rediscovered these images from bhaktapur which i forgot to share. thanks to liyana for the reminder!

conversing dolls i came across on my walk home. since no one was tending to them, i think they have been disowned.

they told me that at the end, everything can be distilled down to what “she said he said”. a million and one ways to proceed, each more complicated than the one before, and more unpredictable.

all i have to say regarding this epic chess match, is that i hope i never stop seeing and feeling something new, bizarre or unexpected everyday.

because if i do i’d rather fall off the board.

i almost forgot about him.

self-portrait in exercise ball

(before i begin and spoil the rest of this post, i’d like to thank my friends and family (and facebook reminders) for their generous outpouring of love and well-wishes on my birthday.)

and so, i was rudely transformed yesterday into a quart-centenarian, silver jubilator, 2 dozener + 1, etc. i think turning 25 is more significant than turning 21, because 21 is an arbitrary figure that begs to be shrugged off, whereas 25 is a nice, round number (alas, not a prime number!) that is more a milestone of mortality (i’d like to see this milestone at least 2 more times, if it’s ok. if not, 3 more also can).

this time last year, i was in the heights of nepal, and high in more ways than one. i remember very clearly the dutch apple pie (warm, not cold) which doubled as my birthday cake – a gift from 3 good friends and fellow travelers – and then freezing our asses off as we left the warm confines of summit hotel, heading home to our swindling landlord and also on to the rest of the mind-blasting internship experience (and the even crazier month in india).

that was the best 6 months of my life, and i have a sneaky suspicion that i might never be that happy again, though i certainly hope otherwise. if there is ever an appropriate time to bandy the tired expression “must try, no regrets!!!”, it is at this point. and though it still pains me a little to say this, i would never have traded it up for anything. no, not even love.

(i hope i don’t end up like one of those people who lives in the past, though retrospection seems to be in my nature, and almost compulsively so. i try hard not to imagine this embittered beast that has taken on a life of its own, growing ever hungrier and larger by the day, though i’m sure it is. so far, i have a handle on things, i’m still on top. who knows for how long though.)

from that back to singapore. safe, sterile singapore. a model of stability and efficiency no doubt, but still one gigantic hospital where people come to give birth and to die (i’ll have proof of that soon enough). back to my 4x4x4 room in my parents’ house, which is increasingly beginning to feel like a jail cell. why not get your own place? you may ask. well, last time i checked, all prices pertaining to property looked unpalatable. this has also, among other things, raised in me a desire for a swift exodus.

all is not bleak though, and there are things to be glad for. for one, my parents have yet to signal their intent in crowbar-ing some grandkids out of me. for that i’m grateful.

so here i am, 25 and at the edge of the chasm. so much uncertainty, too much in fact. when we were kids we used to tremble with sweet anticipation for the future. at 25 one can only quake with fear.

make some resolutions man, you say. strive for solid ground… achieve!!! i’ll tell you now that i hate resolutions. rather, i hate having to face up to the unfulfilled ones 2 times in the first month of the new year. it is the great burden and curse of being a january crybaby.

regardless, i did try for resolutions this year. the list ended at 1 – to get healthier and fitter (which actually makes the photo above a bad joke, haha).

on that note, i’d like to wrap up my yearly allowance for self-indulgent pity mongering. see you guys next year.

and life, see you when i’m 90.

the obligatory silhouetted self-portrait, as ET in this case

if the terms above are familiar to you, you must be an aficionado of photography with an iphone like me. i adore my 5dII and all but frankly, lugging it around all day everyday (with all the lenses and accessories) is a real pain. in fact, i find that i only shoot with the dslr when i absolutely have to (for the resolution and image quality).

sometimes, all i want is a little device for capturing whatever i fancy without drawing attention and poking a giant lens into somebody’s face. i guess that something is called a leica or a compact point-and-shoot, but what’s not to love about having your camera, phone, music player, social media center and gaming device all rolled into one? besides, where built-in cameras used to produce barely usable images, that of the iphone 4 is impressive.

