Airbus and Boeing, everyone would have heard of these two names ......... the only companies that come to our minds when we talk about jet plane manufacturers. I recently read about Embraer, a company from Brazil that is leading the market in medium sized jets. It is good to see that there are other countries besides US and Europe that are successully manufacturing hi-tech machines like jet planes that have to go through strict and rigourous inspections before they are declared air-worthy.
There is also a page where sightings are shown on MS Virtual Earth map. Some sightings have videos. One is over Nepal himals. http://www.noradsanta.org/en/map/index.php
"Let's check out Freak Street first. It sounds like fun, and the guidebooks say it's right in the centre of the old city," I said to Karen.
We were on our final approach to Kathmandu, Nepal's ancient and mysterious capital. Mt Everest and the entire Eastern Himalaya stood before us like sentinels, armour glistening in the midday sun.
"Do you think we'll see any?" I asked. "What?" "Freaks. I wonder if any of them are still there." Karen looked confused and turned back to stare out the window as the seat-belt light flashed on.
Sculpted fields and clusters of mud-brick houses passed beneath us. Brightly clad women in saris of scarlet and gold paid no attention, and the sun reflected from gilded temple roofs as we stopped outside a newish looking red-brick building. We grabbed our packs from the jumble sale of luggage spread around the terminal floor, changed some money, and joined the queue to clear immigration.
STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE
Outside the terminal building groups of touts circled like crazed lemmings, trying to attract dazed travellers to their taxis. We joined three other adventurers, the five of us pouring into a four-stroke Japanese shoebox.
Our Nepalese navigator delivered us, via several detours and a stop for petrol, to New Road, which leads to Freak Street in central Kathmandu. One of Freak Street's original hippie-haunts, the Century Lodge, was our first stop, and they had some rooms available.
Freak Street's real name is Jhonchhen, meaning "line of houses", but it's rarely called that. It begins where Ganga Path, a continuation of New Road, meets Basantapur Square, and heads south for half a kilometre through one of the city's oldest communities.
Christened Freak Street in the late 1960s, it became the gathering point and centre of the universe for the world's hippies in search of peace and happiness, assisted by a colourful palette of mind-altering substances. It was home to an exciting array of hashish shops, cheap and colourful restaurants and hotels, and the many outrageous "freaks" who gave the street its name.
The Century Lodge was built in 1972 to cater for these psychedelic journeymen on their overland pilgrimage. Today it's an atmospheric, ramshackle guesthouse with low ceilings, carved teak windows, and a central courtyard that's home to a few potted plants and the owner's pet doves.
There is a well-stocked library and the cutest little lhasa apso called Lucky. Lucky's got bad cataracts now, but she still rushes around greeting everyone with the enthusiasm and slobber of a puppy.
A CITY WITH SOUL
Doves continue to sing into the fading light of dusk, and somewhere nearby there is the sound of traditional music. The sweet smell of clove cigarettes and hash is in the air.
This exotic cocktail seems to tease distant memories from the walls of the Century Lodge, but we didn't see any freaks. Plenty of laid-back budget travellers and the occasional aging hippie, but no freaks.
The days were spent exploring the old area of Kathmandu. The city is large, but the region of interest to most travellers is only a couple of square kilometres, bordered roughly by the newer tourist centre of Thamel in the north, Kantipath in the east, and the river to the west and south.
This is where the city was born, and where you will find Kathmandu's soul. At its centre is a small area surrounding Durbar (palace) Square, where the ancient marketplaces of Indra Chowk, Kel Tole and Asan Tole are linked by a narrow street that marked the start of the trade route to Tibet.
This district is home to a maze of lanes and paths unchanged since medieval times, used by millions of traders over the centuries, and still used in much the same way today.
In the evening we would become voyeurs, vigilant in our search for the elusive freaks. Upstairs in the Cosmopolitan Restaurant, on the eastern side of Basantapur Square, we dined on momos, curry, rice and noodles. We drank delicious lassis and shared pots of lemon tea. And we watched.
As the light faded traders turned their attention from their craft and produce stalls to preparing the evening meal. Lanterns were lit and distributed around the square, cows settled in for the night, and the scene took on a distinctly medieval atmosphere.
Still no freaks. The occasional bearded and beaded hippie with a shoulder bag and Nikon camera. But no freaks.
Sometimes we would take a late-night stroll around the district. We would usually end up at the Snowman, a wonderful little cafe-cum-restaurant that serves the best cakes and pastries in the area. It's a cozy, eclectic place with loads of ambience, tailor-made to its Freak Street surrounds. Surely we would meet some of the area's namesakes here. Nothing.
MAYBE SOME HASH WILL HELP
"You want hash, best in city? Maybe change money, best rate, just for you?" "No thank you," I said, dodging another pile of smouldering garbage and its obligatory pack of mangy dogs on the scrounge for food.
Further on is a group of homeless beggars, somehow still asleep under a few pages of the Kathmandu Post on this frosty five-degree morning. Like the dogs, many of the poor are horribly disfigured, diseased, or both.
This city is a constant assault on the senses, a paradox, seemingly on a crash-course with the 21st century while some of it still struggles with the 20th century.
In Durbar Square produce is traded at a furious pace. Women thread garlands of marigolds to be used as temple offerings, rickshaws roll by, and all around us people busy themselves with the morning chores of washing, praying and socialising.
