Life goes on In Kathmandu

September 29, 1986 was my 26th birthday and here I was in Kathmandu with Steve just counting down the days for monsoon season to ease up so we could go back to India. "It's your birthday" Steve says "you can do whatever you want". Hmm I think, well You know how I love all those girly things like beads and bangles and colorful hair ties. Can we go to the Bazaar??? "Of course" he said hoping I would be satisfied with all the local colorful wares. I was in heaven. We ventured down to the local market and took a visit to the bead wallas. There were countless stalls all selling beautiful strands of any and every color bead you would want. I become paralyzed with the color choices. I had to decide what colors I wanted. After this brief stimulation overload, I finally decided on a couple simple colors. Then I had to determine the length. At that point, the elderly shopkeeper took them and wound a beautiful yarn clasp and tie around them in order to take them on and off with ease. Very clever.
Off we went to another stall and I found a few hair decorations I could not resist. Then came the glass bangles. I was in girly heaven. As we walked around the corner, I heard a familiar sound of music blasting from a stall. The song was Waiting in Vain by Bob Marley. Oh how perfect. I had to have the cassette. We would play it over and over again while in the hotel cafe drinking afternoon tea listening to it on their stereo. We sat and ate Apple pie with ice cream, with Bob Marley serenading and played cards. Somehow this birthday seemed so fun.

On our daily walks we would often encounter lots of animals especially dogs. One dog in particular stood out. I would see him almost daily and it seemed like he would acknowledge us too. He was a smallish stout dog, sort of cream colred with reddish ears and in a strange way reminded me off a pig. He had one funky eye and always looked sort of discombobulated. I named him "the Pigdog". After a while I'd call out to the Pigdog and he would take notice yet was to old and lazy to move. I snapped this pic before leaving Katmandhu. For all I know Pigdog was some sort of deity. Well maybe for me.

It was the first week of October and all of a sudden the skies cleared and we could se the surrounding snow covered Himalayas afar in the distance.. It was time. Monsoon was over. We could return to India. I was elated. As much as I enjoyed Nepal, my heart was in India. I had so much to see and experience there. I was ready to go back.

We got our things together, said our goodbyes and flew back to Delhi.