I Love Nepal!

We have been back from Kathmandu for 5 days now (this is a back blip) and I haven't taken one picture since returning. I have however dreamt every night of taking photos of people in Nepal...

It's hard to sum up the experience of living in a different culture to your own and the impact it can have on you. I think it is one of the best things you can do during your life. It gives you a different perspective on your culture and lifestyle as well as teaching you other outlooks, other ways of being. Living in a place such as Nepal also highlights how lucky most of us are here in the U.K./Europe/The West are. The world is a very unequal place and we are the "haves". Access to clean water, health care and education are basics that everyone on planet earth should expect to have.

And it really shouldn't matter if you are a boy or a girl, though unfortunately it does.

We stayed with a Tibetan family during our stay in an area with many refugees. We fell in love with them and their kind and gentle ways. They smile and laugh a lot and I think we can learn many things from them. In Nepal their freedom of speech is denied them. Their country is occupied and has been for a long time. Tibetans in Tibet cannot follow their religion or practice their culture. It is being erased with violence and lies. This makes me angry and sad. Suffice to say we will be taking advantage of our freedom of speech to protest every 10th of March. Maybe we will see you there?

I have been quite overwhelmed with the positive response to my pictures over the last 6 months. I haven't always been able to respond as much as I would have liked but I can assure you that each comment is appreciated very much. I am very pleased with some of the pictures I have taken and that is a lot to do with Blip and it's fantasticly supportive community. So thank you for dropping by and seeing what has been going on, and if you are wondering where would be a good place to spend your next holidays (or perhaps longer) you couldn't pick a better place than Nepal. It and its people are simply amazing.