Pashupatinath, Kathmandu

Man Sleeping, Pashupatinath, Kathmandu

Monkey at the Monkey Temple

Atop Swayambo

Swayambo Lion

Carvings at Swayambo

Hong Kong

A little interlude about my 12 hours in Hong Kong...

I often think of Invisible Cities when I am traveling; especially so here in Hong Kong.

Central Hong Kong is a city of malls—malls that open unto other malls, which lead you to two or three possible doors—all of which lead to still other malls. Malls have large, backlit advertisements for other malls, and when you are spelunking for the subway in wide underground rooms you instead and in fact find a mall with an admission price of one Metro ride. And yet, at times it is difficult for the traveler to know how to arrive at an adjacent mall, the mall you want, as the halls and walkways twist mercilessly to bring you past the most, best shops.

This Hong Kong is a city of not just malls but of status, for the malls lack the means for self-improvement: they lack hardware stores, pharmacies, bookstores of any real depth; they lack cookware, sergers (sp?) and sewing machines, circuit boards and spools of stereo wire. Instead, they repeat the same brand-name luxuries, the Ferragamo shoes and Fendi bags that convey—signal—a knowledge of the vagaries of fashion, knowledge available only to those who can, more of less, afford fashion.

And so, I wonder: is it better—is it more desirable—to live above the Rolls Royce dealer or the Bulgari store in the next mall? Would you rather keep the office of your finance firm above Hugo Boss or Hermes than Clinique? How far does the need to show status—to show luxury, and power—extend? I like to imagine this Hong Kong as a city in which you can give directions by brand name, in which saying that you live above the Admiralty Armani Exchange is normal and precise, like giving a neighborhood or cross-streets.

On the plane to Kathmandu I sit on a roughly upholstered seat next to a Belgian expat named Ann whose partner works—she does not—as an auditor in central Hong Kong. “It's a banker's city,” she says; while the city has a Statue Square very near the central train station, it's only got one statue in it, and that statue is of Sir Thomas Jackson, Chief Manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, 1870–1902 (sic). And the suit is de rigeur: in a tropical city, a banker's fashion.

I ask Ann if Hong Kong has any farms. “Maybe a few in the New Territories,” Ann says, “but really you go to the supermarket and all the food comes from New Zealand, Australia, and America. And overland, by truck, from China. Everything is imported.”

After a moment's pause she changes the subject. “Hong Kong is really quite beautiful though.”

Yak Butter Lamps, Swayambo Monastery

Monks at Swayambo

On Asan Tole, Kathmandu

Two Views from Chhetrapati, Kathmandu

Maoist on Election Day, Kathmandu

Hello from KTM!

I'm not sure these will be quite so "literary" as last time. Or even as proofread. Or even proofread at all.

I'm safe and sound in Kathmandu, staying at a guest house in the neighborhood of Paknajol--right next to (what is essentially) the tourist district of Thamel--and just starting to get myself acclimated to the new surroundings. The last two nights I've fallen asleep right about 9:30 and awoken at 3 am, unable to sleep again till 5 or later, about 5 and a half to six hours' sleep. The water coming off the Himalayas is low right now, so the city, dependent on hydropower and waiting for Indians to finish (by rumor) 20 dams of different sizes, has a "load-shedding" schedule, essentially the same as rolling blackouts. In Zone Two, where I am, the power was out 5 to 9 am on Wednesday morning and 4:30 to 8:30 pm that evening, 5 to 9 pm last night, and will presumeably be out sometime today as well. I seem recall that tomorrow's outage is from 4 to 8 am, but I could be mistaken about that.

Some poorly sourced stats: Tom (the founder of Wrench Nepal) called Nepal the 9th poorest nation in the world; and I read somewhere that the per capita in come is about 9300 Nepali rupees, or about $150. The exchange rate this morning was 62 Rs/USD. Foreign aid is the biggest sector of the economy; and according to the Lonely Planet--which every expat here uses--tourism is the 3rd largest.

Some prices: A handful of grape tomatoes costs 5 rupees; a bottle of water--a necessity, here, because of contamination--is 25. Breakfast this morning was 77 and was a small omelet, a small cup of black tea, 2 slices of toast, and a few baby potatoes. Internet is 30 Rs per hour. My guest house is 400 Rs per night; the cheapest I've heard of was 150 Rs per night, but was negotiated by an Israeli named Nir who has no scruples about extracting every last rupee from the Nepalis at the market, at the hotel, and at shops all around town. I find him distasteful.

Despite concerns and predictions otherwise, Kathmandu was totally quiet and calm during yesterday's elections, and since all traffic was banned from the city because of the holiday it was actually a real pleasure to walk around. You walk in the street here, even when there are sidewalks, and even though it's chaotic it's actually much safer than the US--at least in daytime--there are no streetlights, really, just light from houses and businesses, and not much nightlife--because cars can't build up any speed. That, and that everyone walks.

I'm not sure I can accurately describe Kathmandu, other than that I imagine it's similar to Rome before Mussolini. The buildings are mostly 3 and 4 and 5 stories, made of concrete with walls of poorly mortared brick. The streets are narrow and winding, and most of them don't have names; even when they do have names, there are no streetsigns to help you. Tons of people around, and yesterday at least they were clustering around radios and televisions to get news of the elections. There are lots of bikes altered to carry huge flats of things, or blue plastic water tubs, or to serve as street food stands. And bicycle rickshaws, everywhere.

Picture(s) to come when I find a place with the bandwidth to upload them.

Screw Canada, I'm going to Nepal

Well, well. After a lovely day of shots and other immunizations I'm ready to formally make my announcement:

On April 7th I'm leaving fair San Francisco for Kathmandu, teaching bike repair to Nepali street kids and orphans with Wrench Nepal. It's kind of like the Bike Kitchen Kathmandu, but also kind of not--and while I've got loads of bike repair and organizing experience, I have pretty much zero experience working with homeless youth. So that will be an interesting challenge. Also on the docket: figuring out what it means to be part of a Western-run community project in the Third World and convincing my charges that Avril Lavigne isn't punk. It's going to be a crazy adventure, and I'll be back (and, I'm sure, completely jet-lagged) at the beginning of September.

I've got a small passel Nepali Rupees in my bag right now, along with an Asian-network cellphone and a slew of business cards. Wrench Nepal is at 123 Bhat Bateni Marga in Kathmandu, but I dunno yet what the situation is on care package delivery. I guess I'll find out when I get there...

Advice, well-wishes, and curses are always welcome, of course!

All in lieu of bike touring to Montreal, yes. This seemed like a much worse idea, and just so much more enticing.

Nightime, Deep SOMA, San Francisco

West Oakland

Drawbridge, CA

Drawbridge is a ghost town in the marshes of the South Bay. You get there by walking on the levees north of Alviso for perhaps a mile or two, then 300 yards down the (working) ACE tracks. You're not the first and not the last, but little by little the town is sinking, the parks department says, and sooner or later there will be a last.

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(Photo by Alex)

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(Photo by Alex)

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(Photo by Alex)

(By Way of Explanation)

"I'm going to post Montana next, for my own reasons. Then, perhaps, the rest of the driving trip.

And then, perhaps, I think I'll rest a little.

By making my brother write for me."

The Back Catalog

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted here...it's shocking, really.

In any case, I placed a review in the Chronicle way back in October that I thought I'd link to:

Detective from central casting investigates a suspect from same place

I just saw this, honestly, and I've only skimmed it, but I can say that it was definitely edited...I don't mind that, but it's good to note.

Glacier NP (III)

Waterton, Alberta