Happy 2064!!

I swear, people are operating on so many different calendars here, it would be easy to plan a trip hitting a New Years celebration every other week. This past weekend I arrived in Kathmandu to celebrate the Nepali New Year of 2064. I had just finished a Himalayan trek and was in the town of Pokhara. For the new year, they had set up a fair lakeside with carnival rides, food booths, some games, and a stage for bands. Basically the same type of fair you find in the States. So I made a quick decision and shot down to Kathmandu on an 8 hour bus to find a more unique celebration.

I wasn't dissappointed. Sunday morning I jumped off a local bus in the town of Thimi and just headed in the direction of drums and cymbals. Soon I was caught in a crowd of parade goers. Thimi's celebration is different in that along with the traditional music, chariot floats, and parading, everyone is throwing bright orange powder dust around. Everyone around me was covered in orange. At first no one touched me with the dust, being really respectful that I was a visitor. But I wanted to join the fun and started asking people to douse me in the stuff. Soon after, a few guys befriended me, we shared some beers, and then back into the melee for more dancing and singing. Afterwards I visited their families and we shared some moonshine rice whiskey. It was a damn good day, my camera made it through unscathed by the powder and I got some good pics.

Two days earlier,I had jumped off the same local bus a little further down the line in the town of Bharaktpur. They have a 9 day long new year festival. The day I went, not much was going on. I did see the raising of a ceremonial pole that drew a large crowd. And I saw a huge wooden chariot that at some point in the week is pulled around town followed by a huge tug of war between the two sections of town, the winner holding possession of the chariot for the following year. Supposedly that's on Wednesday, so I may take another trip out there.

Besides the festivities, both of these towns were amazing. They were so medieval looking. If you took all the people out of the town, I swear you'd feel like you were in the middle of a 12th Century European town. Here's the pics.