Nepal 15

Those Buddhists, what with their centuries of history and what not, seem to have come up with a pretty elaborate collection of symbols and rituals. Which is, apparently, just something religions have to do. To the previously noted prayer flags, stupas, and carvings of mantras on any rock people might walk by, add the prayer wheel. Historians agree that the prayer wheel was almost certainly invented by Eddie Murphy in 1980's almost-classic The Golden Child. Your correspondent resisted the urge to repeat this scene with any of the hundreds of prayer wheels he saw.

N.B., photo inspiration credit due to fellow (and current) Embassy Kabul bureaucrat Brian Neely.

Nepal 14

There are many spots along the trail up to Everest where one passes rocks carved with the Buddhist mantra "Om mani padme hum" repeatedly on a rock, or each of a bunch of rocks. There are a few particularly striking places where a massive rock outcropping has been completely covered with the mantra, as seen above.

It seems like it might take a lot of work.

Nepal 13

An action-packed picture of wind-blown flags for the thrilling conclusion of Flag Week! There are only so many pictures of prayer flags we can handle, so a work week of flag photos is going to have to suffice. But don't despair, we're not even halfway through the Holla October of Nepal Pictures!

Nepal 12

Penultimate flag week post! Flags piled up and dusted with snow on the top of Kala Patthar, 18,500 ft.

Nepal 11

Flag week marches on... Some of the flags have been out and exposed to the elements for a long time - a little thin and pale.

Nepal 10

Prayer flag week continues!

As promised yesterday: Lots of prayer flags, in a landscape much more attractive than some places you might have seen prayer flags before.

Nepal 9

Welcome to flag week!

If you've ever been somewhere that hippies live, "work," or frequent, you have probably seen Tibetan prayer flags. On the plus side, they're a cheap way to add some color to an otherwise drab office space. Sadly, science has proven that displaying Tibetan prayer flags in your office does not have a statistically significant chance of resulting in a free Tibet. Apologies if you, dear reader, happen to live in a dorm room adorned with prayer flags. We kid because we care.

In any case, these flags are all over the place in Nepal and especially along the trail up to Everest, often in landscapes and quantities more striking than your typical prayer-flag scene in the U.S. Above, flags attached to a footbridge along the trail.

Nepal 8

Namche Bazaar is the primary settlement of the Khumbu region of Nepal. From old photos, one can tell it was pretty modest until fairly recently. The tourist trade has caused some pretty explosive growth, sprouting hotels (with showers!) and restaurants and shops selling all variety of items tourists might want. The photo above is from one of those shops. I guess you might just decide, "those big pink pills look good. Let's go for a packet of those, please!" Or perhaps to people with more pharmacological experience than your correspondents, those white tablets are instantly recognizable as some particular item or brand.

Nepal 7

One of countless stupas along the trail, each painted with these wavy Buddhist eyes staring out on all four sides.

Nepal 6

This one is probably the best portrait we got on the trail. He was intently watching other guys about his age who had stopped at one of the inns along the way and were playing some game that looked like a cross between shuffleboard and snooker.

This setup -- the wicker basket backpack, with long wooden struts sticking up to steady a piled-high load -- is almost universal. Your correspondents took particular note whenever we saw some dude carrying a pack stacked high with cases of canned Everest beer up the mountain. We did indeed enjoy a couple of those high-altitude barley pops, so we owe those guys a debt of gratitude. I hesitate to guess what's in those big blue barrels that this young guy is carrying up the mountain, but I'm pretty sure it's not feathers or popcorn. Whatever it is, we probably used some of it while on the trail, so I guess we owe him, too.

Nepal 5

These two older ladies (the second is directly behind the first in this picture) were laboring up the hill with baskets full of firewood on their backs as we were descending. I am not sure what they stopped to discuss with The Lovely Katherine. I would guess that she was not sure at the time, either. The ladies looked like they might have been 75. I doubt they were, but a lifetime of carrying firewood up a mountain in the elements probably isn't great for the youthful good looks.

