Saturday, May 19, 2012

Where the streets have no name

The often nameless streets of Nepal, rough, fascinating and distracting, are best tackled by rototiller.
or by chariot if you can convince 20 people that you are a deity.
The creepy deities watch us extra hard. The third eye represents wisdom, or so say the men who try to dot a big red one on your forehead.
You need all the wisdom you can to play rock-chess, "was that flat rock the rook?". Barry tells me a rook is "very famous chess piece, duh", but how can chess pieces achieve fame.
The temple bestows luck and eyes upon such games.
After a few thongbas, these buildings appear much straighter.
The streets beckon the eye with vibrant colours, and cowboy boots. 20 degrees is too cold for a sari, you layer sweaters over top.
There are sculptures in the streets. This one is worshipped, it seems, by nailing metal to it.
Durbar square provides lots of old temples, and many crowds too.
Hanuman hosts a colourful crowd.
All of the temples are tied down with prayer flags. Barry bought some in case we need them at home.


Faux monks, Pillow packs and Knife nooks

How do you tell a real monk from a tourist tout? I'm pretty sure it's in the shoes. This one lets you ring his singing bowl for a modest fee.Singing bowls are just one of many things you can buy. The more you can carry on your head, the more you can sell.Or buy. I wonder if my airport maneuvers could be made easier through the use of the head-carry, or the head-pack, both shown here. I also wonder if my neck would get shorter.This man has the full body pillow pack, which is handy for napping, sports, and crowded public transit. How can you go wrong?Here is a picture of boys carrying their sketchy water home from the public fountain, while a woman sells papayas. This picture could be from many places in the world, so I'm not sure why I chose it. But it's here now, so let's talk about it. Ok, done. Right. Smoothly transitioning back into shopping. Nepal sells a lot of Tibetan weapon knives. Seems a tough thing to bring through customs.
The nook at the base of the blade, Barry tells me, is so that the enemy's blood doesn't soil the handle. Good violence hygiene, I figure, and prevents spreading enemy diseases.C0tt0n candy seller, for a much friendlier purchase. Here, hats to be worn neither while fighting enemies, nor on a first date.We bought some Thangkas (but not this one), because you can't go wrong with geometric Buddhist symmetry, right?

Striking Kathmandu

Sometimes the prettiest things are found in unexpected places, such as walls in Kathmandu.
Marigolds sold outside the temple.
Barry inside the temple.
Teeny tiny puppy monsters gargoyling at the temple.
The gargoyles below were slightly more flirtatious.
Check out the tree growing all over the building behind the "religious" men, who paint the red dot on your forehead, for a fee.Finally, an apparent sale on bright paint.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Searching for Laura in Singapore 3

People find this place in strange ways. Here are the top 10 categories of search terms.

1. Cannibalism
cannibalism in singapore, singaporean cannibal, cannibalism sushi singapore (really?!), thai funeral cannibalism, canibalism langa singapore, singapore cannibal curry, delicious face - I get a lot of hits on this, which worries me. What are people looking for? I have searched too, and found little except some gross pictures. My thinking is that food's really cheap here, and people don't look delicious. I'm recommending that we stick to reading here.

2. People needing more schooling
plants that animals eat - um, most of'em.
why do eurasian eat - you realize they're real people, not statues or zombies. Oh wait, zombies eat brains, but you wouldn't have to worry about that.
how to plant four leaf clover - if someone sells you a four leaf clover plant, you've been had.
singapore to seoul by train - time to learn about the Kim family.

3. Things that terrify me
where can i donate my excess skin in singapore - Ack! Welcome to the world of ILLEGAL. And where did said skin come from?!
snorkel fire - a fire contained in a face mask, help!
puffball cryptid - I had one of these flying around my apartment once and I had to move.
michael bolton in your dreams - these are nightmares, you're confused.
michael bolton sweet - recurring, evidently.

4. Fruit Identification
fruit names in english, fruit singapore, fruits of singapore, what are fruits names
- There is an alarmingly large need for increased fruit knowledge. I need to help these people! There is a blog dedicated to your needs!

