BikerZ goes to ... NEPAL!

[maillotpois]

Wow - amazing! I love your pictures of the people. They make it so much more alive and warm than shots of things and landscapes.

[bikerz]

Thnaks for your kind comments, everyone! I took many many more photos, and haven't really waded through all of them yet. My friend Mary was using my other camera and a telephoto lens, and she got some truly wonderful people shots with that lens (I was using a wider lens pretty much all of the time). I'm really looking forward to seeing her shots.

Michelem - no, I most certainly did NOT eat the yak chile! I've found it prudent when traveling in Asia to be totally vegetarian, and that's what I did in Nepal.

Tuckervill - the "drums" are prayer wheels filled with tightly wound scrolls of paper covered in Buddhist prayers written by monks or lamas in tiny script. Buddhists believe that when a prayer wheel is turned (always and only in a clockwise direction) the prayers inside the wheel are delivered to heaven. There are prayer wheels everywhere, of all sizes, some are portable and spin on a small stick, and some are huge and really take some muscle to turn. They were everywhere along our path in the mountains, and very common in towns where there were Buddhist temples, monasteries, or shrines. Our porter Buddhi even had a spinning prayer wheel "screen saver" on his cell phone!

[Tuckervill]

Thanks for the explanation!

I have always wanted some prayer flags to hang in my yard, and just last month the planets aligned and I found some. Now I'm happy to see them every day.

Karen

[snapdragen]

Dang it, I can't see the pix very well. Laptop is in the repair shop, so I'm using the Mini-Me lappette A 7 inch screen does not do them justice.

[SadieKate]

Tuckervill - the "drums" are prayer wheels filled with tightly wound scrolls of paper covered in Buddhist prayers written by monks or lamas in tiny script. Buddhists believe that when a prayer wheel is turned (always and only in a clockwise direction) the prayers inside the wheel are delivered to heaven. There are prayer wheels everywhere, of all sizes, some are portable and spin on a small stick, and some are huge and really take some muscle to turn. They were everywhere along out path in the mountains, and very common in towns where there were Buddhist temples, monasteries, or shrines. Our porter Buddhi even had a spinning prayer wheel "screen saver" on his cell phone!

Tuckervill, to learn more read Terry Pratchett's books. No not really, but it was kind of cool to see real ones.

As usual, Ann, you wowed us with your imagery and your vision.

[bikerz]

Thanks SK!

I've uploaded a few videos to the flickr site as well:

And (finally) here's the AV flag (um, buff) flying in front of Everest:



Unfortunately, Everest is a little hard to see behind me, but it's there!

[DrBadger]

Wonderful photos Ann! Sounds like an amazing trip, and only 2 of you in your "group"! How amazing!

Glad that the Ginkgo worked so well too!

What an amazing accomplishment! Get some sleep now!

Ellen

[Tuckervill]

Tuckervill, to learn more read Terry Pratchett's books. No not really, but it was kind of cool to see real ones.

As usual, Ann, you wowed us with your imagery and your vision.

I looked up Terry Pratchett, and I don't get it, unless that's some reference to Discworld. But anyway, I also looked up prayer wheels and I would really like to see the scroll inside. I couldn't find any pictures like that.

I'm kind of hopeless when it comes to mechanical things. I need to see them inside and out to really understand, and this happens to strike me as a burning desire to know exactly how they work. (Um, I know about the prayer part--it's the mechanical part I'm curious about.) I found a series of pics of somebody building one, but it was woefully incomplete.

I'd really like to see one in person! Thanks for sharing the pictures once again.

Karen

[aka_kim]

Thanks for sharing this with us, Ann. The pictures are just amazing - really worthy of a professional and really ... I don't know ... evocative. The videos are fun, but the bridge crossings made me dizzy just watching; I can't imagine crossing them, esp. not while filming.

[bikerz]

Tuckervill - Check out this website - they have a video that shows the process of creating the scrolls of mantras that are inserted in hand-held prayer wheels. Hopefully the video will show you what you want to see!

The reason those large prayer wheels are so hard to turn is they are full of paper scrolls covered in mantras written in tiny, tiny script. Think of the weight of all that paper!

I visited a Buddhist meditation center in Kathmandu that had a tiny prayer wheel (about the size of the end of my pinkie finger) designed to be worn on a chain around your neck - it contained a mantra (composed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama) which was reproduced in microscopic text hundreds of thousands of times.

[SadieKate]

I looked up Terry Pratchett, and I don't get it, unless that's some reference to Discworld. But anyway, I also looked up prayer wheels and I would really like to see the scroll inside. I couldn't find any pictures like that.

Prayer wheels just appear in many of his novels. I can't remember which one but they were very prominent in one and, I think, controlled time.

[SadieKate]

The videos are fun, but the bridge crossings made me dizzy just watching; I can't imagine crossing them, esp. not while filming.

Yah, and you know I am not going to watch them.

Maybe some kind of medication prior to viewing would help.

[jobob]

And (finally) here's the AV flag (um, buff) flying in front of Everest:

Amici Veloci is everywhere!

That's so cool Ann!

[bikerz]

SK, that was a running joke with our guide!

I was terrified the first day we attempted to fly to Lukla (after the crash) - I could hardly speak I was so scared. I had decided not to take a Xanax because we were stepping off the plane and doing a 5 mile hike right away. I got a reprieve because flights that day were canceled, so the next day when we went back I decided the heck with it, I'm taking that Xanax, and it was like night and day. There's a picture of me on the plane as we're getting ready to take off with a big relaxed smile on my face. Amber was surprised and asked why I was so calm, and I said, "Well, you see, there's this little pill I took..." He couldn't believe it!

Mary was very uncomfortable crossing the bridges, and Amber doesn't like looking off sheer drops (neither of which bother me at all). So the rest of the trip we kidded around about "Where's that little pill?"

[bikerz]

Amici Veloci is everywhere!

You know, I totally forgot to pack my AV cap (I'm wearing a cheapo Nepal cap in the shot). That picture is the last time that buff was clean and dry!