Nepal 4

All of the world-famous, life-list treks we've done in the developing world (e.g. Machu Picchu, Kilimanjaro) have featured amazing local porters who carry ridiculous loads, practically jogging up a hill, wearing beat-up sandals. In Nepal, there was a fair amount of that. There were also yaks carrying some heavy loads. But for the tourist crowd, there's no need to carry tents or stoves because the trekking is village-to-village and nights are spent at inns with restaurants.

The flip side of that is that there is no road bringing construction materials up to these villages to build shelter for the ever-increasing hordes of tourist trekkers. The obvious solution is to hire someone to carry all that construction stuff up the mountain for you. Pictured above is one of the many guys we saw with several full-size sheets of plywood on his back. The strap that is across his chest as he's resting goes on his forehead when he's lifting and carrying this stuff. And if that wasn't enough, the gap you can see between the first and second sheets of plywood? That's where there's a sheet of corrugated metal or two (I presume tin, but who knows) stuffed in between the plywood. It makes it a little harder to complain about the crummy plywood-box rooms when you realize what went into building them...

Nepal 3

Nepal proved again that, as always, the best travel pictures are of people. (And the truly great Pictures that Got Away are from encounters with interesting people when we didn't have the camera handy or, more often, didn't feel the right vibe (i.e. were too chicken) to ask if we could take their picture.) Anyway, rather than getting into a discursive essay on the etiquette of photographing strangers who don't speak the same language as you, we present the following: a picture we took, without asking per se, but perhaps after holding up the camera and smiling and getting no reaction at all and self-interestedly declaring the lack of visible objection as permission. The guys carrying stuff up the mountains in Nepal are amazing.

Nepal 2

Trekking in Nepal! The mighty Himalayas raising around you! The pure air, the pastoral life, a glimpse of a simpler time!

Well, nowadays, a somewhat simpler version of industrial tourism is in evidence. Not that we didn't see some awesome views and breathe some fresh air. Part of the joy of trekking in Nepal is that rather than needing to carry one's own tent, food, stove, &c. &c. &c., the trail leads from one settlement to the next, where accommodations can be found in tea houses. This makes these locales sound quite quaint, but in fact, the best definition of "tea house" might be "ultra-cheap hotel." It's quite like a youth hostel, except instead of being found in the heart of some European capital it's in the middle of nowhere in the mountains of Nepal.

The rooms are basically plywood boxes; it's not all that terribly different from the accommodations on army bases in Afghanistan known as "B-huts." I know it struck some of our fellow American colleagues in Afghanistan as a bit odd that we willingly chose to sleep in such accommodations while on leave from Afghanistan. In any case, the tea houses did their job and kept us from freezing to death.

As a standard house rule, guests at tea houses are expected to take their dinner and breakfast (and depending on arrival time, lunch) in the hotel restaurant. The menus at each tea house are identical, but the preparations show great variation. These restaurants all offer a variation on the local curry-and-lentils staple, as well as unique and yet equally unrecognizable attempts on Western favorites like mac-and-cheese and pizza.

Of course the true value proposition of the tea house restaurants, is the service. As faithfully represented on the menu below, your correspondents were served every day a candle-light meal by a tuxedo'ed waiter eager to share every detail about the Biscuits price.

Nepal 1

Ok, so we limited ourselves to 31 (more) pictures from Nepal, and we're starting a day behind. Whoops. Anyway, this one is just a nice picture from a monastery where they were using old cans from paint (or other products like whatever this deodorized oil product was) as flowerpots. Don't worry, some of the upcoming pictures have better stories that go with them.

Back to Nepal

It was a couple weeks ago that we announced a break from the Nepal pictures. But now we're back! The intervening period did not take care of the overabundance of pictures we like, such as the one above. But our plan is now to put a limit on ourselves: By the end of October, we'll be done with Nepal. Yes, it's arbitrary. But we don't want to ask our loyal readers to look at sub-standard photography, so we have to impose some discipline around here. So: Steel yourselves for the October of Nepal!

