A River Flows through Kathmandu: the Bishnumati (Nepal 2017-13)

Two rivers flow through the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. The main one is the Bagmati, which separates Kathmandu from Patan. It is considered holy by both Hindus and Buddhists. It rises in the Himalaya north of the Kathmandu valley and, after a major right and left turn in the city, flows generally south towards India through the Lesser Himalaya. The Bishnumati River also originates north of Kathmandu and flows through the western part of old Kathmandu. It joins the Bagmati in the southern part of the city about 3/4 mile south of Kathmandu Durbar Square. Both rivers are a mess. They have received  untreated sewage for decades, trash, old car bodies, and general detritus of a city without pollution controls.

Bishnumati River, view N from Swayambhu Marg Bridge

The view north from the Swayanbhu Marg bridge is rather discouraging. The river smells (OK, stinks), and there is trash and sludge in the water. The gravel berm or levee on the right in the water is perplexing. Is it to prevent flooding of some feature on the banks? A stream comes in from the left near the bridge in the distance. Possibly the berm is designed to prevent the flow from striking the bank on the right and causing erosion. Also note the broad gravel/sand bank on the left. The city maintenance workers should remove this gravel to allow the river greater flow capacity during flood.

Bishnumati River, view S from Swayambhu Marg Bridge

The view to the south is also discouraging. But there was a tractor digging in the gravel bank. I hope they intended to truck the material away. There are major brick works south of Kathmandu, and almost surely there are clay pits and excavations that could accept this excess riverine sediment.

About 1 mile west of the Bishnumati River is the Swoyambhunath Stupa. From the east, you ascend several thousand steps to the temple complex on a hilltop. It is a crowded scene with vendors, tourists, and Buddhists from many countries. The woods and general grounds are pretty trashy. Monkeys live in the woods and thrive picking food scraps.

I will only show two pictures from the main temple grounds of the Swoyambhunath Stupa. The site has shoulder-to-shoulder people. Many of the old buildings were terribly damaged by the 2015 earthquake. Most were made of unreinforced bricks, and the walls tumbled down in the earthquake. We saw construction crews laboriously rebuilding structures by hand.

I took the first three photographs on Kodak Tmax 100 film with my Leica IIIC rangefinder camera with 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens and a medium yellow filter. The scenes at the Swoyambhunath Stupa were from a Nexus 4 phone.

Out to the Solu Khumbu: Phaplu, eastern Nepal (Nepal article 2017-08)

My friends and I were on our way to trek in the Solu Khumbu region in east central Nepal. This is a beautiful forested terrain inhabited by the Sherpa people. We planned to fly to the town of Phaplu, which has a short airstrip carved out of the mountain just below the town. We sat in Kathmandu airport all day, but all the flights were diverted to the town of Lukla. This is where the hoards who tromp to Everest Base Camp and genuine expeditions disgorge. Some 35,000 trekkers a year do the Base Camp forced march, so Lukla is high priority, while a town like Phaplu is lower priority. There was no assurance that the plane would fly to Phaplu the next day. OK, change of plan. You need to be flexible in Nepal. We loaded our duffels back onto jeeps, stayed in a hotel in Kathmandu overnight, and set out the next morning.

The 7 hour jeep ride became 13 hours, thanks to tire repair, lunch stop, and rough roads. Some of the main road south to the lowland (the Terai) was well-paved, but some sections were mud, water, holes, stream crossings, and ruts. The road east along the foothills reminded me of Greek mountain roads, but with much poorer paving (where it was paved) and with sides that plunged down 3000 ft. An occasional squashed bus or pickup truck lay down in the gullies.

Schoolgirls in Dhulikhel, Nepal

Waiting for the bus, Khukot, Nepal

We stopped for tea in Dhulikhel and lunch (excellent dahl baht, of course) in a market town called Khukot.

Waiting for the bus in Phaplu, and waiting, and waiting....

Phaplu was pretty interesting. It consisted on a main street lined with tens of shops and guesthouses. It is a busy trade town because it is at the end of the main paved road, although secondary roads do fan out to the north. Morning was noisy with trucks, dogs, yelling vendors, tractors pulling laden trailers, motor scooters, and planes droning overhead on their way to Lukla. The people were friendly and pleased to see foreigners (= potential customers).

Tibetan couple, Phaplu

We met the friendly couple who ran the Tibetan Shop. Many of these people are refugees from Tibet after the Chinese invaded in 1953 and proceeded to systematically destroy the culture and religious traditions. The Tibetans are ethnically different than the Sherpa people, who have lived in these valleys and ridges for centuries.

Biscuits, chocolate, and other manufactured goods, Phaplu

Typical Phaplu guesthouse/hotel

Fermenting hot pepper sauce on the windowsill

The black and white photographs are from TMax 400 film from a Leica IIIC rangefinder camera and 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. The color photographs are from Ektar 100 film shot with a compact Yashica Electro 35CC rangefinder camera with 35mm ƒ/1.8 lens.

The next few Nepal articles will cover the towns and monasteries we visited on out trek north of Phaplu.