there are also dozens of camera apps for the iphone to toy around with. personally, i use hipstamatic (with the john s lens and blackeys supergrain film mostly), plastic bullet (for borders and color effects, randomly generated) and camera plus pro (this one enhances the original camera app). below are some of my images shot with the iphone.

with hipstamatic —

processed with plastic bullet —

the next 5 were shot during a dinner at my auntie’s kampung house in malacca (with a bit of noise reduction and sharpening in adobe lightroom 2) —

not bad considering the low-light condition, i think.

i spent the new year on a trip to cameron highlands with avid travelers (and good buddies) yusuf and sern yong. it was a much needed (and hastily hammered together) getaway from city life, especially from the crowds and my increasing sense of claustrophobia. after the internship stint in nepal, i can scarcely push away the feelings of dissatisfaction and disillusionment with life in singapore, though that’s a blog post for another time.

after 12 hours on the road, the only cure for weariness in the cold of the night is hot, delicious food.

counting down to 2011 was a rather subdued affair over drinks, though we were issued ravers’ finger lights, whistles and mini-poppers. the nearest party was probably miles away in kuala lumpur.

breakfast the morning after was roti canai (malaysian version of prata), which we had a copious amount of during our stay.

we attacked one of the jungle trails after breakfast. cameron highlands has plenty on offer for those looking to punish themselves with long walks.

clowning around above and bokeh porn below.

one of my favourite shots from the trip (above), which i have taken to calling “chrysalis”.

doing the tourist thing and visiting boh tea plantation and its hyper-cool cafe. the first picture in this post was taken from the balcony of the cafe, which overlooks but a small portion of the farm.

inside the cafe.

after cameron highlands, yusuf and myself headed to kuala lumpur for a day, during which the highlight was the insane japanese buffet at jogoya in starhill gallery.

on the road home.

did a self-portrait yesterday and being the good friend that yusuf is, he has suggested the picture below as the inspiration, or retrospection.

speaking of inspiration, i bought a collection of really great ad photography from basheer bookstore at bras basah. i highly recommend the shop for its selection and friendly service. new things are nice to photograph.

had wanted to shoot my new camera when i unboxed it, and finally gotten down to it. definitely not groundbreaking stuff but more a study of light for me.

i think i have to start shooting stuff as they come out of the box. build a portfolio. let me know if you have any new toys you want photographed.

from my trek in langtang —

from my shoot with scott mason, founder of parahawking —

from the streets —

*not medically documented.

see more of my photography while in nepal here.

MECHANICAL GRAVEYARD: Trolley buses lie in a decrepit state of disrepair at their depot in Min Bhawan. The trolley bus system, when started in 1975, was touted as a key component of public transportation in Kathmandu. They were taken offline in 2001. A peek into its past and present:

MAOIST MANIFESTATION: Maoist slogans and graffiti can be spotted all around the bus park. The bus park was home to members of the Young Communist League up till recent times.

SELF-ANNULLING PROPHECY: A bold claim plastered to the side of a trolley bus.

MAKE YOUR OWN BED: An unmade bed inside a trolley bus suggests continuing utility. This ‘makeshift hostel’ was probably how YCL cadres were accommodated once.

OLD SCHOOL, NEW SCHOOL: The bus park has been transformed into a terminal where electric tempos are charged and serviced after work.

look here for more posts direct from nepal.

well, stranger things have happened. i was sitting in sujit’s hot sandwich shop (opposite my hotel in pokhara) minding my hot tuna and cheese sandwich when the lady in the butcher shop beside started working her limp and very dead chickens with a blowtorch.

given the recent shenanigans of the marauding maoists, i suspect that she was trying to make the following points, that (a) she could use a blowtorch and (b) she would use said blowtorch. nice, i like when women take action.

between sitting in the garden with a badnewspaper or in bed contemplating geometrical variations while nursing a bad stomach, i managed to find time to visit a maoist feeding centre by lakeside and attend one of their rallies. given the kind of people they are, i can understand why they like bandhs (strikes) and rallies so much – they only have to eat, sleep, scream and shout, thrash things and people upside down and most importantly, not shower. nothing like satiating the baser instincts to keep a caveman happy.