(Yes, we know it's still September. We'll figure out some accommodation for the next couple days.)

Goodbye to All That

We probably have some more good pictures from Afghanistan lying around somewhere. And once the dearth of exotic photo opportunities in Washington gets to us, we may go back and dig them all up. But this is the last one for now: A bunch of kids singing the Afghan national anthem at a vocational school graduation in Highly Kinetic Kunar Province, as shot from the stage behind the podium where they were singing, with an assistant holding a laptop with the backing music playing up to the microphone. (This part not pictured because it couldn't be done without showing the faces of the kids. We have a ton of cute/interesting pictures of young participants at various Embassy events, but we don't post them here, due to perhaps an excess of caution. Also not pictured, for different reasons, but not because it didn't happen: the sound system at the assembly hall alighting in a smoldering electrical fire.)

In any case, this was the last trip outside of Kabul your correspondent completed, and perhaps the last one until we're all going to Afghanistan for climbing or skiing vacations a few years hence when it's stable and peaceful. Until then... vacation pictures starting again on the Hollatomorrow!

One More from the Streets of Kabul

Last, for now, of the Hollavision photos. While we will continue to utilize our now fine-tuned skills for shooting out of a moving car window, we don't see many more armored SUV rides in our immediate future.

Afghanistan from Above 2.4

Tomorrow: Back to Afghanistan from the Ground.

Afghanistan from Above 2.3

Afghanistan from Above 2.2

Kabul from helicopter.

Afghanistan from Above 2.1

Near Asadabad. Or maybe near Kabul. But definitely near a takeoff or landing. I guess that's why we ought to try to post pictures in a little more timely fashion.

Afghanistan from Above 2.0

In the closing days of our time in Afghanistan, we went back to Kunar one more time. Usually the best pictures on any trip come from the air.

Bamyan

A last picture from Bamyan. Not sure what the line of trees is marking.

The Forest for the Trees

Women and children, obscured by trees.

Afghan Motorcycle Dudes

More from Bamyan, home of many a young motorcyclist. As always, shot through the window of a moving armored SUV.

Meanwhile, back in Afghanistan

As promised, some remaining pictures we like from Afghanistan, this one from the streets of Bamyan.

Road map

We're having a hard time editing pictures as aggressively as we really ought to. In part that may be because Nepal is so photogenic. Or maybe just because Washington is so un-photogenic, we'll need a lot of the back catalog to keep this journal rolling for the next year or so.

In any case, we're going to shift gears for a bit. Here's the plan on what's to come, to aid in your calculation of whether to bother checking back again soon: First, we'll finish off the Afghanistan stuff. Then, we'll go back to pictures from Nepal. Then India. Then Alaska. Then California. Then Colorado. Then stuff so old we don't even remember what it is. Did we ever post any pictures from Bergen or Oslo, Norway? I don't think so. That should get us through, say, February. By then maybe we'll have taken a few decent pictures of Washington. Or have gone somewhere else interesting.

Anyway, above is one more from Nepal. Back to more like this in a few weeks.

Yak Week, Part 5

Yak Week hurtles to its thrilling conclusion!

Here, the yaks share the spotlight with the dramatic scenery of the high Himalaya. In this case, around 18,000 feet high on what appeared to be a dried lake bed.

I know we've all enjoyed Yak Week, but tomorrow, on to other sights from the Everest Region!

Yak Week, Part 4

Today: Yaks take Manhattan! Or at least, yaks take the modest little villages that the trail to Everest Base Camp passes through.

Fun fact: In Nepalese, only a male yak is called a "yak." A female is called a "nak." Some will thus claim that those referring to all yaks as yaks are doing so in error. Those people are pompous asses. Sorry snobs, but in English, every yak is a yak.

Yak Week, Part 3

This yak was just lying around on the shoulder of the trail, perhaps on guard to make sure only patrons of the adjacent restaurant used the toilet.

