᚛ 4,600 ft feet above sea level ᚜

Mysore to Bangalore = 3 hours taxi ride and it aint the M25

Bangalore airport = 2 hour wait time

Bangalore-Delhi = 2.45 hr flight

Delhi airport = 4 hr wait

Delhi - Kathmandu = 1.40 hr flight

My journey began at 2am and ended in Nepal at 5pm the next day...

Exhausted , headachy and dehydrated.

This is my first view from the roof where I am staying.

As we circled Delhi waiting for permission to land I could see a mustard streak that sits above the city, a gruesome layer that floats atop the smokey smog like an ashtray cloud. A yellow Delhi ghost. Delhi looked huge and packed full of buildings. I'm not sure it looked very appetising although I am sure it is full of interesting India. The big cities scare me a bit in Asia. I'm a fan of the suburbs, the rural areas, the pastoral idylls, even if they do mask suffering. Suffering is everywhere but in a big city it's tangible, it's unimaginably awful and it's there in front of you. Reminding you that you have never ever got any reason to complain. Forget our badly paid jobs, our boring lunch, our knackered cars, our busy workload, our lack of motivation, our relationships....Suffering is everywhere and we all have had some but here it's mind boggling. I am going to pray for the grace to remember this stuff...this grey slimy misery, this yellow frothy topped city and try not to moan or wish for anything other than this blessed bit of life I have.
I really wish these life lessons would stay with me, but as we all know I'm the complainer of the century, the moaner of moaning, the itchy footed freak and I can but try.

After all of the waiting and zooming around in planes and sitting around at airports I was wishing I could unobtrusively take photos of kissing couples, sleeping tourists and strange hippy travellers. I'm waiting for Apple to develop the brain app, a tiny camera implant which means  all that I see I can download for viewing later. Especially as we started the breathtaking descent into Kathmandu airport. Oh wow, a big  lot of wow. I had begun to notice the sky clearing as we headed East from Delhi and the Himalayas were coming into view. I had booked a window seat and I was so glad. Mountain ranges look great from above. I'm not sure I want to climb Everest or anything but I do like looking at them. Once upon a time I declared myself a beach person but maybe I'm more inclined to mountains these days? It's definitely a mountain I climb every morning on my yoga mat...
As the plane sunk and my ears started popping and glugging I had the view of a lifetime, mountains, foot hills and green, green rice paddy terraces looking for all the world like torn edges of paper, layered and stacked in formation. No way of taking a photo but I will hold that image in my heart for ever. Beautiful, stunning and I wished I could slow down time so I could gaze some more at little houses on big hills surrounded with contours of grassy emerald and jade.


Landing was fine, after Bangalore and Delhi it looked like we were skidding into the Wild West. A few dilapidated buildings, nothing glittery or shiny here (thank goodness) I even saw a horse making a late afternoon shadow on an empty road and I thought there and then, "this might be my type of town."


I was met by a volunteer from the charity I have come to work with, as we raced through the narrow brick walled streets of Kathmandu I felt a frizz of life jump start my heart. I had arrived during the festival of Maha Shivaratri, the streets around the airport were bubbling with people and I saw impromptu drumming and dancing sessions by chillum smoking Sadhus. Hilarious and almost frightening, the driver zoomed away and we left the shouting and stamping feet behind us...

I'm going to be exploring more this weekend, I am working every day in a printing workshop which almost made me cry when I saw how simple and pretty it was. I am working with late teens/early 20s who are deaf and I am going to be learning Nepalese sign language twice a week, it is different from any other sign language apparently and I've also got Nepalese language lessons twice a week. Amazing. Pinching my arm as I write. This is my life? Thank you thank you. And it was casually mentioned that I would be visiting the paper makers next week and I'm sure my heart boomed loud enough for everyone to hear.

I'll show and tell some more next week...this is a sneak preview of the printed journals that they make in the print studio and below are some hand carved wooden stamps I found in the local mobile phone top up shop! Needless to say I bought a couple...the horse to remind me of the one horse town I thought I was flying into and the lotus seated pranayama yogi to remind me how I got here and a hand (not pictured) offering the blessing of good fortune. All made by hand, you can see the nicks of the knife. 

In my very brief ventures into the surrounding streets I've noticed that Kathmandu is a land of craft and makers. There are handicrafts and arts everywhere... It's going to be thrilling. It's very different from India, I'm still trying to work out why. The light for starters and not as friendly as my beloved Mysore but it is early days...I've only just begun.

∽ On housewifery ∽

I could write reams about India...there is such a marked difference between their morning rituals and ours; the cultural variations here are like some brave new world to me. And I'm guessing you are interested in these things too?
One of the noises that is high on the musical score of the orchestra of India, is the sweeping of paths and steps with a rough bunch of branches and a bucket of water. This is the first thing that Indian ladies do in the morning light as the sun rises. I can't be all PC about this because it is always the women. I don't think shared household duties exist here, although you do sometimes see the men taking the children to school but you notice it, so it must be rare. But that's another blog post entirely. As much as I love to digress, I will stick to the cleansing rituals for now.
So, the paths get washed and brushed which makes a fabulous shwooshing sound as the water gets sloshed around and brushed away. The ladies are all wearing their nighties which incidentally they seem to keep on all day. Then they stoop in their bare feet to draw the daily rangoli on the entrance to the property. 

Rangoli is one of my obsessions in Southern India. It is a drawing like a prayer which keeps out bad spirits and brings luck to the household. The drawing is made with rice flour (or sometimes chalk) and this doubles up as a food for ants and therefore keeps them out of the house. Sigh...I adore this concept and the designs they draw are so beautiful and so swiftly executed with a flick of the wrist and pouring of flour. These women are natural artists and I am envious of this daily task. I want to do this on my front path everyday too but a)the neighbours will raise their eyebrows at me drawing in my nightie b)the local kids already think I'm a witch because of my high hedges c)the rain will wash it away every day d)my first task is to put the kettle on and stare into space whilst trying to keep warm for 8 months of the year.

Pushpa does an amazing doorstep cleanse which involves fresh jasmine and marigolds placed just so and a rice flour rangoli and various squishes of turmeric and saffron and tamarind powder. This daily cleanse is called Puja which translates to something like cleansing prayers. Pushpa then takes her little tray of powders and burning incense to her garden of pots and certain plants get squished with spices and a smaller rangoli drawn in front of them, I'm guessing this is to help the weaker plants grow stronger. Then Pushpa goes to her little alter in the house and does her meditation and chanting and makes offerings to her Hindu Gods.

It's so beautiful to watch and it's such a gorgeous ritual to go through. It smells and looks divine. Then when I've returned from yoga she makes my breakfast. 

I am in some kind of heaven. 

And far be it from me to make you jealous but just look at my lunch! 

For those of you wondering about the yoga? The less said about that the better, 

I am battered, completely wrecked from it...

It will get better, I have booked an Ayurvedic massage this afternoon 

for my poor muscles.

Yeah I know...sympathy lies somewhere in the dictionary between shit and syphilis... 

•Purple Prose•