Morning came and the inevitable happened. We had to wake up. Because we got here at night we didn’t get a chance to see pretty much anything, only a couple on moonlit reflections on Kulekhani lake before reaching Markhu. I loved the place we stayed at. It resembled Transilvanian country homes / huts.
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We had a good night’s sleep. After some delicious Dal Bhat in the evening and the previous pedaling day we slept like babies.
The guy from the lodge we slept showed us the best way to get to from Dashinkhali to Kulekhani Lake. We were supposed to reach Kulekhani during the first day, but things did not quite go as planned.
So we woke up early in the morning but didn’t manage to leave too soon, since it took a while until our breakfasts arrived. People were already working. They usually wake up around 5:30 AM. They work on the rice terraces all day long. They have lunch a little later than we have breakfast. Makes you feel a little weird, being a tourist and just biking from place to place.
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I love biking. That’s no secret, but it made quite a difference in Nepal. One of the first things on the list was to rent a mountain bike. Răzvan and Alina already had bikes and after I rented one for myself we decided to go on a 2 day tour around Kathmandu valley. Our route was Kathmandu – Dashinkhali Temple – Kulekhani Lake – Thankot – Kathmandu and the scheduled time was 2 days. We prepared some things to take with us (my backpack included 1 camera and 3 large lenses) and were ready to hit the road.
Woke up not so early in the morning and got on our bikes. Kathmandu is extremely (and I do mean extremely) polluted. Even though the weather was hot we had our masks on, because of the heavy smoke. We got past the city’s Ring Road and the air was a lot better.
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I arrived in Kathmandu a bit confused. Got off the plane and the airport looked a lot like a bus station. I had two things to do before I could get out of the airport: take a photo and pay for the visa. Didn’t seem like a lot of things to do, but they lasted for over an hour.
Finally I got through the infinite visa queue and my passport was the newly found owner of a 30day visa. I get my luggage and go towards the exit, together with a dutch couple that I met while waiting. As we go down the flight of stairs we see another ginormous queue with a sign saying „CUSTOMS” at its end. We all said: „S**t. Not another one”. One of the security guards, after seeing the look on our faces, came to us and led us straight to the exit saying „No, only for locals, no for tourists”.
As we got to the exit we were invaded by a lot of cab drivers. Felt close to the sensation I had at home. Since I knew that my friends were waiting and had absolutely no idea on where I was going I rejected all of them. Didn’t even know if their prices were good or not. I just assumed that they’re higher because of our location. I say goodbye to the dutch couple and join my friends. We look for a taxi but their prices are at least double from the ones I heard inside the airport. It’s the first thing I learned about Nepal. The price you hear at fist is just a greeting. I think its sole purpose is for you to practice dividing by 2 or 3. We took the cab that offered a free ride to the hotel if we stayed at that specific hotel.
(mai mult…)
Istanbul was the first stop of my trip to Nepal. It would be my first time there and I’d have about 10 hours ‘til my flight to Sharjah and Kathmandu. Not sleeping the previous night and carrying 2 big rucksacks made me wonder on how much I’d enjoy this close to home but never visited city.
I made a note with some directions on how to reach the airport that I had to reach by 10:30 PM and off I went. Got on the subway, took the tram and decided to get off in time to walk through the Galata Bridge. The city looks impressive, with it’s large mosques and busy streets. There were a lot of things that reminded me of Bucharest a couple of years ago.
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Slowly but surely I’m getting up to date with my blog post. Funny though is that I’m trying to organize myself in the noisiest, loudest, disorganized place I’ve ever seen. Kathmandu is like giant, breathing organism, and the traffic is a sheer representation of that. Everything’s moving just like fish move in schools, like they have a unified brain. During the day the city is so crowded that basically you can’t see the city becase of the people and cars. But during the night you get to see the city, the cruel and harsh reality. But this is not about Kathmandu, I’ll get back later on that.
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Plecasem din Italia, după expoziția din Legnago. Am luat un tren dis de dimineață, către aeroport. Nițel întortocheată situația, deoarece la 2 ore după ce ajungeam în București decola avionul către Dublin. Un lanț în care singura intarziere binevenită ar fi fost din partea avionului spre Dublin.
A fost prima vizită în Dublin, dar mă așteptam cumva să semene cu Londra. Într-un fel mi s-a părut că seamănă. Mult mai mic și mult mai accesibil în comparație cu Londra. Titlul articolului este nițel tras de păr, în total am stat o săptămâna în Dublin, nu o singură noapte. În schimb într-o singură noapte am apucat să mă detașez nițel de loc și să las aparatul să fotografieze. Pe de o parte e bine că eram pentru prima dată în Dublin. Prima dată când mergi într-un loc privești lucrurile într-un mod mai puțin alterat de propria personalitate, lucru care poate fi și bun și rău, o lamă cu două tăișuri. Nu spun că personalitatea fotografului nu trebuie să fie prezentă în fotografii. Ea oricum este prezentă, dar este interesant să îți antrenezi acest mod de a fotografia la prima vedere.
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E septembrie, a inceput toamna. Am plecat spre Verona. Pe 12 septembrie era programat vernisajul expozitiei din Legnago. E vorba de o expozitie colectiva de fotografie sustinuta in Muzeul de Arheologie din Legnago, expozitie la care am fost invitat sa expun niste cadre. Aceasta a fost a 3-a expozitie pe care am avut-o in Italia, urmand inca doua la sfarsitul acestui an.
Din moment ce expozitia nu avea o tema anume si vazand cum este aranjat locul de expozitie am ales sa expun o serie de 6 cadre cu Duke Ellington Orchestra, facuta in primavara, cadre alb-negru, iar pe peretele opus o serie de portrete din studio, color.
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In sfarsit se apropie. De curand am fost la conferinta de presa Stufstock, iar noul festival mi-a trezit interesul. Workshopuri, expozitii, proiectii de film si sa nu uitam Rock.
Cel mai tare m-a amuzat cand, in timpul conferintei cineva a zis: „De salvat nu cred c-am reusit sa salvam nimic, dar macar am adus muzica buna”, referitor la Salvati Vama Veche. Si cam asa este. Probabil procesul de popularizare era deja in plina desfasurare, in schimb calitatea muzicii care aparea era cel putin indoielnica.
Dupa cum am spus si in articolul de la Stufstock 2009, cel mai mare si mai tare lucru pe care l-au facut a fost ca au adus scena pe plaja. Degeaba organizeaza un festival la mare, daca lipseste din peisaj fix elementul „mare”. Poate nu vrei sa stai in fata scenei, in picioare. Si-asa e aproape dimineata. Poate vrei sa stai in nisip, cu picioarele-n apa, uitandu-te la trupele de pe scena. I know I did.
Si ce poate fi mai frumos decat sa stai in apa si sa auzi probele de sunet. O libertate pe care n-o poti avea la orice festival. Da, e aglomerat, apar nu stiu ce oameni, sunt masini, e asfalt. Dar cred ca iti poti gasi un loc in vama, daca il gaseai inainte.
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A trecut o luna de la concert. A trecut cam repede, dar s-au intamplat multe. Festivalul Ciuc Summer Fest a durat 3 zile. Pe 16 iulie, cap de afis a fost Faithless, care si-au facut incalzirea in Garage Hall impreuna cu Urma. A fost o seara memorabila, despre care am scris aici:
https://blog.greywolf.ro/index.php/2010/08/jam-session-urma-and-faithless-garage-hall-bucharest/
Stiam ca o sa fie un concert foarte bun, dupa jam-sessionul cu Faithless. O prima repetitie cu public, inaintea unui concert mare. Si asa a si fost.
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