I'm not at all sure why in part 1 of Yak Week we said that the yak was "our worst enemy" as well as our best friend, other than that the writer assigned to that piece was literally falling asleep at the keyboard as he tried to compose the post. We've decided to leave the record intact and not revise that entry, but really, we hold no ill will against the noble yak.

Yak Week, Part 2

Welcome back to Yak Week. For your viewing pleasure, please find above another picture of a yak.

Yak trains are something of a fixture on the walking trails of the Everest region. We saw plenty of people carrying heavy loads up the mountains on their backs (about which more later), but clearly those who can are wise to let their yak do the carrying. We regularly passed packs of yaks on the trail, usually in groups of five or so, carrying bags of produce or gear for Everest expeditions. The yaks range from well-shorn to quite wooly, with above examples staking out a sensible middle ground.

Among the more unique souvenirs available at all variety of small shops along the trail were yak bells, which are usually a lot like cow bells, except: you know, for yaks. Upon deciding that acquiring an attractive yak bell on the door would be a prudent anti-theft device for some theoretical future home, we became obsessed with getting a suitable-for-framing picture of the sincerest yak with bell that we could. So we wound up with a lot of yak pictures, and our guide probably thought we were a little crazy for so thoroughly documenting the yak population. This turned out to be a pretty darn sincere yak, whether despite or because of the North Face duffel bag.

Yak Week

So we edited all the pictures from Nepal down and we only have 150 or so for display here. If we ever managed to post every day, that would still be five months or so of Nepal pictures. That's probably too much. Probably. But we are going to try to narrow down to highlight some key themes from our time there.

Anyway, without further ado... a week of pictures of our worst enemy and most beloved friend in Nepal, the yak. Enjoy!

Pictured above: A yak.

Of Nepal: Lukla International Airport

The raison d'etre for our visit to Nepal was a long spell of trekking in the Himalayas. We spent 11 days or so walking from the town of Lukla up to Everest Base Camp and back. I gather that back in the olden days of Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, you had to just start walking in Kathmandu. It is, to put it mildly, a fairly popular walk now, and climbers or trekkers can cut several days off by flying to Lukla.

However, perhaps one reason they didn't think to fly some supplies in to Lukla back in the day is that there really isn't anywhere nearby that is flat enough for long enough to serve as a runway. Luckily, some engineers figured out that if you land your plane going uphill, it stops faster. Contrariwise, if you take off by going downhill, gravity gives you a little boost. So this runway is much shorter than you would typically see even for the small aircraft coming in and out of Lukla, and slanted uphill at a good 10 degrees. And if your plane is just a bit short or long, there's a plunging dropoff at the foot of the runway and a not-insignificant rock wall at the head. (The above picture is taken from the top of the wall, where there's a nice pedestrian walkway that is really the only way to get from one side of the airport to the other.) Seems unlikely to become popular for 747s any time soon, but it was fun for the one landing and one take-off we did while there.

Airport Security

In the flood of 9/11 retrospectives this week, some are taking a close look at whether we have appropriately balanced our heightened security concerns with the principles of liberty on which our nation was founded. To this, I will add this note on airport security outside of the U.S. Authorities in India (no strangers to terrorist attacks themselves) have prohibited boarding an aircraft with firearms, hazardous chemicals, explosives, radioactive materials, "miscellaneous dangerous goods" (which apparently includes knives and cleavers), and coconuts.

Why all airports haven't taken this prudent step, I cannot say. However, I cannot rule out the possibility that it is only due to their thoroughness that none of the flight crew on our flights in South Asia were subdued by blows to the head with a coconut, nor were any innocent bystanders injured by the unpredictable effects of a coconut responding to changes in cabin pressure or flying across the plane during turbulence.

We're sure there's a reasonable explanation, but also sure we can't say what it is. Google searches for various combinations of words like "airport", "security", "India," and "coconut" proved fruitless. Do let us know in the comments if you have any insight.

Nepal Continued

Oh, criminy.

