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hi from Nepal

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Warmish mornings, cold night. No facility to download pics. Shall post when I get the opportunity.
Panting...hard walk.

Any inspiration or thoughts of something to photograph appreciated. Got to catch my breadth!


Best.
 
Warmish mornings, cold night. No facility to download pics. Shall post when I get the opportunity.
Panting...hard walk.

Any inspiration or thoughts of something to photograph appreciated. Got to catch my breadth!

Hi Fahim,

You tell us, what do you see when you walk out? People with colorful dress? People working outside? What's typically different from other places? Any snow, or is it too early yet, I have no idea. How high up are you, are you getting used to the high altitudes or how long does it take to acclimatize anyway ?

Looking forward to your images.
Bart
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Hi Fahim

Good to hear from you. No idea what to photograph, but hope that you have a great time.

Looking ofrward to seeing more of your wrok when you return.

Mike
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Fahim,

So glad to hear that you've arrived safely. This is a wonderful location. We're really looking forward eagerly to your photographs and narrative.

A be warm at night, B be safe, C be careful what you eat!

Asher :)
 
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fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Bart, Mike, Asher

Left Kathmandu, capitol of nepal. My personal impressions. Lovely, humble, friendly people. easy to get to talk to. i am very disturbed with the level of poverty that surrounds one. though most mod-cons are available e.g internet,cell-phones, etc. the living standards are unfortunately rooted
in ages long gone by.

infrastructure is rudimentary by western standards and that is being very very generous.
colorful dresses. polluted, over, over crowded. this place transports one to the age of dickens!

tourists mostly from europe, japan, korea and india. met a couple from colorado. main shopping centers have open sewerage flowing on either side of the street.

big indian influence is obvious.
main religion hindu and buddhism with sprikling of christanity and islam.

i am uncomfortable with the poverty around me. sad..very sad. i feel i would be taking advantage
of people's unfortunate conditions if i photograph them. but that is just me, i guess.

currently i am at 3000 mts. the night is very cold. sunset over the himalayas was a sight to behold.

wife has flown to start her trek for everest base camp. a korean summit ascent failed
a few days ago due to weather.

finding it difficult to upload images. film is available and so is processing and developing. choice is very limited.

very cheap by western standards.

ambeing careful what i eat...very important. one look could give one dysentary. only bottled water.

no fruits, veggies. just cooked rice and stuff. am told to keep my protein intake high.

to aclimatise needs at least a day or so above 4000 mts.

best to you all.
 

Ron Morse

New member
Your post is very descriptive and informative Fahim.

I hope you are enjoying yourself and I'm looking forward to your next report.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Bart, Mike, Asher

Left Kathmandu, capitol of nepal. My personal impressions. Lovely, humble, friendly people. easy to get to talk to. i am very disturbed with the level of poverty that surrounds one. though most mod-cons are available e.g internet,cell-phones, etc. the living standards are unfortunately rooted
in ages long gone by.

In some Nigerian Villages, away from the skyscrapers of Ibadan, I found bare earth subsistence living, Villages in Israel and the West Bank which were poorly paved, that hurt me deeply, Children in stop-off Islands in the Carribean tours, away from the walled luxurious shopping parks for tourists to buy gold and jewels, "wholesale: and tax free", had broken tin roofs and open sewers in gutters by their best stores, and so on around the world.

Amazingly, mostly the kids seemed, oblivious, on the surface, at least, to their long term diminished prospects. They skipped, jumped, chased, rolled hoops, having fun and seemed delighted with life. Except as, always, reality appears in the health clinics with long lines where one sees much more, of course (as in the USA too).

It's important to photograph. It counters the overly romantic and the memes of tranquil life.

am being careful what i eat...very important. one look could give one dysentary. only bottled water.

no fruits, veggies. just cooked rice and stuff. am told to keep my protein intake high.

to aclimatise needs at least a day or so above 4000 mts.

best to you all.

Do you have Lomotil for the runs and antbiotics? Tylenol for fever? A good idea!

Boil water and your own spoon!

Asher
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Ron, Asher

I is 1800 hrs here at about 3200 meters. Not high by trekking standards but for me every 50 mts
is a slog. I shall try to get to 4000 mts and then head back.

vegetation is getting sparse.

locals tell me that the mountains do not have as much snow as about 5 years ago. The rock is barren and black. They believe the weather has somethig to do with it.

