View from Our Roof

Today was the clearest air that we have seen in Kathmandu. It was raining two days ago and snowing in the mountains. The newspapers stated that some places received over a foot of snow which has not happened in 4 or 5 years in most places. (The WFP are feeding 1.2 million people in Nepal currently) In the Kathmandu valley the rain has cleared the air so we can actually see the mountains.

View to the west.

Ganesh Himal (highest is 7406m) to the Northwest.

Langtang group (highest 7246m) to the North.

These mountains are to the north east - I think the highest one in Dorje Lakpa (6966m)


This is the view from the top of the ADRA office to the north at sunset. Our house/apartment is in the lower left hand corner... yes the one with the brown grass, picnic chairs and steel (the landlord wants to put an extra railing around the edge to stop the girls falling off!).

Shopping in Patan Bazaar

One Sunday afternoon we decided to go for a walk to Patan and do some shopping close to Patan Durbur Square. Have a look.
The streets got narrower as we got closer to the older part of town.


In between the shops there are sometimes narrow small alleys which give access to courtyards behind the shops. Here are Tiarna and Jenaya in one of these with a very dirty well behind them.
I wanted to show the lack of planning in street layout. Notice the parallel frontage on this street intersection. Roads also move from 20-30 m wide to 3-4 m wide without notice! Talk about traffic mayhem! There is a traffic policeman stationed at this corner (in the shadows behind the cars)
Mazz and the girls looking at shoes! It was just about here that I was hit by a motorbike while taking a photo (in the middle of the street). Smashed his blinker off but he didn't know what to do and decided to ride off into the dust... I was just about ready to reach for my wallet too.
I don't know how tea and Internet communications go together but...

This was the view after coming out of the narrow Bazaar section of Patan. Sunday afternoon is not really a 'quiet time' in the city.