ADSL station a few blocks away. The troubles only continue down the line. For example, all internet [...]
En route to the Monkey Temple last weekend we walked by a store that was selling Mithila folk paintings. Neither of us knew what that meant, but beautiful eye-catching pieces lined their showroom so we were naturally intrigued. We returned to the Mithila store yesterday after talking about the paintings all week. That tends [...]
Yes, it is for good cause. Yes, it will only be this enormous once in his life. And yes, I can’t remember what my husband looked like before Movember. I thought I’d update you all on the status of the Mo. Unfortunately, much like the rear view mirror warns, that thing is much larger [...]
For reasons that have been lost in time, the wooden roof struts of some Nepalese temples are decorated with scandalous little scenes. These sculptures are never the central iconography of the struts, rather just little sex scenes that appear at the bottom of each beam. They vary in level of detail, posture and yes, species [...]
Those of you who live within reach of a supermarket that offer you exotic food choices such as fresh mozzarella, frozen pizzas, cool whip and tortillas should count yourselves a lucky bunch, indeed. Kathmandu markets supply a surprisingly good array of food but miss the mark when it comes to international food (and yes, I [...]
We’re due to talk to our landlord/trekking extraordinaire tomorrow about next week’s trekking options but before we do we’d love to hear your input. Which trek should we do? The choices have narrowed themselves down to the Mt. Everest Base Camp trek, the Annapurna region trek or somewhere off the beaten track. For further [...]
We’re hitting the road again in less than a week! We think. No, we’re not leaving Nepal, exactly. We are lacing up our boots, locking our apartment door and hitting the hills (aka some of the highest mountains in the world) for some amazing trekking. October and November are two of the [...]
You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
