So long Thamel. This pic gives you a tiny sense of the visual chaos here though not the smells & sounds. I’m not going far, just across town to Bodnath. I’ll be staying at the Sechen Monestary for a few days before heading out of the city to the Ananda Yoga Center for a week [...]

I have felt a little crappy since arriving in Kathmandu yesterday afternoon and it’s making for some hard decision-making. Where to go first, where to spend the bandh (the week-long strike called by the maoists), where to eat, even. My head is pounding like nobody’s business. I’ve decided to go to Bodnath tomorrow and stay [...]

i arrived in kathmandu this afternoon and am now suffering the culture-shock of this chaotic place. it took me quite awhile to find $ today. all the atms are down due to a telecommunications problem. a nice french couple allowed me to tag along with them to a bank they knew that was more connected. [...]

So I was draggin’ my feet this morning after sleeping almost 11 hours last night. Maybe it was the benadryl I took at 11:30 when I woke up with itchy hands, in my experience, a pre-cursor to hives. I did eat three mangosteens last night after dinner. I finally rallied about 9 a.m. and took [...]

What a difference a day makes. Saturday in Bangkok is like a whole ‘nother place. Those of you who know me will be completely suprised that I was up before the sun at 5:40 am, practiced yoga, ate breakfast, read the Bangkok Post, and was on the skytrain by 8 am. At that hour on [...]

Not sure what it is about bangkok that takes so much energy outta me. It feels like every foray takes alot. I geared up yesterday with a chocolate coffee banana shake but within an hour I had the worst stomach ache. By this time I was already in chinatown and was determined to stick [...]

This guy was being blessed with incense and prayers at the local thai massage parlour outside my guesthouse at 8 am this morning. Preparations for the Chinese new year are underway today all over Bangkok. I’m thinking of heading to china-town since I’ll be much happier milling about the decorators than the revelers. I’m not [...]

It’s hard to believe that I have never been to the Royal Palace considering all the time I’ve spent in Thailand, at least until today. It kinda felt like commuting to work since getting there involved battling the masses during rushhour on the BTS skytrain, and me with a tripod, ugh. It also required a [...]

This is me, taken in the bathroom of the Bangkok airport just before going through imigration. I don’t think I look that bad for having spent close to 20 hours dessicating in a packed airplane. The whole trip was 30 hours door to door and while it wasn’t the easiest trip to the other side [...]

I’m off to Bangkok in the morning which, if all goes well, will just be a stop-over until I can arrange a ticket to Kathmandu. Yes, at least today, I’m still planning on going to Nepal despite the growing civil unrest. I figure if things get really dicey I can always check into one of [...]