Archive for the ‘Valley Sights’ Category
Hungry Eye – Kaiser Cafe, Thamel
It was Friday night, but early as we were, we had Dwarika’s Kaiser Café Restaurant & Bar almost wholly to ourselves. All the better to admire the simple, tastefully done two-storey building comprising outdoor and indoor seating.
We were quickly ushered inside, installed next to a gas heater, furnished with menus, and left to admire the [...]
Kicking Kirtipur
It would appear that Kirtipur, the small town south-west of Kathmandu, has finally hit the big time. First it was the success of the community-run Newa Lahana that drew youth on motorbikes; then a series of festivals staged in the surrounds of the restaurant; and now it’s the five-day Kirtipur Mahotsav, the 2011 edition of [...]
Planet Nepal down at earth
Despite the distractions of Jazzmandu, I made my way to Patan Durbar Square before Tihar to catch the first evening of the Planet Nepal dhamaka, simply because there seemed to be a lot going on in this city of not much going on most of the time. Music, installations, films, roundtables, and all for a [...]
Hotel Kathmandu
A walk about town earlier this year on the sixth day of the southern strikes that closed the Valley down, snapping posters of Prachanda-for-President, ‘victims’ of the US Embassy’s DV immigration scheme, the ruins of the old Malpi College and the abandoned Hotel Kathmandu, the funky fusion of the Jhiljhile Kumari temple, crumbling Krishna Pauroti [...]
Nagdaha Buzz
A limber out of the dustbowl across the river from Dhapakhel led us to Nagdaha, another body of water surrounded by low terraces of green and yellow, another pocket of peace that couldn’t help but remind us of Taudaha-by-Chobhar. Part of the pond sectioned off as a patch of grassy wetland where waddled wild ducks [...]
Conversations with women
A conversation overhead (as I stopped, amused, opposite the tailor’s shop off New Road where, in big bold white on red a sign sums up in English and Nepali what clients should expect: Humour)
Lady (with long protruding teeth): haina haat haalera najiskinus na bhanya.
Leda (nondescript): ey ke bho ta ni
Lady: aimai sanga haat halera jiskinu [...]
Manjushree galchhedo
Millennia have washed past since Manjushree cleft the valley with his flaming sword but it was only last winter I made my way to Chobhar, dropping onto the ringroad to Kirtipur through a forgotten side road out of Sanepa. Except for the burgeoning numbers of concrete residences spilling out the centre and filling up all [...]
