Some more photos from Nepal, this time from Kathmandhu :

Table tennis, Kathmandhu 1994 style !

On my first full day of my very first overseas trip I went on a tour of some of the city sights, including Pashupatinath Temple which is a very sacred Hindu temple dating back to the 5th century (apparently Pashupatinath was one of the few historic sites to come out of the recent tragedy virtually undamaged).

Pashupatinath temple, Nepal

Non-Hindus can only look from across the other side of the river, which was quite close enough for me once I realised that the fires were funeral pyres and there were bodies wrapped up in the cloth. No Mike, you are not at home now ! Yes, I had a fair dose of culture shock on that first trip ! It takes a lot more to make me feel queasy nowadays.

Also at Pashupatinath was this snakecharmer, making what I know now to be a more than decent income from gullible tourists like me. “Photo,photo, just five dollar”.

Snake charmer, Katmandhu, Nepal

This was originally a colour slide, but I have converted it to monochrome in Photoshop as the original colours were rather blue-ish.

I was to go back to Nepal twice more, in 1995 and 1999, so I guess that I must have got over the culture shock ? In fact I have been to some part of Asia at least once a year since 1988. This is perhaps going to sound rather callous, but in 1995 I went to India for about 5 months after Nepal, and I didn’t bat an eyelid when a man died in front of me while waiting at a railway station, and people just started taking his sandals, his walking stick, etc.  After a few months backpacking in India nothing much would shock most people. Life is cheap, death is commonplace.

After 5 months in India I was glad to get out of there and head to Thailand for the first time, back in 1995 India was a fascinating but equally frustrating country ….endless train and bus rides, scammers after your money, “Delhi Belly”, cricket games on the streets of Calcutta slums, incredibly cheap accommodation, equally incredible palaces, a non stop assault on all your senses by good and evil. But I have to say that I have been considering a return trip for a while …but not for 5 months again ! But then again, I have n’t been to Vietnam yet …….and I may have a trip to Malaysia coming later this year …