We bought bananas and mandarins, and climb the 17th century Maju Deval temple to sit with a cup of delicious chaiya (sweet milk tea) and watch the day unfold. For over an hour we watch. Clearly, the freaks don't go to the market either.
KATHMANDU'S BROCHURE FACE
Frustrated, but not beaten, we decide to visit Thamel. A 20-minute walk north of Durbar Square, Thamel is the name given to a one square kilometre collection of districts that has replaced Freak Street as the city's tourism capital.
It's cleaner and slicker, jam-packed with traffic and people, and home to a range of services common to any commercial centre. There are no smouldering piles of rubbish here, no groups of itinerant beggars and society misfits, no open sewers and bands of scavenging dogs.
It's an exciting place, and moves to a frantic buzz of activity and noise without losing too much of Kathmandu's exotic personality. But the prices are higher, the pace faster, and the atmosphere a little contrived.
We relax in an upstairs restaurant, catching the midday sun and dining on (surprisingly) exceptional pasta as we watch the crowded intersection below. There are cyber cafes, travel agencies, bars, bookshops and even pool halls. But definitely no freaks.
REVELATION! THE LEGEND SURVIVES
Back at the Cosmopolitan that night, we chat with one of the owners, Santa Dongol, as we contemplate our last night in the capital. We have decided to move on tomorrow and explore some of the Kathmandu Valley.
"Have you enjoyed your holiday in Kathmandu?" asks Santa. "Very much. We like the city. It is very different for us," we explain. "And we like Freak Street more than Thamel. It's a good place to stay, but it must have changed a lot. All the freaks have gone." Santa smiles, "It hasn't changed that much. People still come here for the same reasons they did 30 years ago."
It took us a minute to appreciate what Santa had said. He was right. We were looking too hard. The freaks hadn't gone. They had been replaced by a new generation of earth- children seeking enlightenment and still pursuing the path to peace and happiness.
Thirty years on they didn't seem so freaky, but they were still here. Freak Street was alive and well, just a bit tamer than it was.
Then the power went out.
"Don't worry," said Santa. "This happens for a couple of hours every Tuesday here, and on Sunday in Thamel."
Outside, in Basantapur Square, the lanterns cut defiantly through the gloom as a tall, thin man, resplendent in a kaftan, beads, beard and plaited hair strolled barefoot through the crowd.
Maoists in Nepal make 'socket bombs' and 'pressure cooker bombs' .......... the Hamas in Israel/Palestine make 'Qassam Rockets'. It seems insurgents all over come up with their own indigenous ideas of manufacturing lethal weapons.
How much money does Nepali king earn? Dear Nepali citizens and foreign lovers of Nepal, You might be wondering why Nepal is still poor when its countries of equal economic status has reached the sky with booming economic development. Let me try to answer – this is one of the reason, I have recently found.Nepal is one of the poorest countries of the world but Nepal's king is the highest paid king of the world.
The income of Nepali king Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is : 2,426 times higher than that of Chinese president 318 times higher than that of Indian president 301 times higher than that of Pakistani president 173 times higher than that of Russian president 57 times higher than that of French president 15 times higher than that of British prime minister 10 times higher than that of American president Netherlands queen's income : Rs. 22,32,00,000 (per capita income Rs 17,25,120 ) American president earns Rs. 3,24,00,000 (1,15,20,000 returns in tax), (per capita income Rs 25,24,320) Japanese king earns Rs. 22,23,52,000 (per capita income Rs.24,15,600) Chinese president earns Rs. 1,35,000 (per capita income Rs 67,680) Indian president earns Rs. 10,11,000 (per capita income Rs 34,560) French president earns Rs 57,96,000 (per capita income Rs 15,84,000) Pakistani president earns (after the coup) Rs 10,94,000 (per capita income 29,520) British Queen does not get any salary from the state. She has a property of Rs 30,24,00,00,000 (the profit of investiment, after paying the tax, is hers) but even her neckless is the property of the country. British prime minister earns Rs 2,19,58,000 (per capita income is Rs 18,16,200) Russian president earns Rs 19,03,000 (per capita income is Rs 1,54,000) Belgian king receives salary as a civil servant (per capita income is Rs 16,74,000) And, Nepali king earns Rs 61,91,00,000 (per capita income is Rs 16,560=US$ 230) [This means the Nepali king earns Rs. 19,878 times higher than a citizen. Last year it was 37,385 times higher. Thus a citizen can earn as much as the king earns in a year only after working for 19,000 years or in 316 lives. Ho la!]
Appendix Nepali royal family is involved in various business. A king does not have to pay tax according to Nepal's constitution. The present king has inherited the property of earlier king's family and nobody knows how much it is. This king has taken Rs 1,06,45,00,000 in past three years for his small family.
Courtsey: Surya Thapa, Mulyankan Monthly (Nov-Dec 2005) US dollar 1 = Rs 72 Nepal has a writing system of giving comma after two digits except the last.
I never knew such things happened. A recent studies show that the Magnetic North Pole is shifting from North America towards Siberia. This means the 'Northern Lights', aka 'Aurora Borealis' will also be shifting. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4520982.stm
I had watched the movie before .......... long before, but I guess I had forgotten about it. I watched it again today. I must say it one of the best movies I have watched.
Outils 
Aide