Kaiser Mahal and Kaiser's Library, Kathmandu (Nepal article 2017-07)

The Ranas built a number of extravagant palaces in Kathmandu. Many are now being used as government ministries, while others were damaged in the 2015 earthquake and are closed. But there is some good news. The Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Restoration, funded by the United States, has provided a grant for conservation and restoration of the south wing of Kaiser Mahal. I think this is the section that includes the library but am not sure.

When my friends and I visited the Garden of Dreams in October of 2017, the Kaiser Mahal was a hulking building of brickwork and plaster with only a small section open as a photograph gallery. But looking over a brick wall, we saw the palace east entrance, a dilapidated garden, deserted cars, and junk. Ah ha, urban decay on a grand scale.

Surprisingly, we could walk around the corner to Kanti Path (street) and walk through an unguarded brick entrance. A couple of cooks were cleaning dishes at a tap. And there was the palace, looking quite forlorn. The Department of Education formerly used the building, but has now moved.

The architecture is a combination of neoclassical European with Oriental influence. Everything was locked, so we left.

Two weeks later, I returned by myself to Kanti Path. This time, the grounds were bustling, with parked scooters and cars and people milling around. And the Kaiser Library was open! I signed in and walked around. The collection looked like a repository of early 20th century Indian-printed volumes: Birds of the Indian Garden, or Sport on HRM's Royal Tour of India and Burma (= shoot many tigers from the back of elephants), or Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet (the amazing story of Sarat Chandra Das, a school teacher turned explorer and spy). The books were damp. The library desperately needs climate control.

A barrier prevented me from going upstairs, but I saw a group with an English-speaking gent go up the stairs and examine the collections and some oil paintings. Dr. Messerschmidt, an anthropologist, told me that many volumes have been stolen because of lax security.

Some background to the library: According to an article in Wikipedia, Kaiser Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana was an avid book collector. Kaiser visited England with his father early in the 20th century. "He was very much impressed by the government of England, as well as by the library system and the proper management of books there." He brought home many books, and back in Kathmandu, he established a library in the palace. Eventually, he acquired thousands of volumes. At first, the library was open only to family members and special visitors, but he bequeathed the collection to the nation upon his death in 1964. The good news is the library is still open to students and the public, there is staff during opening hours, and there is functioning electricity. Let's hope this cultural treasure can be preserved.

I took the black and white photographs with a Leica IIIC rangefinder camera and a 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. The library photographs are from a compact Yashica Electro 35CC camera with 35mm ƒ/1.8 lens using Fuji 200 film. The camera's shutter is electronically timed, so I placed it on shelves, set the self-timer, and let the shutter stay open as long as needed (many seconds); very convenient. The film came from a shop in the Thamel area of town.

Fantasy in Kathmandu: the Garden of Dreams (Nepal 2017-06)

From brochure provided at Garden of Dreams ticket office.

Kathmandu has some unique historical sites. Just off the noisy and polluted Tridevi Sadak, you pass through a nondescript gate in a dusty brick wall, buy a ticket, and step into an oasis of quiet, green, and splashing water. Even more odd, the pavilions are neo classical, with Greek columns, Sphinx statues, and plaques showing stanzas from Omar Khayyam. The garden was built next to the Kaiser Mahal (palace) in the early 1920s. Sir Kaiser Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana (1892 – 1964) was one of the Shamsher Ranas, the dictators/strongmen who ruled Nepal with iron fists for over a century until 1951. Within the walls, Kaiser Shumsher Rana created an ensemble of pavilions, fountains, and European elements like verandas, pergolas, balustrades, urns, and birdhouses.

Kaiser Rana was an odd one. He admired Adolph Hitler, and the Fuhrer sent him an automobile (carried over the mountains by porters). He so admired Jawaharial Nehru, when Nehru died in 1964, Kaiser wilted away and died a few weeks later. He loved books, and I will cover his famous library in another post.

The Ranas built a number of these fantasy gardens in the early part of the 20th century, but I do not know if others have survived or are open to the public. After Kaiser's death, the Garden was handed over to the Government of Nepal, after which it was neglected and vandalized for decades. The Austrian government donated funds for the restoration and replanting of rare trees and plants. The Garden of Dreams is popular with young Nepalis, partly because they are free from parental oversight for a few unchaperoned hours.

These cheerful youngsters cheerfully acquiesced to my taking their portraits (film photographs from a Leica IIIC camera and 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens).

Some observations:

• Coffee aroma from Himalayan Java next door.
• Everyone takes selfies
• Everyone has a phone
• Young Nepalis sitting on the grass with their Macs
• Young couple in a corner kissing
• Young lady on a bench with her head on her gentleman's lap while he popped pimples on her cheek

After a couple of hours in the Garden, my friends and I walked next door to have some Himalayan Java and chocolate torte. Pastries are a well-appreciated culinary specialty in Kathmandu. 

