Around Bhaktapur, the Nepalese

Eventually one will find out what made of a country is not its land, scenery, certainly not its king or government, it is the people. And Nepal is such a charming country owes every bit of it to its people.  Coming to Bhaktapur, you are surrounded by all the locals and often the visitors, but you get the undeniable sense that you are in Nepal. The local have lived here for hundreds or thousands of years, their live their particular way of life, although there are some western impact, it is still very much Nepalese, and seemed not bothered by the flood of tourists, in fact, the visitors may find themselves quite welcome here. Certainly a good thing.

This image of some young Nepali girls, carrying their water jars to get water, with the kind of acceptance to their fate and true happiness, you are not likely to find in other country.  Image taken with Canon 5D II.

And these pair of sisters, with their nature beautiful tanned skin, innocent eyes, somewhat reserved smile, and seemed to be perfectly happy to be living here, that. considered by many developed countries a poorly developed area with not even a moderate plumping system.  One may wondered, if a country is  gauged by the happiness of its people rather than just wealth, Nepal might well ahead in the world.

And here another young Nepali girl, calm and patiently waiting for the picture to be taken. This one taken with Canon 1Ds III with EF 85/1.2L.

And a Nepali woman, much weathered, with the powerful Renminbi - from my fellow traveler, from China.  These days, in all the tourist hot spots, the "new green bill" is everywhere, more so by the way the Chinese spent it.  But this is a common sign, perhaps decent from a century ago when rich western came to poor east, or the Japanese who once thought to buy the world...... common, it is Chinese turn now! I am just happy for the locals.

And here an elderly Nepali man, sitting on his heels, enjoying the sun and his cigarette.   The Canon 1Ds III I use here with EF 35/1.4L captured the fine detail in this image, a bit pity for the small blog space to share with readers the high resolution image.

Some Nepali women work on their knitting. The Nepali are used to work in relatively poor light, and you see something like this all over Nepal. May be they just work when it is visible, and rest when it is no longer visible. This is perfect nature, come to think of that!

And this one, a mother and her baby son, scared by his brother playing around.

Here another Nepali girl working on pumping the water from a well on street.  She is one of the very few shy girls I met the entire trip in Nepal, avoiding eye contact with me (the camera), keep her smile to herself, but still let me take pictures while her work, I took it as a silent approval.

And another baby boy enjoying his fingers.

A Nepali boy! Shy, and less com-fortable in front of camera than girls, but a character!

To remark how tough the water situation is: a shot into the water well.  This is March, monsoon is still more than a month away, snow of the Himalaya just started to melt, not much water available.