maoist feeding and general r&r zone by lakeside. they couldn’t have chosen a better spot for a picnic. a storm was brewing and lightning exploded the sky when i made this picture. how appropriately ominous.

under a lobster-red tent, they fed on daal bhaat and “simple foods”, according to one of the them, and them according to him being “simple peoples”.

they say hunger makes a man mad. this guy was more mad then hungry, i think.

today marks the end of a bandh that lasted 6 days, much to the chagrin of some maoist cadres who still have the fight in them. the guy in the photo above can put away his cap. frankly, they are facing a dearth of popularity. reports from several parts of nepal told of folks retaliating against maoist force. forcing people against their will to participate in the bandh is not exactly the best way of making friends.

getteth thyself into the ol’ photograms below, ye maoists, for obstinate and obsolete thou have becometh.

i shot this from the second storey of a half-constructed building. to get there, i had to navigate through seething cadres lining the spiral staircase, agitated by mr. i-have-the-runs-of-mouth below. i have never heard a diatribe so long or irritating in my life. nevermind that i couldn’t understand much of what he was saying. i did catch the names of some locations in kathmandu, so i surmised he was delivering an after-action review to his dear comrades. much like how communist leaders overstated grain harvests and poultry output – same same but different.

mingling with the crowd, who stared at me and my camera like i was either the bubonic plague or the san franciscan (according to nick cave & the bad seeds) gold rush, i saw crazed youths with young communist league headbands and sticks in their hands. at the other end of the spectrum, there were old men brandishing sticks as well. not walking sticks, mind you, but the kind that goes bam-bam over your head.

a standard shot of the grand ole standard. only in nepal and with love, xoxo.

p.s. trying to write like kunda-ji is so much fun, reading his stuff even better.

for more crusty (mostly not) posts direct from nepal, click here.

went to the last resort on the 17th and 18th of april for the sundance music festival. the festival was ok. being on the road there and back was far more interesting.

buses outside the valley are often filled to the brim and beyond. space on the bus is only limited by the number of handholds and one’s imagination.

loud and brightly-coloured vehicles such as these are the rule, breaking up the monotonous earth tones of the landscape.

sanjog getting antsy from waiting for the show to start.

view of the bhote kosi river from a suspension bridge over it.

kids running across said bridge, much to the annoyance of the rest on it.

artist catherine biyoka kicks off an abstract art performance to improvised music. this item got the otherwise bored audience to their feet around the performers.

milan rai, with the nearly completed work, behind.

this gentleman was watching the performance intently. i was distracted by his bald head.

nirakar yakthumba, bassist of nepali band 1974 a.d., improvises on the bass.

milan rai in action.

just about 40-50km from the last resort on the way back to kathmandu, we hit a landslide on the arniko highway. it had been raining persistently since morning and the landscape was transformed into a mess. traffic was brought to a standstill, and unwilling to sit it out, a few of us decided to leave the bus and cross the landslide on foot. on the other side, we would then seek transport back. following photos from yusuf’s camera.

on the road.

after about 15-20 minutes of walking, we hitchhiked a pickup truck with an open back. it was bad enough that the drizzle was slowly drenching us without needing the driver, who is road maniac first class, cornering as if he was driving a maserati. i can’t say we didn’t have fun though.

just like a mexican illegal immigrant, i was rocking a faux poncho. just need a sombrero to complete the get-up.

i call this look “purepleasurepain”.

more posts direct from nepal here.

above are my entries for the 2010 singapore young photographer award. missed the deadline last time round and since this is my last opportunity to enter this bi-annual competition, i thought i’d give it a go. much love and thanks to my dear sarah for helping me with the process given my absence from singapore.

from top — champagne glasses and petals (abstract), sinatra (portrait), sepia arcadia #1 (nature), tattoo artist (people at work), saivite sadhu (portrait), flight of the light (night scene).

view the competition website here.

see more posts on photography here.