Into the maze: Asontol, Kathmandu (Nepal post 2017-05)

For the Kathmandu visitor, a walk to the historical Asontol (or Asan Tol) area is almost obligatory. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the best-known historical locations in the city with strategic location and famous bazaar and festival calendar. "Six streets converge on Asan giving the square a perpetual bustle. The bazaar at Asan attracts shoppers from all over Kathmandu because of the tremendous variety of merchandise sold here, ranging from foodstuffs, spices and textiles to electronics and bullion."

Kathmandu looks like a construction zone. Much of the work is still done by hand. The bricks are often made locally, with the kiln's symbol fired into the clay. Much of the air pollution in the Kathmandu valley comes from thousands of unregulated and uncontrolled brick kilns in northern India. The smoke blows north into Nepal, carrying an immense load of fine particulates. These brick operations have also contributed to massive deforestation.

Many of the roads in old Kathmandu are essentially the same narrow lanes that were present before cars or motor scooters came to the valley. A very few motorcars were carried into the valley by porters in the 1930s and 1940s, but the Tribhuvan Highway to India was not completed until 1957, after which cars proliferated.

Work your way through the crowds, and you see an endless collection of small shops and street vendors. The following photographs are more examples.

Unknown vegetables or noodles?

Interested in a dried fish of dubious provenance? Take your pick.

Grains or rice, as requested.

Vegetables and apples in copious supply. Apples often come in giant baskets balanced on bicycles.

Need a pan to cook your grains and vegetables? Much of this production is from India, although inexpensive Chinese goods are becoming more common.

Bead vendors and manufacture. Much of this work is done by the Muslim community. 

Kathmandu is great fun for the urban decay photographer. Crowds, noises, pollution, smells, puddles, trash, sticky stuff, holes in the pavement, exotic foodstuffs, belching motor scooters, ladies in saris - it does not get much better than this.

This the 5th in a series of 2017 Nepal articles. To be continued....

These photographs are from Kodak Tmax 100 or 400 film exposed with my Leica IIIC rangefinder camera with 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens (both purchased by my father in 1949). Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film in Xtol developer. I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i film scanner controlled by Silverfast Ai software.

Footloose in Kathmandu (Nepal post 2017-04)

Kathmandu view northeast from Thamel district from roof of Moonlight Hotel, Paknajol Marg (road). Yellow filter to increase contrast.

Oh oh, something has happened, Kathmandu is a big city now. And as of late 2017, it looks like a construction zone. Buildings are being razed and replaced, or rebuilt within their historic facades. Scaffolding, piles of brick, concrete mixers, and dust are everywhere. The 2015 earthquakes caused terrible damage to historic sites, but the palaces and temples are slowly being repaired. I think Kathmandu is on a cusp or transition from an old Asian city into a new commercial city. We will take a short walk around town; no real theme, just a tourist exploring, smelling, watching, and enjoying.

Rooftop laundry, Thamel district.

Some families live in older-looking multi-floor buildings. I am not sure how they responded to the earthquakes. Did engineers inspect each and every house?

An old, but still maintained and active English Cemetery is near the UK Embassy. For over a century, the Empire did not have an ambassador but instead had a Resident. He consulted with the Nepali government and had some of the duties of a true ambassador. The cemetery contains graves of some of these ambassadors as well as their families and the occasional English traveler and mountaineer. And, most unusual, there are Russians here, possibly refugees from the Bolsheviks.

Workers still demolish buildings the old way, by hand. No hard hats, eye protection, or steel toe boots here.

The wiring at the Chasibari Marga area is somewhat of a mess. Well, all the wiring in Kathmandu is a mess. You see the same in Hanoi.

Despite the construction and commerce, the gents still have time to sit, play chess, smoke, and gossip.

Chhetrapati area, Kathmandu, October 2017

Near Asan Chowk, Kathmandu, October 2017.

Whatever you may think of the state of the infrastructure, it does not deter people from shopping, trading, selling, shoving, walking, eating, yelling, and sort-of sniffing the fumes. I see crowds like this in cities like Arusha, Athens, Rangoon, Cairo, Lodz, Hanoi, or Mandalay. Why are American cities like Jackson such deserted wastelands?

The Asan Chowk (or marketplace) is always interesting. This where you can buy spices, vegetables, fruits, legumes, dried fish, Himalayan salt, and other consumables. Chickens and meats are sold somewhere else, but I am not sure where. In Nepal, Muslim men often work as butchers. I have written about the Chowk before, and it remains as much fun as ever.

This is the 4th in a series on my 2017 Nepal trip. To be continued....

I took these photographs with my Leica IIIC 35mm camera with 5cm ƒ/2.0 Summitar lens on Kodak TMax 100 and 400 film, with exposure measured with a Gossen Luna Pro Digital light meter. Praus Productions in Rochester, New York, developed the film in Xtol developer.

Update May 2018: Unusual or gourmet salt has become trendy in USA. As an example, here are jars of Himalayan salt in a Big Lots store in Vicksburg, Mississippi. These jars were labeled Product of Pakistan but Packaged in China. So the poor Nepalis have been bypassed again.

Update October 2018: Well, it looks like Himalayan salt is trendy in Brasov, Romania, too. The brand name is "Eurosalt," but the contents are from the Himalaya.