There’s a kitschy movie playing in the lobby of Lub-d Silom Hostel, George of the Jungle. The antics of the apes and toucan are making me laugh, but also reminding me that a week ago I was happily perched in my own private jungle tree house. Unlike George, I wasn’t in the deepest, darkest heart … Read more
In Nepali culture, special ceremonies called pujas are held to give a name to a newly born child, for the child’s first haircut, a person’s 84th birthday, and for the passing of a relative. Last year I was invited to attend a puja to memorialize the death of a beloved aunt of my adopted Nepali … Read more
In the ‘Daily Photos’ area of my blog I recently published a portrait of a woman attending a Nepali puja for a relative who had died one year earlier. One of my readers commented: “Its an absolutely gorgeous photo, I’ll admit. And I would have taken it, but somewhere a voice inside my head says, … Read more
More than worrying about whether I would be able to carry my heavy backpack while trekking the Lower Mustang area in the Himalaya Mountains of Nepal, I was concerned about altitude sickness. I had learned the hard way during a two month visit to Ecuador late last year that I do not react well to … Read more
I stood on the stairway leading to the Buddhist Monastery in the Himalayan town of Marpha, holding onto the railing for dear life as as gale force gusts shredded the gauzy Tibetan prayer flags cascading down from the hilltop. Like every other day in Nepal‘s Lower Mustang Valley, ferocious winds had begun roaring down from … Read more
