Shoot 7 : Nepal

Was invited to stay at a monastery for 5 days, sort of a spiritual trip to bless myself for the coming year.
I was really amazed by the size of it and how grand the decorations are. The size of our washroom is bigger than my bedroom back in Singapore. I think that speaks volumes for the rest of the rooms in the monastery.


I love the place. Love how peaceful it makes you feel, despite all the chaos you see on the streets and the masses of people. Somehow you feel at ease with yourself, somehow you feel alone amongst the crowd, in a good way.


Shopping in Nepal is fun. Much like how you would shop in Bangkok. Check out the prices at different shops and pull out all your best bargaining skills. They offer you 900 rupees? Counter offer them at 200 rupees. They won't ask you to leave or be rude to you. More often than you might think, you will end up paying just 300 rupees for that item.


The thing I love most is their concept of a cafe. Most, if not all of the cafes that we went to have seats up on the rooftop. With the soon to be tallest building in Kathmandu standing at 17 storeys talls, most of the buildings are around 5 storeys tall. This means you can see most of Kathmandu while sipping Chai latte on the rooftops. Brilliant sight.


Would have been better if the pollution wasn't so horrible. The air quality is extremely bad I have to add. You can see how dirty it is by wiping your face with a piece of wet towel.


But all in all, I love Nepal and I will definitely go back again if I have the chance. Also I realized that I'm a really really bad landscape photographer. It never interest me in the first place, but after trying to take some landscapes during the trip I finally concluded that landscape photography is not my thing. Phew!

Every morning I wake up at 6am, walk 15minutes to Stupa, sit on the same bench, put my camera to manual focus and point it towards the same direction. These series of photos are taken over a couple of days. I was surprised when I checked my photos and realized that there were many faces that appeared again and again over the couple of days. Guess these are the people whom I am attracted to taking.

    

                                                         

This was taken while we were sitting in our car. She and a few other Nepalese were squeezed into the back of a lorry. 

The next 2 shots were taken at this man's shop. Very good businessman. Recently started to shift his business online. Asked for advice about how to improve his product photos.

This was taken while the few of us were doing our final day shopping at Thamel. It is  seriously huge. Loved shopping there. Do spend half a day there and expect prices to be a little steeper.

This is my Dad, posing for me on request.

The magnificent Stupa. A very spiritual place for people of Nepal.

These 2 were the view at 6 in the morning from our monastery

 

The next three were taken at one of the rooftop cafes we visited. Lots of flowers placed along the ledges, with the Stupa and the whole of Kathmandu as the backdrop.

We stayed at the monastery with these young Lama (correct if I'm wrong with the spelling). The Master at the monastery gave them a place to stay and learn for free.

The cutest dog that I saw in Nepal. See him almost every morning while walking back from Stupa.

A very different playground.

Beautiful, lots of emotions. These series were taken while I was squatting down at a spot where many people would walk past in order to leave the Stupa. Love the buildings at the back. Has an Old HongKong feel to it.

Beautiful.

They were 'beggars' who asked for money. I asked if I can take a photo of them after handing 200 rupees to them. Seeing the photos now, they didn't look any bit like beggars.

Emotions.