It’s the last day of Bisket Jatra today. Or second to last, I lost track. In comparison to huge chariots, even bigger poles and pools of chicken blood, today was almost mundane. Devotees of the various gods and goddesses walked through the streets, visiting their favourite temples. Many of them were wearing traditional Newari dresses and most groups had a couple of musicians as well. Given that there are countless temples and even more groups of devotees roaming the streets, it’s fairly easy to see a part of the action.

Happy Nepali New Year, everybody! Around here, the first day of the new year is not greeted by littered streets and hungover masses. Instead, people flock to the holy places to bring offerings. I joined my guest family on their visit to the chariot, where they wanted to offer rice, fruits and a chicken. The latter had been sitting around the house since yesterday and the other volunteer and I simply referred to it as “tomorrow’s dinner” or just “tomorrow”.

It doesn’t get boring around here. The chariot had done it’s duty as a mobile temple/altar and was to be moved to its next destination. Before the procession started, everybody wanted to ring the bells that were dangling from the front of the construction. It did show some signs of the earlier blood orgy. As per usual, young and old had gathered plentifully and awaited the things to come. Today they were to pull on the chariot in one direction only, but that direction was uphill and hence the task was none the easier.

They have a thing here for poles. Number one in the morning was followed by a second one in the late afternoon. The crowd was massive and again hundreds of participants were pulling at the ropes to get the former tree skywards. I got the impression that efficiency is secondary and everybody is happy as long as they can shout and jump up and down. Given what they are doing and how they are doing it, it’s almost surprising that there aren’t more deaths and injuries.

It’s New Year’s eve today (in the local calendar) and as part of the celebrations, a huge pole was erected on Bhaktapur’s pottery square. The small square was jam-packed with locals and a couple of visitors. More than a hundred people were working on erecting the pole with ropes and supporting tree trunk constructions. Even with all the manpower, it took about two hours until the pole was upright. Or upright-ish.

The Newar people have a reputation for celebrating a lot. Thus it shouldn’t come as a major surprise that the New Year festivities last eight days. That and many other things I learned during a cultural introduction seminar held by the organisation I’m volunteering with. We had started the day with a prolonged walk through the city, during which our host told us about local customs. People in this area are fairly religious and bring a lot of offerings to the temples.

During my stay in Bhaktapur, I’d like to volunteer with a local organisation that needs support with their online systems. The main project coordinator wasn’t around today, but one of the staff members gave me a first briefing. It didn’t take too much time, so I had ample opportunity to roam around the old part of town. From what I’ve been told, the 2015 earthquake destroyed 6000 out of 17,000 buildings (sic!

[caption id=“attachment_4474” align=“aligncenter” width=“550”] Bye bye, laid back Pokhara, you lulled me in![/caption] [caption id=“attachment_4475” align=“aligncenter” width=“550”] Tourist bus station at 7:00[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_4476” align=“aligncenter” width=“550”] Along roaring rivers[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_4477” align=“aligncenter” width=“550”] Climbing up stunning mountain roads[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_4478” align=“aligncenter” width=“550”] Changing transport by the side of the road in Kathmandu[/caption] [caption id=“attachment_4479” align=“aligncenter” width=“550”] Hello Bhaktapur[/caption]

In other news: Mostly recovered from my recent encounter with the local gastrointestinal mob, but am not yet trusting my gut enough to sit on a bus for 8h. Booked a flight out of Nepal for late May and plan to spend a couple of weeks with the family in Germany before heading on to Canada in June.