New Zealand Apples in Chinatown, Bangkok

Grand Palace, Bangkok

Oh, and...

There should be a short essay about the Olympics and Sexuality tomorrow...

Thewes Flower Market, Bangkok

Sunset, Sakhu, Nepal

Ciao, Nepal.

Tundikhel (Parade Grounds) and Kantipath, Kathmandu

Gai Jatra, Boudha, Nepal

(Royal?) Botanical Gardens, Godavari, Nepal

Bishal Bazaar, New Road, Kathmandu

Two roofs and a family, near Godavari, Nepal

Supermarket Series V

Why Supermarkets? In my mind they are places wryly sad, but then so is every fluorescent tube-lit store with cluttered and bright plastic and deep shadows; but then, so is Wal-Mart late at night, so is Ikea. The oddity in Kathmandu is in the plenitude, is in the convenience, is in the tension of a store whose value-add is time saved in a country where time is the resource most in abundance. There are clutches and clutches of everything in the supermarkets of Kathmandu--stores that combine groceries with shoes and school notebooks and kitchenware and towels and clothes floor after floor--for the word here denotes bazaar.

In a country of scarcity, they are loci of abundance, not so much of abundant things as of feelings of the absence of lack, of want.

Bluebird Mall Supermarket, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu

Supermarket Series IV

Why Supermarkets? In my mind they are places wryly sad, but then so is every fluorescent tube-lit store with cluttered and bright plastic and deep shadows; but then, so is Wal-Mart late at night, so is Ikea. The oddity in Kathmandu is in the plenitude, is in the convenience, is in the tension of a store whose value-add is time saved in a country where time is the resource most in abundance. There are clutches and clutches of everything in the supermarkets of Kathmandu--stores that combine groceries with shoes and school notebooks and kitchenware and towels and clothes floor after floor--for the word here denotes bazaar.

In a country of scarcity, they are loci of abundance, not so much of abundant things as of feelings of the absence of lack, of want.

Kasthamandap Bazaar, Durbar Marg, Kathmandu

Supermarket Series III

Why Supermarkets? In my mind they are places wryly sad, but then so is every fluorescent tube-lit store with cluttered and bright plastic and deep shadows; but then, so is Wal-Mart late at night, so is Ikea. The oddity in Kathmandu is in the plentitude, is in the convenience, is in the tension of a store whose value-add is time saved in a country where time is the resource most in abundance. There are clutches and clutches of everything in the supermarkets of Kathmandu--stores that combine groceries with shoes and school notebooks and kitchenware and towels and clothes floor after floor--for the word here denotes bazaar.

In a country of scarcity, they are loci of abundance, not so much of abundant things as of feelings of the absence of lack, of want.

Bishal Bazaar, New Road, Kathmandu

Supermarket Series II

Why Supermarkets? In my mind they are places wryly sad, but then so is every fluorescent tube-lit store with cluttered and bright plastic and deep shadows; but then, so is Wal-Mart late at night, so is Ikea. The oddity in Kathmandu is in the plenitude, is in the convenience, is in the tension of a store whose value-add is time saved in a country where time is the resource most in abundance. There are clutches and clutches of everything in the supermarkets of Kathmandu--stores that combine groceries with shoes and school notebooks and kitchenware and towels and clothes floor after floor--for the word here denotes bazaar.

In a country of scarcity, they are loci of abundance, not so much of abundant things as of feelings of the absence of lack, of want.

Bluebird Supermarket, Lazimpat, Kathmandu

Supermarket Series I

Why Supermarkets? In my mind they are places wryly sad, but then so is every fluorescent tube-lit store with cluttered and bright plastic and deep shadows; but then, so is Wal-Mart late at night, so is Ikea. The oddity in Kathmandu is in the plentitude, is in the convenience, is in the tension of a store whose value-add is time saved in a country where time is the resource most in abundance. There are clutches and clutches of everything in the supermarkets of Kathmandu--stores that combine groceries with shoes and school notebooks and kitchenware and towels and clothes floor after floor--for the word here denotes bazaar.

In a country of scarcity, they are loci of abundance, not so much of abundant things as of feelings of the absence of lack, of want.

Bhat Bateni, 2nd Floor, Bhat Bateni, Kathmandu

Two Very Different Workshops, Sakhu and Kathmandu, Nepal

Men at the Bearing Shop, Teku, Kathmandu

A KawaaDi, Teku, Kathmandu

That's not a typo in the title, but the standard way of marking that D as a retroflex--as opposed to dental--consonant. (By sound I think the standardized spelling should be KhaawaDi, but my Nepali tutor says otherwise..)

Anyway, Aaron and I spent yesterday fishing through kawaaDis--junkyards--in the industrial neighborhood of Teku for parts to build this ridiculous washing machine with.

All I could think of was how beautiful a lot of these piles were--and how the only people who would think so are those of us for whom replacement parts are easily had, who have the privilege to visualize a pipe outside of its ability to carry water or a conduit wires, who can see a bag of seized bearings and be happy that someone knows they're worth saving, that they'll be useful for something.

Boudhanilkantha, Nepal

My friends Sareena, Olivier, and Kholga--aka Rai ko Ris--had a little show at Sareena and Olivier's house in Boudhanilkantha on Monday. Most of the pictures ended up more than a little blurry, and the highlight was Sareena calling me up to, uh, demonstrate the Bollywood dance moves that some of the little kids at P.A. Nepal made me learn. I would humbly suggest that I stole the show. There's a video somewhere, which will almost certainly come back to haunt me later.

Koteshwor, Kathmandu