The sky is crystal clear with the moon up, but i can see a million stars. the himalyas are shrouded in mist.

met a lovely young couple from canada that are working with orphan children here.

i have lomotil,ampicillin,plavix,zocor,renitec,amlor,aspirin and an assortment of over the counter medicine!!

wife's sat phone line is down. got an sms that she is at around 5400 mts. 2100 mts more to go!

got to get an early night..start at 0500 hrs in the morning.

best regards.
 

Andrew Stannard

pro member
Fahim,

Sounds like you are having an exciting time - looking forward to seeing some pictures when you return. A friend of mine did the Everest base camp trek a couple of years ago - your descriptive posts remind me very much of his experiences.

Thanks for keeping us updated,
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Fahim,

It is so good to hear from you and that all is going well so far. :)
Take good care and enjoy the experience, taking pictures should not be the highest priority there (I know, I know, I do the same mistake myself over and over).

Cheers,
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
Hi Fahim

good to hear from you!

You know, that I'm a bit a mountain addict too, and just a very tiny bit jalous :)

What to shoot?
There should be enough motifs arround; maybe it takes just a bit more time to get used to the height, the thin air, etc.

As you ask: a long exposures of the peaks with the stars making their lines? About 1 h of exposure would be required for that.

I think you know best to which altitude you feel comfortable, you aren't in a race anyway, which is a good situation for not overdoing.

Take care, I look foreward to see your impressions

Michael
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Hi again,

Back in Kathmandu. Tomorrow take a sightseeing flight over everest!

Rural communities are much cleaner than the cities. I am sure the Babylonians must have lived exactly like this.
The Nepalese seem to be endowed with a permanent smile. Mostly contented and optimistic. Maybe something to do with their beliefs.

Mountain village did not have power and hot water only in a bucket. Hordes of tourists..and I mean hordes.

Returning to Kathmandu was a nightmare. Trekked upto 4000 mts. After that every 50 mts was
laborious. called it quits. Words cannot describe the squalor and abject poverty here. The living
conditions must have been better in Biblical times. Feel very uncomfortable that those sharing
the same earth have to exist in this state. We commonly must share some of the blame.

Wife, last I heard about 3 days ago, was at 6000 mts and climbing.

An interesting experience...late one evening i had donned my night dress and was sitting outside.
the long dress was light yellow..faded due to washing. A group of western tourists approached
me curiously. ' Namastaes' were offered. I just nodded my head. In a very recognisable accent
one of the mid-aged ladies enquired if i was on a journey. I nodded. There were whispering amongst the group. The nice lady approached me sheepishly and asked if it was ok to have my photograph taken with them. Since I have no photos of myself in Nepal..I once again nodded.

Surrounded on both sides, with due reverance, we all smiled as one gentleman fron the group
bungled around with his p&s and got the photograph. Then he stood besides me and the ritual continued for some more frames.

The old lady asked me if I was from Tibet. For the first time I spoke and told them where I was from.

How strange she said, they did not know there were monks where I lived. Could they visit my country and see our monastries! were we of a different sect from the Tibetians..

Told them that we are a particularly recluse set of people and our sect and monastaries were totally different. They seemed to be impressed by my grasp of their language. I could not help but
tell them that we were multilingual!!

As a recently popular lady said..' I kid you not '. They went their way and I returned to my chantings!

Take care and best.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Michael, Bart

I do not have a tripod with me. but on a clear night the sight is amazing. astronomy is one of my pastimes, and i have spent quite a few nights here awake till past sunrise to see the magnificence
of the constellations. orion, sirius, swan, andromeda, taurus, gemini etc. in all their glory as they
make their way across the northern sky from high up in the himalyan mountains.

today i took a 90 mins flight over the himalyan range. glorious sight. difficult to capture the grandeur through a plane window ( and the cockpit ! ) but i have captured a lot of the various
himalyan peaks ( yes everest too !). close up i felt the other peaks had more attraction. Everest
was clearly visible and some of the base camps way down below. The weather was perfect.
In the Himalyas the tree line cuts off at about 3700 mts. so what you have is bare black/brown rock covered partially with snow. I did trek upto the treeline.

The wife managed around 600 mts. and is heading down, stopping along the way for climatisation.

I spent around three hours today visiting the Hindu cremation site. There were a few tourists about who snapped a few shots and went along their way. some had video cams. The sight,smell,feel,sound, and the taste of incense,burning wood,cloth and of course flesh cannot be
described. It has to be experienced.

I followed one sad ceremony right through. I shall post these images..some of them are very graphic...at a later date.

Take care and best wishes from Nepal.
 
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