Last night the most tremendous thunderstorm reverberated around the Kathmandu Valley. The lightning lit up the mountains surrounding us for a millisecond before the thunder shook us to our bones. It was amazing. Following this came the first heavy rain I've seen in since arriving here, a taster of what's to come during the rainy season in June. This morning, it has meant that all the dust from the last few weeks that has settled in the air has been removed and the views that were once nothing but pollution and dust return to being spectacular again. However, in a short amount of time, the dust will return and by the end of the day the mountains will disappear behind a haze of pollution.
It's been a strange week or two that's gone by. I don't quite know where it's gone. We've been having more and more load-shedding, controlled power cuts, and they seem to be at inconvenient times. As the water only comes at certain times each day, this needs to be pumped from the mains to the house reserve tank. However, we have had load shedding when the water needs to be pumped, and so have been slowly running out of water. Add to that the three dead frogs that were found in the reserve tank meaning the tank had to be completely emptied and you find yourself alarming low on water.
We went out into the villages of the valley at the beginning of the week. These were only 3 or 4 km outside the ring-road, but almost seemed a different world. I always forget how quickly landscapes can change here. We went past traditional houses with old ladies outside doing their daily chores, school children all in their uniform - usually covered in dust - walking to school with their friends, goats being herded along back roads, and many weddings taking place - it is the wedding season at the moment.
We've had some pretty amazing skyscapes recently. My photos can't really do credit to them, but I've included a couple to show you.
SAM
It's been a strange week or two that's gone by. I don't quite know where it's gone. We've been having more and more load-shedding, controlled power cuts, and they seem to be at inconvenient times. As the water only comes at certain times each day, this needs to be pumped from the mains to the house reserve tank. However, we have had load shedding when the water needs to be pumped, and so have been slowly running out of water. Add to that the three dead frogs that were found in the reserve tank meaning the tank had to be completely emptied and you find yourself alarming low on water.
We went out into the villages of the valley at the beginning of the week. These were only 3 or 4 km outside the ring-road, but almost seemed a different world. I always forget how quickly landscapes can change here. We went past traditional houses with old ladies outside doing their daily chores, school children all in their uniform - usually covered in dust - walking to school with their friends, goats being herded along back roads, and many weddings taking place - it is the wedding season at the moment.
We've had some pretty amazing skyscapes recently. My photos can't really do credit to them, but I've included a couple to show you.
SAM
(Have a look below for a slightly long and late post about the wedding I attended)
Riding around the Kathmandu Valley
The view from the roof
2 comments:
We had some gadang gudung at Shelsley for practice - and much changing of wheels! Dry for timed runs though so that was good. JW was overthrown by the supercharger but what can you expect! I was overthrown by nearly everyone as usual.
The weddings sound fun if a little confusing. After the wedding ceremony does the wife keep redoing the vermillion parting and do they have rings as well?
When it rains after a long dry spell do you find that everything starts growing and getting lush?
Has the strike finished yet?
What a lot of questions! Sorry!!
It's great reading all your scribblings though so keep it up! Lots of love OOD xx
Keep the photos coming if you can! Spectacular mountains = woo.
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