I might be getting into the flow of doing nothing and since nothing is what I did today I have no choice but to share my internal world. scary. It not news that I’m a bit of a navel-gazer but I usually share the fruit of my introspections with one person at a time. Since I have no idea if anyone is actually reading these posts I might be sharing them with the world or just with people who already know, only too well, how much time I spend ruminating on synchronistic events. While I don’t remember if I was entertained by the movie, I heart Huckabees, I do love the premise which has the protagonist hiring a team of existential detectives to sort through the seemingly random connections and their meanings. Yes, I love this kind of thing.

In my little 4 square block world of Kathmandu I’ve found a few clues over the past few days but, as they all are, mine remain undecodable. As the result of email from my friend Lissa, I was motivated to make my first visit to Just Juice & Shakes for the previously mentioned coffee/chocolate/banana shake. Here I met an interesting woman from Canada studying Tibetan Culture in Dharamsala, a fellow bead-weaver who’s penchant for baked goods equals my own - we visited 2 bakeries after finishing our shakes. As an aside, I’ve decided that these shakes are a highly effective anti-depressant, possibly even euphoria inducing. I returned this afternoon for today’s shake and noticed a flyer on the wall for a meditation center that has daily classes in a style of tibetan meditation called thong-len. I was introduced to this practice when studying with Katchie Gaard in Berkeley about a year and a half ago and I don’t think I’ve run across it since but at the time I found it an incredibly powerful practice and one I think would be especially useful each day as I run a gauntlet of hungry kids, rickshaw pedalers, and tiger-balm salesmen. I’m glad I asked the shake shop owner where the meditation center was because It has apparently moved since the publication of my Lonely Planet. It is now a short walk instead of a cab-ride away. As I walked over to check out the place out I noticed a man, like so many I’ve seen over the past few days, hanging out in the common asian squat, arms wrapped around shins, wearing a fez-like hat that’s very popular with local men. I was reminded of a painting I did for a class in the late 1980’s. It was a class assignment in photorealism. For my subject I chose a photo from a National Geographic of a man in Kathmandu - same pose, same hat. At the time I chose this photo I’d never even considered coming to Nepal. Now that I’ve seen one of these guys I see them everywhere and wonder how I didn’t notice them on my first visit to Nepal. I guess the point is not to decode these events but simly to notice them, to follow the bread-crumbs or pull the thread to see where it all takes you.

In the meantime go in search of more food. You might think that since food is the highlight of these strike days that it’s actually good food. In fact, the food here is abominable. It actually boggles the mind how universally bad it is. Every place is like every other place - pizza, grilled cheese, muesli & curd, dal bat (lentils). The prevalence of alfresco dining might make up for it though. Breakfast in the sun and dinner by an outside fire can improve even the blandest of meals.

Sue Borchardt in Kathmandu on February 7, 2006 at 5:36 p.m. where the weather appears to never change at all

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