The PEOPLE of BHAKTAPUR

An other day in Bhaktapur, Nepal for me. I am really enjoying being here. And wander in the city without any particular goal. I just enjoy all the corner of the town. I speak with people. I take some picture. I eat some street food and I feel happy. In these days I also took a lot of pictures to the people of Bhaktapur. To me these people really look fabulous. They look into the camera with a pride. Kids and old people are of course the best shots. Both of them have a magical light in their eyes. And all of them are very happy to have their pictures taken. And they are just happy if you show their pictures in the camera screen. They laugh and they are want to know where I am from. And I am happy to chit chat with them. I am making new friends at every corner. I owe to some of them a printout of the pictures. I think I collected at least ten different addresses during this trip. And I really hope I will be able to send them the pictures soon. Just looking at these pictures, reminds me the sweet feelings that I had when I was there. I felt like the life made so much sense in Nepal. I was waking up with the sunrise, I was travelling and meeting new people every single day.. I was eating just enough. And I was going to bed just after the sunset. Excited to wake up again with the sunrise, and not with a stupid alarm clock. Yes, I am missing Nepal. But the most I am missing this wonderful people. Not sure if it makes sense to you. But in order to be happy, I really need to have nice people around me. Of course that is not everything. But it helps a lot. I am happy when a person is nice to me. Or when a person likes to stop and chit chat. And share a piece of his / her life with me. After all, this is exactly what I am trying to do everyday. And this is one of the reasons why I love to travel. I hope you will enjoy these pictures ...

RICK, the DUTCH YETI

The first time that I saw Rick, he was on the top floor of the small hotel where I was staying and he was behind his laptop. Typing and typing and typing again. At first I though he was a journalist. Maybe American. I guess his body reminded me of Hemingway and I decided that he was a heavy drinker who loves hunting and fishing and that, of course, he was there to write about the Dashain festival in Bhaktapur ...Of course I was wrong. But in the process of knowing that I was wrong, I found a great person. We actually hang out together for the few days that I spent in Bhaktapur. Rick is Dutch and he is a smart guy. I liked that, but that didn't impress me. And he open a restaurant in the main square of Bhaktapur. But that didn't impress me either. I saw a lot of Europeans leave everything behind and move to a third World country to find some luck. Rick in a way is different, from all those. Of course he is an explorer. That is why he ended up here. But what really made me think a lot, is the way he got here in Bhaktapur. He basically decided to leave everything behind when he suddenly saw the people he loved the most, die one after the other. His story really made me realize that we are spending most of our energes and time tryiing to get bigger houses, more assets and better salaries. But at the end what really matters in live are just the few people that we carry in our heart. All the rest can easily be left behind. Now he loves to call himself the Dutch Yeti. I loved his nickname. And if you are curious to meet him, you can go to his restaurant, "The Heart of Bhaktapur" ...

HARVESTING the RICE

Dashain is the festival that is celebrating the begin of the rice harvesting season. And here in Bhaktapur, the town where everything happens in the street, you can really see how important is the rice for this people. There is rice everywhere. Depending if the day is either sunny or rainy, the rice is either exposed to the sun or carefully covered. Here are some pictures of the begin of the harvesting season in Nepal. Enjoy them ...Life looks really simple here ...

HIMALAYA from BHAKTAPUR

Needless to say again that Bhaktapur is my favourite town in Nepal. The more time I am spending here the more I can appreciate its beauties. One of them are the wonderful views over the Himalaya range. These are some of the pictures that I took in the evening. Wonderful views from a wonderful town ...

VEGETARIANISM & SUSTAINABILITY

I think Nepal is making me a vegetarian. This Dashain festival full of animal sacrifice made me think a lot. And I realized that I don't think it is fair what we are doing to these poor animals. And I don't thikn that our diet based on animal meat is really sustainable for our planet. And last, but not least ... my diet doesn't really need much meat. And an other reason why Nepal can make you vegetarian is because there is really such a variety of vegetarian food that can make happy everybody. At least made me really happy. This is my first meal post Dashain. I found a safe shelter from the crazy animal sacrifice in this small little restaurant in Bhaktapur ...I loved the food, and I loved also the plates. They area made with leafs. And to me they are such a great idea. So much better than the plastic plates we use in the western world. We have so much to learn, from the so called poor world, about sustainability ...Look how simple and environmentally clean are serving a salad in Nepal ...

DASHAIN, a BLOODY FESTIVAL

Nepal is really the festival country. Apparently there are more festivals than days in the calendar. But Dashain is by far the most important Nepali festival. Everybody celebrate it. Is gathering families spread all over the country, and sometimes the entire world. It is an Hindu festival. But it is also the festival that is marking the begin of the rice harvesting season. And everybody want to celebrate Dashain to wish a happy rice harvesting. But what is really amazing to me, is the animal sacrifice that is happening during the festival. For some reason I though that Hindu were vegetarian. But I had to change my mind. And I thought that Buffaloes and Cows were both holy for them. But I had to change my mind on that as well. I am telling you. I have never seen so much blood in my life. The Dashain festival lasts several days, but everything begins with the sale of the animals. They can be chickens, ducks, goat and buffaloes ...

But mostly there are a lot of buffaloes. A lot of them. It has a religious meaning. Apparently the buffaloes represents a bad God defeated. And the Dashain is also the celebration of such a victory over the buffalo.As a tourist, I was curious to see how the animal sacrifice happen. The day before I saw the goat sacrifice. But for some reason, it wasn't enough. Although I was shocked from yesterday goat sacrifice, I wanted to see more. And unfortunately for the poor buffaloes, there has been a lot of action. Here a sequence of pictures. They are from different sacrifice that I have witnesses during two days in Bhaktapur, but they are making a complete story. Sorry if they are shocking, but this is what I witnessed. And this is what I would like to share with you today ...And this is the final stage. I was offered some racki, the famous Nepali hard alcohol. It was 5AM. Really funny. What to say about the sacrifice? I can't really judge, but I think they made me vegetarian ... :)