Thor in Nepal, 2011

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Bhoktapur (Nov. 1-2)

Mark and I caught a taxi out to nearby Bhokatpur, the former capital of ancient Nepal (from the 15th century), now a world heritage site. Deservedly so.

The central part of town features a vast collection of temples, pagodas and traditional 3-4 storey brick buildings with the unique style of wooden lattice-work widows. But more impressive than anything are the streets: narrow and winding until they open up without warning into irregular squares and open spaces. One cannot walk more than 5 minutes without encountering some new, interesting space: a plaza, a water tank or well, an open area with piles of rice being dried. Sometimes it's just a gap in the steet network. Never a boring moment.

PS: pictures soon...

Kathmandu (Oct. 31-Nov. 1)

"Tom Kelly's bike rumbles down..."

-Bruce Cockburn

Awoke early, as expected, in my Bangkok airport dayroom, and emerged to the slowly-stirring airport. Found the lounge and got a shoulder massage before boarding and doing the last 3 hours of my hour journey to Nepal. We peered down at the water soaked fields of Thailand and I realized that the farmers too will suffer from spoiled crops due to this flooding.

Mark picked me up at the airport with his friend Hem, a local Nepali who presented me with a traditional silk scarf to welcome me.

Got a nice curry with them at a rooftop place that only locals would know about. Soft landing.

Pictures to be uploaded soon.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Back in the air

There is something about flyinhg business that engenders in me a sense of justice. I am inclined to conclude: no-one should ever have to fly any other way! It's just that civilised in front of the curtain.

The flight from Vancouver to Seoul was as good as it gets: great food and consistent service. Plus lotsa legroom in a flat bed.

Next, I fly to Taipai, where, while dozing in tyhe lounge I see three people handcuffed together. Great, this is a Con-Air flight returning suspects to Bankok!

I land in Bangkok and womder if the airport is surrounded by floodwaters. It's dark and impossible to know. I am too tired to find out and I check into my transit hotel to get some much-delayed sleep.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

End of Year, End of Trip

So the trip is over with my blogging falling off precipitously after my dog, Angus, died. Suffice to say that put a damper on my blogging ambitions.

I can mention that I had a lovely New Years celebration in Bangkok with several friends I now have there. The pivotal moment of the evening was watching the fireworks from River Mansion, which surprisingly was slightly mansion-ish at 7 storeys, and was directly on the river. In fact it had this view of the Rama VIII Bridge. Stunning place to start the year.

The next morning, at a civilised hour, I made my way back to Suvarhnabhumi Airport for the final flights of the trip. Home in 14 hours -possibly a record.

Jetlag? Well, I'm up at 1:30 am writing this...