3 weeks ago, i visited badarjhula, a remote village located in chitwan, to illustrate an article about the work of a local ngo (samari utthan sewa) in improving the lives of the villagers, most notably in the construction of a new, multi-storey school. the ride to the village was a long and arduous one – about 11 hours in a 4-wheel drive that had to traverse rough, rocky terrain and even small rivers.

the people of badarjhula were victims of floods and landslides in their place of origin before they decided to move to their current location, when they heard that land had been released by the government for agriculture. till today, they are merely squatters on the land and at the mercy of the government.

without land to their name, the villagers are continually trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, since they are unable to procure loans from banks for business and development purposes without any collateral.

children play cricket in front of the newly-constructed rastriya primary school, the only multi-storey, concrete structure in the entire village. the government is partly funding and supplying the school with teachers, and villagers are hopeful that this is a sign that they will soon be officially recognised as the legitimate owners of the land.

l-r: community leaders jagaran praja, also a pastor, and karna bahadur b.k. chat with farmer bhim bahadur gurung inside an empty classroom. schools such as this cater to pre-primary education, before students move on to schools like rastriya.

jagaran praja, other than catering to the spiritual life of the villagers, 90% of whom are christians, is also a member of the school board and part of a micro-loans and savings cooperative as well.

indu nepal, the writer of the badarjhula story, also the online editor at nepali times, listens intently as she gathers material for her story.

ganesh k.c., founder of the first school in the village. he used to teach in return for rice and eggs from families.

a villager washes up at a manual pump. groundwater provides a major portion of the village’s water needs. water tapped this way is unsafe for drinking and has to be boiled and/or filtered beforehand.

a local girl stands amidst wheat fields in the height of harvest season. when school is out, the children will usually assist their parents in the day-to-day chores.

hay brought in are stored as bales, as seen above, on an elevated wooden platform.

a stall selling women’s garments and accessories.

some village children lazing around on a particularly hot day.

hari chepang, who stays in a tiny hut because she cannot move her legs and she needs essential items to be near her. her husband, who had 13 wives, left her and some of her stepchildren are supporting her now.

dwellings and other structures in badarjhula are mostly constructed of wood, dried hay and whatever other materials available in the proximity. during the dry season, these structures are extremely susceptible to fire, a phenomenon which has become an annual affair. due to the poverty and the distance of the village to major towns and cities, development is slow.

fire rages on the hills bordering india. the entire area faces the risk of widespread destruction by fire. a day after we left, flames swept through badarjhula, leaving in its wake houses reduced to ashes. photos below courtesy of samari utthan sewa.

it’s tough to consider myself blessed and fortunate to have escaped the inferno when placed in the context of the villagers’ hardships, but i am thankful. i hope that having their story told will inspire others to help.

read indu nepal’s article on badarjhula here.

for more posts direct from nepal, click here.

i accompanied suvayu, a colleague of mine, to a garment factory in balkumari to take some photos for his story on us-nepal trade relations with a focus on the garment industry. the industry, with exports to the states peaking at $50 million in 2005, has seen a dramatic fall to just $5 million last year. the slump is caused in part by the collapse of an agreement to give nepal-made garments “preferential access” to the us and also domestic infrastructural and labour woes. read his article here.

a story like that is tough to illustrate, so i was looking around to see if the environment would provide something i could incorporate that would add another layer of meaning to the photo. the photo above was the one i ultimately chose and captioned ‘pressing issues’. perhaps a little too wise-ass for my own good but hey, i had to get a picture!

cutting – no prim little scissors here. bulk and efficiency is paramount.

a cloth cake.

sewing – i was struck by how much the scene looks like something out of a movie. hollywood doesn’t always tell lies.

close-up.

at least he was happy to have his picture taken. can’t ditto for the guy the above.

quality control.

for more posts direct from nepal, look here.

was covering chain inc.’s mountain bike festival at gyanodaya school, bhainsepati, when i decided to take a break from shooting the action and focus on the expressions of the participants. nothing too serious, just a departure from the standard stuff.

the event, mainly targeted at kids, is one in a series that chain inc. hopes to organise to promote mountain biking in the country for health and environmental benefits. kathmandu for instance, with its ever-increasing motor traffic, is one of the most congested and polluted cities in the world.

for more posts direct from nepal, click here.

