My name in Nepal is pronounced 'Bibian'

I spent the weekend at Chitwan National Park. Classed as a rainforest, the crunchy leaves underfoot resembled autumn. The air was thick with heat, close to the Indian border we were. We stayed at one of the lodges, Hotel Rainforest, and it was decorated with statues of Buddha, palm trees, and bamboo, making it indistinguishable from the other lodges in the area (Chitwan Jungle Lodge, Island Jungle Resort, Temple Tiger, Tiger Tops Tented Camp ad infinitum). The autumnal weather was present here too, the giant trees shedding dry leaves onto the manicured/ pedicured lawn. I enjoyed sitting on the balcony, reading my book, and batting away mosquitoes poisoned with the stigma of MALARIA.

On two separate occasions while sitting on the balcony, I saw a man picking up the falling leaves. He looked like he had been transported from a university to Chitwan. His dark hair was side-parted, a slight wave kinking the sunlight which shone upon it.  The sun also glinted his glasses, and bleached his crisp cotton shirt and pants. He was trying to develop a leaf-gathering system. One step, bend, pick up leaf, two steps, bend, pick up a leaf...until his hands were full. Leaves spilled out of his bundle, he had nowhere to put them now he had picked them up. Turning and glancing about to scan for a better option, he furtively dumped them in a miniature hedge before restarting his arduous system.
His approach to leaf-gathering reflects the attitude of Kathmandu towards waste and rubbish. One step, two steps: an arm full of rubbish. Turn around, dump it down, set it alight, and in a poof of smoke, the problem has disappeared.

(The man later found a basket for his leaves)

Notes:

-Bamboo is used for many things in Nepal, including...
ladders
rooftop/ wall braces
stakes in fences
scaffolding (today I saw a glass building lined with bamboo scaffolding, it caused the building to appear concave)

-The colour of the sky is water-colour paint. there are no definite lines, and barely clouds.

-Girls in Chitwan rode bikes everywhere. Their posture was reminiscent of the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz, their scarves trailing in a dusty wake.
- Red is a very popular colour to be worn here.

Also at Chitwan, I went bird-watching, and saw a fantail. The Nepali man who was walking with us, bird-guide in hand, and bird badges on his head, was humoured by the Maori word for fantail, piwakawaka. Walking along the river bank, we came across an old woman cutting grass for the cows. Overcome by the need to be touristy and take photos of 'traditional Nepali life', some members of the group stopped to take a photo of her. She was a little bit too far away to speak to, but nevertheless, she paused her banal, daily activity to stand and blink at us, while our cameras blinked back (myself included). As we continued on our way, and she resumed cutting grass I wondered, how does a person become a tourist attraction? For how many people had the woman collecting grass had to pause her work to stare and blink at us, and in doing so become little more than a nice picture?

The music here is an eclectic mix of Hindi, Nepali, and Western (I heard Kesha on the radio the other day, bleugh)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjZBuMlZj54