We’re hitting the road again in less than a week! We think. No, we’re not leaving Nepal, exactly. We are lacing up our boots, locking our apartment door and hitting the hills (aka some of the highest mountains in the world) for some amazing trekking. October and November are two of the [...]
I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to sort out our itinerary for the next six months. We want to save money by booking well in advance. There are a few places where we need to be at certain times: New York in June, for example. Sweden in the spring/winter season. We’ve also started [...]
This how garbage is dealt with in Kathmandu: it is dumped in piles on street corners and eventually burned. Either that, or it is tossed in the nearest waterway. Not good, especially in a city of 1.2 million people. There’s good news though. The Chinese have donated 118 garbage trucks to Nepal, and full scale [...]
I know what you’re thinking – FINALLY an important post here on seatsofourpants.com! Let’s get down and dirty and talk beer. The beer pictured above is probably the best selling domestic brew: Everest, a classic European-style lager. While it is quite balanced, it doesn’t stick out in any sort of interesting way. If I [...]
Martin and I have settled into our clean and easy expat life in the Lazimpath region of Kathmandu. We have become so comfortable, in fact, that the hard facts about life in Nepal have faded for me. It took a walk across town yesterday to bring some perspective back. Nepal is a country of [...]
My bestest girlfriends gathered together in Vail, CO this weekend for our annual girls weekend, which for obvious reasons I couldn’t attend. Martin and I put together this little instructional video on marriage to celebrate the engagements of two of my friends, Kristi and Traci (No, not to one another). Those of you who [...]
It’s with a heavy heart that I relay the following news: Engstrom Decadent Sundays are hereby canceled indefinitely – or until we leave Kathmandu, whichever comes first. It took us three weeks to realize, but Decadent Sundays lead to Brain-Free Mondays. I’m so slow today that it took me five hours to write two [...]
The Buddhist Swayambhunath temple is located just outside Kathmandu city on a hill that overlooks the valley. According to legend, this hill rose spontaneously from a lake that once covered the valley, hence the name swayambhu, which means self-risen. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and for good reason. It’s breathtaking! [...]
Behold for a moment this mundane street scene. You may wonder what it is doing on our blog, really. A street and a tree, what’s the big deal? The big deal is that when you walk underneath it, you are sprayed with small droplets of something liquid. We thought at first that it must be [...]
Here’s a video we shot on yesterday’s day trip to Swayambhunath, also known as the Monkey Temple.
This rice paddy is located smack in the middle of the diplomatic quarters: somewhere in between our favorite grocery store and the Japanese Embassy. It is by no means unique – you see little gardens everywhere around the city; a patch of carrots here and some cilantro and herbs over there. This illustrates the fact [...]
I looked out the window from our stairwell a few days ago and noticed something was afoot. Perched on a strategic corner of our neighbor’s roof were some shady characters. I’ve kept a close watch on that corner and sure enough, they’re on a 24 hour a day watch. The purpose of their stake-out is [...]
I’m a 31 year old woman and I have no idea what my natural hair color is. It’s actually a pretty common occurrence. A girl turns, oh say 13, and she wants her mousy hair to look like the blonde model in Seventeen Magazine. I mean, would it be too much to ask for the [...]
This is our street here in Lazimpath, Kathmandu. We live on the left hand side, in a comfortable apartment on the ground floor. There are a few apartments above us. Lately, to our consternation, we have been kept awake by loud, chain-saw like snoring. It couldn’t be that little Thai lady upstairs, could it? The [...]
Sometimes I think that we could take some pretty good pictures on this trip if the world wasn’t absolutely chock full of visible power lines. I don’t know how many nice, atmospheric and ethereal places we’ve tried to document where the view has been spoiled by a nasty black line across the image. [...]
You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