this project was inspired by a little road accident i had earlier in the day. i was on my bike, heading off to interview the deputy inspector-general of the traffic police (poetry in motion, if you ask me) when some nepali chap stepped right into my path. he did check traffic before crossing the road alright – he was looking for oncoming vehicles on the other side of the road.

i swerved to my right but still struck him a glancing blow (my left shoulder connected with his jaw). because i was going downhill i did not hit my brakes immediately, as that would mean a 10/10 somersault, possibly straight to heaven, on my part. after the impact, i fell over the handlebar, rolled and landed on my behind. damage? not a single scratch or bruise on me, only that my lens filter (as seen in the first picture above), which was on my lens and loaded facing down in my backpack, cracked. 100 bucks gone but considering that the damage could have been a lot more extensive – peanuts, i say.

this incident is one in a whole spate that illustrates a recklessness that permeates the psyche of road users here in nepal. you can follow the rules of traffic down to the tiniest jot and tittle and still get into an accident. i thought about the episode a lot today, and as much as i’d like to say that i have to accept some of the responsibility, i can’t.

after the collision the fellow walked away, rubbing his jaw and quietly mumbling to himself, knowing full well that what happened was his fault. i had a field day screaming at him in the middle of the road, amidst the hee-haws and disbelieving gasps of a few nepali aunties. i got back on my bike, thinking that this incident will wake jawbroker up and that he’ll take more care.

at least until he starts getting complacent again.

thanks to my buddies and fellow ‘kings of kathmandu’ for helping and participating in my fool’s scheme.

for more posts direct from nepal, click here.

INK COMMUNION: Mohan Gurung, of Mohan’s Tattoo Inn, works on a design of Akash Bhairab (Sky Shiva) on the arm of his friend, pilot Vijay Lama.

as published in nepali times #496 —

the site of the trip – an abandoned cement factory, forced to close down decades ago because the locals felt it was spewing out too much pollution. imagine that, because no one would blink at something like that in kathmandu today. abandoned spaces make for good exploration too, as the kids in the first photo will attest to.

chandra ale, founder of initiative outdoor and experienced outdoorsman. he is also an instructor at the prestigious national outdoor leadership school in wyoming.

complaints about everything from the heat to the dirt abounded from the young participants. this one was focused on shaping a couple of horns on his head.

the team-building and ice-breaking games all have a few of things in common – teamwork, communication and patience. these messages were constantly repeated by the instructors. in this particular game for instance, the participants had to pass a rope (or two) around a closed circle with arms linked.

toxic waste involved attempting to shift the bucket of water out of a ring without spills. and no hands of course.

magic stick, in contrast, is all hands-on. the objective here is to lower the metal stick to the ground while ensuring that the fingers remain in contact with the stick. add more fingers to make it more challenging.

this one purely for its entertainment value.

all geared up and ready to explore the caves. safety is of paramount importance here.

for more posts direct from nepal, click here.

for more posts direct from nepal, click here.

when a nascent spring walks the cold, dank streets of kathmandu with the promise of impending warmth, there is cause to celebrate.

and celebrate they did, in a big way too – a riot of splashes and colours so obscene that one might be forgiven for forgetting the severe water shortages or the depressing diversity of the country’s problems. for a while at least.

i spent a couple of hours with with the inhabitants of freak street, the famous (or infamous) stretch that is quintessentially more kathmandu than kathmandu, and these are what i saw —

hiding behind little windows set in old stone and brick houses, the inhabitants throw buckets of water on the unsuspecting.

a delicacy associated with the festival, bhang (cannabis) is cooked the way one would prepare milk tea. spices and other ingredients are added to the mix. depending on his physiology, the gentleman taking a swig below would have been stoned for 2-3 hours after.

coloured powders are an indispensable part of the festival – they are thrown at people, rubbed into their faces, mixed with water in ‘water bombs’ and squirt guns.

yusuf enjoying his shower.

foreigners are especially targeted during this festival, caucasians to be exact. few of them are willing to brave the chaos though.

newari rice wine is passed around outside ‘santa pub’, which is an establishment among the long-timers of freak street.

arun manandhar, tungna-player extraordinaire in kutumba (famous nepalese folk band) and a great guy all around.

for more posts direct from nepal, click here.