Sunrise view from the middle of Kathmandu

It was early morning (6:15 AM) and winter month (28 November, 2008), I wake up for different reason but when I saw the sky with golden and red clouds, I feel like taking pictures. It was time for sunrise so I waited for the sunrise with my camera. I remembered the days of my college time and a tour to Darjeeling. We went to Tiger hill or other hill, I forget the name, for sunrise view. We waited for hours for the sunrise scene but we were not very lucky that day. Due to heavy fog and cloud, we could not see a nice sunrise however we were hit by chill wind and we were almost freezing. Today, I didn’t feel cold but have a very beautiful sunrise. Many people go to different places for such moment and there might be different experience from different places. I have experienced sunrise from many places (Ilam, Dhankuta, Nagarkot, Dhulikhel, Daman, Ghandruk….) but today I realized that the view of sunrise from the middle of Kathmandu city was equally beautiful. Enjoy the sunrise through some clips.

Nepal as it is through some pictures

I don't know when we will develop our country in terms of facilities, infrastructure and behavior but I have not seen any sign of change till now. I have seen the changes in infrastructure, i.e., many buildings are being erected, roads are dug and wires were pulled. How managed and in a systematic way were these activities are taking place is always a question. While looking the Kathmandu, unplanned buildings, unmanaged traffic, insufficient water supply, uncollected solidwaste and dust are always the issues discussed. These issues are not addressed by local or national bodies hence the problems are increasing along with the increase of population. Look some of the pictures here. How unplanned is the city? How are the telephone, television, and electric cables are pulled? What is the nutritional value of the fruits exposed to sun for whole day and sold in open roadside stalls. In spite of all these things, white mountains and blue sky are always considered as the natural beauty of the city.

Nepali cultural night in Norway

Almost a month ago, Nepali Society in Ås (NEPSA), Norway organized a Nepali cultural night. The show was not the first of this kind in Norway but was first to Nepalese living in Oslo and Ås. According to the organizers, it was a grand success. Different cultural dances, songs, slide show and a short documentary on Nepal were shown in the event. Nepalese and other nationalities were present in the show. Please enjoy some of the clips. Due to camera shaking, pictures are blur. You may find good pictures from the society's web page www.nepsa.org.np

Road habit of Nepalese

Road construction is one of the important infrastructure for socio-economic development in Nepal. May be because of the fact that the first car enter capital on shoulder of men, road is not meant for vehicles only. People use/misuse highways in different aspects. People walk and cross highways as they like even without looking either sides. Nepalese highways are in maximum use with construction of residential and shopping buildings at both sides, leaving cattle on road, letting children to play, platform for husking rice or wheat and many more. Not only the road, people also use other resources to their optimum capacity. For example, people travel not only on seats of bus, they also use hood and doors for travel. People display and sell/buy things along road. Meat products are displayed along dusty roads without health hazard consideration. Only the vehicular roads are with these problems. However, the walking trails are peace, dust and pollution free, and with beautiful scenery.

Three mermaids of Norway

Drøbak is a small city lying in the Oslofjord. Oslofjord is a bay in the South East of Oslo, Norway. The city is very beautiful with lake like water view of the fjord. The fjord serves as a water road for all the ships and boats to and from Oslo. Last week, I had a visit to this place again as it was summer. A girl is reading while resting on the rock rooted deep down the water. Three mermaids with different poses are sitting on a rock lying adjacent to Drøbak Aquarium. But this mermaids statue is not popular compare to a statue of 'the Little Mermaid' of Copenhagen harbour in Denmark.

Roses for you!

Roses are the symbols of love and beauty. Roses are gift to lover, God and even soul and spirit. May be due to its colour, symbolic meaning and softness, it is used as national flower, national symbol and commercial trade mark by many countries and people. The colour of roses symbolises different meaning. It may be love, friendship, peace and so on... It is you to decide which rose you like among the following four ones. The pictures of these roses are taken from the rose garden at Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Aas, Norway.

Agricultural landscape of Norway

With green fields of wheat and potatoes, one might be confused whether Norway is an agricultural country or not. I am also not sure but due to its physical and climatic condition, it might be not. The arable and permanent cropland is also less than 3% of the total land area. The crops like barley, wheat, oats, potatoes and hay for animals are only grown during summer while thick snow covers whole land during winter. I came to know that Norway exports milk, fish and meat products and imports fruits, vegetables, and grains. The landscape pictures with wheat and strawberry fields are of summer. Fruits like apples and cherries are seen along the road sides and in home gardens but no commercial production of them.

Rhododendron: Gurans in Nepali

I have three posts on general information on Rhododendron. If you are interested on scientific nomenclature, here is it.
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ericales
Family: Ericaceae
Genus: Rhododendron L.
Species: (depends, e.g., arboreum)

Local name: Lali gurans in case of the national flower of Nepal which looks similar to the first picture in structure but has the colour like to the second picture.

I came to know that Rhododendron is being protected and conserved through local initiatives. Click here to see the activities of that project and to know the names of different Rhododendron flowers with the help of picture.

Rhododendron from Norway

Rhododendron is widely distributed species (growing from Northern to Southern hemisphere) though higher diversity is found in Himalaya. The flower is also cultivated as ornamental due to evergreen nature of plant and different shapes, size and coloured flowers. These are the snaps of some of the ornamental Rhododendrons in Norway.

Rhododendron - Nepal's national flower

Rhododendron is a beautiful flower with different colours and shapes. The Greek translation of Rhododendron means 'Rose tree'. However, Rhododendron may be small shrub to tall tree (up to 12 m). The hills of Nepal are coloured red, white or pink during the blooming season of Rhododendron. This flower also got national recognizing as national flower in Nepal. The genus and species which is dark red in colour is Rhododendron arboreum which is called as 'Lali Gurans' in Nepali. I will be posting the pictures of different Rhododendrons from Norway. Sorry, I don't know their species name.

Oslo in May 17

May 17 is the national day of Norway. The current constitution was adopted on this date so it is being observed as constitution day or national day since 1814. Norwegians gather at the main city center to celebrate the day in their typical dress, flag and cheers in their face. In different places, children perform parades with the school band through the local community. Parents and other people cheer up the children's activities on the day. Here are some of the pictures from Norway's capital, Oslo. The day was cold with snow and rain but there were many people to celebrate the day.

Weather in Norway is really unpredictable. Few weeks ago, I have seen spring flowers, it was sunny and warm weather. However, it snowed the next day and it went to minus 10 and all spring flowers were covered with snow. Again, two days ago it was almost like middle of spring. There were colourful spring flowers bloomed everywhere. I could even see motor bikers on the road. Usually motor bikes in Norway are rare as it snows most of the time and it is too cold to bike. Enjoy the beauty of spring flowers and check the lady biker in Norway.

Happy New Year 2065

I wish you a very happy new year 2065. Non-Nepalese readers may wonder about year 2065 but it is true that the Nepalese calendar system is almost 57 years a head of English calendar system. Usually the Nepalese new year falls between 12-14 April. Again, it is not on the same day as Nepal follows lunar calendar system and the number of days in a month vary from 29-32.

The picture is from Norway not from Nepal. You may guess whether the picture is of sun rise or sun set.
The picture is taken by Pentax optio camera.