raw experience

Day 39
into Kathmandu and I still can't form the right set of words to describe this experience. Echoes of New York City have been chased out of my head by barking dogs. The nightly chorus of Kathmandu.

It is Raw, a city of smells dust, and unstructured human motion. Street signs and traffic signs didn't arrive with the transition to the new millennium; cars, motorcycles, bicycles and people flow into each other around temples, shrines, and dogs using hieroglyphic methods of municipal organization.

The smell of the Bagmati River makes me gag at the intersection of Lalitpur and Kathmandu. Man made islands of plastic bottles, plastic wrappers, plastic bags, and the occasional animal carcass dictate the water's flow. This represents the trash that is not collected and burned on the street. I've only seen one garbage truck, it was doing 50 mph on a residential road, trash pouring out the back over SEE YOU emblazoned in bright neon letters.

Welcome to Kathmandu.

Day 1
I'm 12,136 kilometers far away and 23 years old.