5. Awesome things
automatic shawarma machine - This is a brilliant idea, and I recommend patenting quickly. I assume I press a button and a shawarma sandwich pops out, maybe after a minute or so to heat the meat and bake the pita?
candy grabber singapore - great machine, something to have after the automatic shawarma I think.
antique flenching knife - Fun fact - Flenching means cutting up whale blubber, did you know? Not available on my blog, but can be purchased online.

6. The Turks
japon yemekleri, kore yemekleri, japonya yemekleri - Turkish dishes! The turks are looking for Japanese and Korean dishes, while I'm looking for some garlicky Lebanese food here in Singapore.
maymunlar - Turkish monkeys
nemo balıklar - Turkish for fish, suggests Disney's marketing in Turkey was sparse?

7. Areas where I can assist
man canoe suit - As a recognized Canadian, I recommend this.
health benefits of umeshu - I got excited thinking liqueur might be healthy, but no. Historically the Japanese thought ume fruit killed three kinds of poisons, poisons in food, water, and blood.
alex from france - You meant Glenn from Canada
cambodian monsters pictures - see Khmer Rouge.
salt and pepper to ward off evil spirits - nope, more or less for seasoning. Pay attention to your parents.
is it safe to live in little india singapore - compared to almost anywhere else in the world? yes. You may want to reconsider your prejudices, mind you.
is it worth trying out glass blowing in otaru - Yuhuh, and please blow me another blue sake glass, there was a sad accident.
is november/december a good time to visit singapore? - Welcome to the equator, where the weather never changes. So it matters none.
pongal panai timings - we've all struggled with this, but I have an easy reference for you! So go forth an boil milk!
8. True Blog Themes
strange canadian, strange canadian sightings, thanksgiving ate too much, intelligent issues, intellectual curiosity - These people have understood what my blog is really about. The get me.

9. Things that are wrong
the most popular whitning face scream in sigapo - again, all indications are that face whitening eats into your intelligence, and as above, this is blog covers intelligent issues!
eating pu - more hygiene and more school for you!
drowning a fish - anger management and science class for you!
ear cleaning spa singapore - I could give you advice, but you wouldn't hear it, and it turns out there actually are ear cleaning spas! Ew.

10. Potential future topics
learn about clams - why yes, I think that we should
where to buy mini trampoline in singapore - you know, I think I need one soon!
laura singaporessa nuuskamuikkunen - This might be my new favourite. It's a Swedish Snufkin! AND it's the character on these snacks! Thank you Google, now I must find out more.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Eating and Drinking in Kathmandu

We discovered something like perpetual motion or free energy in Kathmandu. It started with a hunger.Perhaps for a street goat, or chicken?Here is where they get turned into meat. Graphically.This is what it looks like after a boar is butchered. They didn't let us photograph it, but did you know that boars have bright orange skin? Anyway, not so appetizing, what with the flies, blood buckets, and unidentified bird. The street food vendors were picking each others' hair. Let's hope it's for esthetic purposes only.
Anyway, this menu offered improved hygiene, and a matrix of momos - Nepalese dumplings, genre India meets China.
We ordered several of the 32 kinds.
More interesting Nepalese food below includes, clockwise, more momos, buffalo jerky, crunchy flattened rice, paneer dish and cornmeal bread.
Onto drinking. Barry was less into the yak butter tea. Imagine melting butter into heated milk. Seems like it would be good if you were cold and skinny on a mountain, maybe?So we moved onto Everest.
Later we got more daring and tried tongba. At first, I was confused about the vats in front of me.Vat 1 is full of millet, into which you pour hot water (which you really hope was boiled) from vat 2. Wait a few seconds, and vat 1's millet has oozed alcoholic tastiness into the brew, which you sip through a filtered straw.The beauty is, that for about $1, you can repeat the above steps, apparently forever! More water, more yummy warm beer stuff! Once I tried it, Barry got brave too. After all, it's like perpetual motion!