Colours on the streets in Kathmandu are quite different from the grey of Hong Kong's.
The streets of Kathmandu could not be more different from Hong Kong. There streets were grey, and relatively empty (it was a Sunday after all), the buildings tall, and everything meticulously cleaned. Kathmandu is dirty. For the most part, dirty in a way that doesn’t feel filthy or squalid, but lived-in. Walking through the streets feels like walking through the homes of the people who live here. Life happens on the streets in Kathmandu. Men squat fixing their bedding in the sun in front of their homes. Overloaded motorcycles, bicycles, and small Suzuki Bandit vans compete for dominance against pedestrians on the streets. Chickens peck at heaps of garbage for scraps. Goats tethered at the street-side munch at the grass and shrubbery of deserted lots. Traffic dodges ducks. Their owner dodges traffic to herd them back to her small front yard. Old women sell incense beneath makeshift shelters, and temples are dotted between the houses and business. First impression: Kathmandu is alive.
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- Colours on the streets in Kathmandu are quite different from the grey of Hong Kong’s.
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- Two Nepali women shelter from the sun beneath an umbrella.
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- There are many obstacles to traffic in Nepal. Not least of them ducks.
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- Following their altercation with the van, their owner is eager to herd the ducks back to the area in front of her home.
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- Small motorcycles, freed form the press of traffic, whizz by at high speed when the road is clear.
Oh this is really wonderous. The colors are just as I imagined. It’s also curious to see as simple a thing as ducks crossing the road, because I never thought of what a universal thing it is. Simple as it is, “Make Way For Ducklings” is huge here, and it feels less like such a foreign place to think of the ducks over there.
by the way, what is the sound that Nepali say ducks make there?