Indian food, Folks Music & Vagina Monologues - just another (extra)ordinary weekend!

Muh-Muh breakfast

To see a city wake up is something special.. how the streets start filling up with people on their way to somewhere they need to be, the noise of rolling shutters acting like an alarm clock - the dawn of a new day! 

n Kathmandu, you add the cows having their breakfast on-the-go, the honking from motorbikes and cars and some dust, and all this just completes the fantastic experience.

On their way to somewhere.

Why this is like an epiphany to me is most likely because I am a hopeless morning sleeper and can't for the love of God open the two blue and get myself out of bed before 8am on a good day... I prefer to get up around 9am if I can decide... But I try to arrange for things like this so I must get out there and see what is going on. Not too often, but once in a while.

Bike parking

Motorbikes and scooters are more common than cars, as they can cut through traffic right, left and center, LITERALLY. 

I am amazed by the brave drivers, but it goes really slow which makes it work and that reduces the risk of big fatal accidents. The worst you get is a dent on the car. 

I walked through various food smells, markets and lots of life flowing down those streets and the colorful praying flags blowing in the wind. 

The Buddhist prayer flags are in the colors representing the 5 elements and the 5 pure lights. 

The colors should always be in the same order starting with 

blue symbolizing the sky and space,

white symbolizing the wind and air, 

red symbolizing fire, 

green symbolizing water and 

yellow symbolizing the earth. 

According to traditional Tibetan medicine, a balance in the elements will bring harmony and good health. Many people think that the flags are sending the prayers to the Gods but that is a misconception. The prayers on the flags are said to promote strength, wisdom, peace and compassion to the surrounding areas. 

And it does feel very peaceful and harmonic when walking through, maybe the video can give the feeling some justice.. 

The "cabling" in Nepal is fairly infamous, but it does get me every time I see these connections points or random cables dangling. Somehow, this infrastructure works until there is a power cut. Then it takes a while and then it works again. 

Staying connected in Kathmandu

Cables are tied up with other cables or a cloth or something else, instead of properly sorting it out. 

Maybe good enough means "almost always connected". 

This Friday morning continued with some interesting meetings with both new and familiar faces and a walk back through the same corners of the city, and I had the honors to land in the middle of a now very awake place. 

Not sure how its even possible...

Thamel and the southern part of the center is like a labyrinth of small alley ways and streets. While Thamel is set up as the tourist area with lots of souvenirs and outdoor shops, the southern part is very local.

Throughout the day, it fills up with market stalls selling vegetables, fruit, shoes and anything else you can think of. 

The delivery man

Grape bike

There are loads of kitchen utensils, and stainless steel seems to be the thing.

During my casual walk through the narrow street, cold and wet egg shell landed inside my top at the back of my neck. Did I experience a bird birth in passing or just happened to be in the way of the rubbish bin?

Always the unexpected.

Sewing machines

Swede going Indian?

Saturday continued in the same interesting way, with a cooking class at Tasneem’s King Kitchen, where a group of us Expats gathered to see how to make Butter chicken. We are all in a Foodies group in the Inter Nations network and we have monthly events at various restaurants to see how to cook different cuisines. Never a dull moment here.

Tasneem explaining the various spices and what they do

Tasneem is a fabulous Indian chef who has lived in Nepal for many years and started up her South Indian restaurant (THANK GOD!) a few years ago. She started small with her home catering business and slowly expanded menu to venue. She presented very well in her restaurant’s garden, and I am even more impressed now as these dished takes so long to cook and they require so much attention. It is not like Swedish meatballs, mash and lingonberry jam. Which is also very tasty of course, but requires a tiny, little bit less effort. 

 Lots of spices go into the Indian food, and that can be curry, chili, coriander, ginger, garlic... lots of various tasty stuff put together during 2,5-3h of cooking.. 

You can lean on me

During the cooking time and preparation, we enjoyed ourselves with a few drinks and conversations whilst getting hungry. This is how I have met a lot of other Expats like Yeri from South Korea, Cary from the US and a few more guys from around the globe. There are also locals like Subarna who is the organizer behind the Foodies events.

Two characters that usually turn up for the Foodies Events are these two Americans, a great duo. Always fun stories and great laughs!

The great food was then served to us all and it tasted just as good as it looked! Just amazing. 

 While we were eating, some guys starting talking about vaginas and I was first thinking someone wasn’t feeling well and was talking about angina as that was what I could relate to as a common topic around the dining table.. 

But no, they were all talking about Vagina Monologues, a play that premiered in New York in 1996 and has since then spread its important messages around the world. New York Times even said that it probably carried the most important message for the decade, and I agree. 

The stage with the Vagina backdrop and the actresses

The play speaks about women’s rights, consensual and non-consensual sexual experiences, genital mutilation and other vagina related topics by ladies from different ages, races and backgrounds. 
Now the show was playing in Kathmandu for the 4th year.

Yeri, me, Subarna and Cary waiting for the show to start

As two of the guys, Ruben and Ikie, had spare tickets we decided to join them for the show. 

I didn’t think I would enjoy this show as much as I did (due to my impatience at most shows..) but I laughed, shed a tear and really enjoyed it as they mixed comedy into the very important messages they were giving us.

The setting at the Patan Museum in Patan Durbar Square just added to the joy. 

This place is full of ancient history as a UNESCO heritage site, even having an ancient royal palace onsite. 

Patan Durbar Square

But a history tour through this place is for another time.

Local Nepali whisky

Instead, I and Yeri set off walking back to our side of Patan while Cary went on his motorbike and after half hour of walking we had found our way back in our hoods and went to a bar called Moksh where there was a huge Folks Festival. 

The three musketeers

Lots of music played, local whiskey and wood oven baked pizzas served.. just the perfect ending of a great day!

On my walk back home, I had to stop where there had been a beer festival almost next door to where I live, and I had to smile about the setting.. right next door to this cool new bar is a proper building site with bricks, sand, iron bars all over the pavement.. I just love how things work here, side by side. 

Yeah, I think I am staying here for a while.

Love & light,

Jen xx