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Paul Bigland

~ Blogging on transport, travel & whatever takes my fancy.

Paul Bigland

Category Archives: Nepal

4th November picture of the day…

04 Wednesday Nov 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in Musings, Nepal, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

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India, Musings, Photography, Picture of the day, Travel

Not that was I was really tempted, but I’m glad I didn’t stay up to watch the result of the American presidential elections come in – as they didn’t and I’d have had to listen to that odious frog Nigel Farage being interviewed by the BBC – as if the man’s got any genuine insight on anything. Instead I had a decent nights sleep and missed the ‘fun’. It’s taken all day for 2 more states to declare and the good news is that with just seven states left to declare Biden is a head of Trump by 29 electoral college votes. As much as I would dearly love for America to reject the values of Trump and his ilk I won’t believe it until I see it.

Still, It’s not been a bad day apart from being cooped up when the weather’s been gloriously sunny – albeit cold. I’ve been keeping my nose to the grindstone and wading through more writing as well as scanning a few more old slides to give me some variety. Looking back at pictures of the railway scene from 20 years ago I realised that it’s not just the network that’s changed. Some familiar lineside landmarks have disappeared too- which has given me the idea for a picture blog. Expect to see that appear shortly.

Stuck indoors self-isolating has been made a lot easier by the assistance of friends and neighbours who’ve offered to pick up shopping or even keep us supplied with wonderful home-baked bread like this. Susan dropped these two beauties off earlier on, so I made a Spanish white bean stew for our supper tonight to go with some slices. It’s good, winter-warming food.

Yum…

A few slices made a great meal with the bean stew.

Tempting as it is – the picture of the day isn’t going to be a food offering, instead I’ve gone for one that links several of my interests, including travel. This amazing piece of architectural confectionary is the inner building of the Rama temple in Janakpur in lowland Nepal (an area known as the Terai). According to Hindu legend it’s where the goddess Sita married Lord Rama.

I took this picture in April 1998. In those days the place was a bugger to get to because of the lack of border crossings between India and Nepal. Lynn and I arrived after a day-long bus journey across the Terai from the Eastern border where we’d come down from Darjeeling. We stayed a couple of days before getting an overnight bus up to Kathmandu. The whole journey’s worthy of a blog in itself. One day, when I’ve scanned all the old slides I might write it…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this blog, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course (although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab!), but the revenue from them helps to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site – and right now (because of Covid), us freelances need all the help that we can get. Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Thank you!

10th July picture of the day…

10 Friday Jul 2020

Posted by Paul Bigland in Nepal, Picture of the day, Travel

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Nepal, Picture of the day, Travel

I won’t bore you with the minutiae of my day today, instead I’ll go straight to the chosen (random) picture from my archive.

This was taken in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1992. The event was ‘Holi’ the Hindu ‘festival of colours’. Looking back via the internet I’m told this was the 19th March so I’d already been travelling solo for nearly five months. I was staying in the Thamel district of Kathmandu at the time which got a bit riotous out on the streets. So much so that some Westerners who were unused to Asia didn’t want to venture out. Myself and the young lady I’m posing with – whose name completely escapes me now – did – and we had a ball! Ok, we came back looking like this – but what the hell. You never wear your ‘bezzies’ to go out at Holi anyway…

The photo was taken on the roof of the hotel where we continued the festivities as we had battles with all the surrounding buildings as they threw coloured powders at us and we throw ours at them – and woe betide anyone walking past in the street as it was ‘bombs away’! As usual – there’s slides of those days that I’ve yet to get around to scanning. One day…

It was whilst I was staying here that I heard an album being played that’s defined that time ever since. Every time I hear it it transports me straight back to that that rooftop and those times in Kathmandu. The album? Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Full Moon Fever. When I got to Bangkok I bought a (bootleg) tape of it to go with my Sony Walkman (remember those?) in the Khao San Rd and it’s an album that’s become the soundtrack to my life and travels ever since. Thank you Tom – your music’s meant so much to me for many, many years. 

 

 

 

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