Momos with Dolma

Dolma invited Sandie and I over to make real momos at her house. Little blighters aren't as easy to make as you think. A simple flour and water mixture gets rolled into millimeter thick patties by the mother. The meat filling is already prepared and consists of minced meat, onions, cilantro and spices - quite fragrant even raw. A small dab in the middle and folding class begins. After we had made a couple hundred they got steamed and we had a feast! Delicious!



An enjoyable afternoon talking and making momos and doing laps around Bouddanath.

Such simple pleasures filled the day: Talking with Dolma and her brother while making our own tsampa for breakfast. Tsampa is a traditional Tibetan food made from buckwheat flour, butter, and butter tea - a doughy version of cream of wheat. Doing laps around Bouddanath in the energy of OM MANI PADME HUM and the smell of fresh ground incense burning strong.

Spray paint on a brick wall reads "Stop killing in Tibet" and I am instantly brought back to the reality of the Tibetan people who live as refugees with limited rights and yet continue to be most hospitable people.

Thank you for a wonderful afternoon Dolma.

Sekuwa with Sabena

Dinner at Bajeko Sekuwa, serving a variety of smoked meats. Yum! Must have been wine colored shirt day, not sure why we were all wearing the same color that night...


It was so good, I went back a few nights later with Raj and Sebena.


Unfortunately, Sandie was super sick and couldn't join us. Fortunately, there was jolly Shandy on hand to make a toast in her absence!



Thanks Sabena (the witch) for two great evenings of sekuwa!

Dinner at Ruth's rooftop cafe

Trekking friends get together for an evening of tofu burritos at Ruth's rooftop cafe. After shopping in the dark at the local grocery store for ingredients we convened for cooking duties. Sandie directed activities. Ruth made beans in the pressure cooker. Ruchi made chapati. I just hung around and drank wine.

What a lovely evening with a couple of new friends from the UK.



Yes Ruchi, the chapati queen, can actually cook!

friends at Boudhanath

My favorite photo from an afternoon I will never forget.

Hilltop villages

Majuwa is a village of 300 people situated on a ridge above the city of Kathmandu. My first full day in Kathmandu, my guide Expansion called to say his brother Ganesh was going to a village above Nepal and I was invited to come along. Ok... Why not! Ganesh has been working on a pipeline system with a Dutch company to deliver water from a spring to the village of Majuwa. Today he was delivering a couple more rolls of tubing to the village. So I got a tour of the plastic tubing factory and we strapped a couple rolls of tubing on the top of the taxi...

Its a wonderful village full of such friendly people. We enjoyed a cup of tea at the village tea house. We enjoyed a taste of rice whiskey hot off the distillery.

We hiked up to see the pipeline and fix leaks and to see the storage tank and cement tank near the spring. We stopped for tea and a thukpa lunch in the village above named Jaikuti. School had just finished for the term and kids were playing carrom in the courtyard area in front of the school. This is a photo of the school and a woman carrying water to her home.

Janarama Soda

Homemade lemon flavored soda. Pretty good with a slight aftertaste of rotten eggs. Funny guy. Family is famous in Kathmandu as is the soda. Making soda has been a family operation for several generations here.

The bottles have a little glass bead that seals the soda inside with the pressure from the CO2. When he wants to open one, he smacks the bottle on the top and the bead falls down enough to let the gas out. Homemade soda, delicious! Next time I''ll try Khus or peppermint or ross morry flavor...