One takes a tactical pause to do some photo editing, then a long weekend out of town, and before you know it, it's been 10 days of silence on the Holla. It wasn't our plan. But we're quite close to having things sorted to regale you all with photos of our various May-through-September exploits soon, hopefully in a pretty regularly posted fashion. Or at least without random week-plus pauses in the middle. Above, a totally random picture from Nepal until we are really truly ready to go.

Sorry. We really do appreciate that you all stop by here and we don't mean to waste your time.

Of Nepal: Pedicabs

Easily the best way to get around town. Sorry, we're still busy moving in, more words soon, maybe.

Of Nepal: More from Kathmandu

The staff photographer failed to buy any flower garlands while we were in the center of Kathmandu.

Of Nepal: Sculpture

Best thing about Kathmandu is that there seem to be little temples or shrines or monuments or religious sculptural things just lying around all over the place. Some of them still obviously active, others perhaps active but also just spots that kids use as jungle gyms or old guys use just to sit on and shoot the breeze. One detail of one such monument, though I have no idea which, above.

Of Nepal: Trash

We met a few people who said they couldn't believe how dirty Kathmandu is. Which maybe, more than anything, demonstrates that Nepal is a swell place to visit for people who have never been to the developing world before. I would put it right in the middle of the developing-world curve for dirt, pollution, trash on the streets, etc. Exhibit A: this woman who I assume did not herself drink enough coca-cola to generate all the plastic garbage in this giant bag of plastic stuff. And assuming she gathered it from the streets, that presumes there is someone paying for recyclables, which isn't bad for the developing world, or even for the U.S., really.

Of Nepal: Sign

My Nepalese is a bit rusty, so I have no idea what this says.

Of Nepal: Dog versus Cow

Starting off our Nepal coverage with a bang... I don't know if there's really more to say about this one beyond "Dog versus Cow." Photograph taken in Kathmandu Durbar Square, the historic heart of the city, filled with dozens of temples, thousands of pigeons, and occasionally, a dog fighting a cow. (The dog and the cow faced off and put on aggressive displays but sadly, in the end, they did not actually fight. At least not while we were present.)

Of Nepal

We have a massive backlog of photographs. And words, I suppose. Since the founders' intent for this blog was mostly to amuse ourselves, and to keep notes about what living overseas was like, we sort of feel obliged to recall the stories that went with these pictures. In rejection of all the blog medium's conventions, we have never prioritized timeliness and are set to explore new frontiers of un-timeliness now.

So. Some time in May, your intrepid correspondents took their fourth of four awesome vacations from Kabul. I will reiterate here these talking points about leave:

1) Yes, we got a lot of leave from Kabul.
2) Embassy management did their best to ensure that the American taxpayers got their money's worth out of us while we were there.
3) But the intent of the leave is so that the civilians who never signed up for any of this years-away-from-the-spouse-and-kids nonsense when they joined the Foreign Service could have several chances to get back and see their families. You can't seriously object to giving people a chance to see their kids, right? Or do you just hate family values?

Since we had no children or spouses back home to visit, we took advantage and visited cool places that are closer to Kabul than they are to the United States.

Thus, our fourth vacation of the year, we went to Nepal and undertook a trek to Everest Base Camp, with some time in India thrown in for good measure. Over the coming days and weeks - more pictures from South Asia.

Surprise: The Holla is Back!

Seven weeks of Home Leave. Seven weeks of Home Leave. I consider myself quite lucky because I'm sure most honest people don't get a seven-week vacation at any point short of retirement. We tried to make the most of it, which included an almost-total internet silence. Limited email, no Facebook, about the standard amount of Twitter (i.e. zero), and no updates on the Holla. Sorry, loyal readers.

Now we're back in Washington, working like a dog for the man. Sort of. In any case, we're ready to attempt a regular publication schedule again, mostly working through a backlog of late Kabul material and Home Leave photos from Alaska and California and Colorado. E.g., above, from Surprise Lake, in the Eagle's Nest wilderness near Kremmling, CO.