KATHMANDU – TOKIDOKI (NOMAD)

KATHMANDU, NEPAL STREET ART: ANOTHER INVADER!

Published on October 16, 2025October 12, 2025 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

29aug25

KATHMANDU, NEPAL: NEPALI TIME

Published on October 6, 2025 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

Kathmandu moves in a time zone of its own—one that can’t be measured in minutes or hours, but in pauses and detours. They call it “Nepali time.” A bus scheduled for ten might leave at noon.

At first, it’s so maddening. Coming from what most people might call “real world time,” I am now in the habit of asking for clarification. “When you say ‘5 minutes,’ do you mean 5 Nepali minutes or 5 real minutes?” And they always smile and laugh because they know. They know exactly what I’m talking about. It could be anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. But the more I sit here, the more my watch feels unnecessary. Around me, no one else seems rushed. Conversations stretch, and laughter lingers. The city itself seems unconcerned with deadlines.

“Nepali time” isn’t lateness—I’ve figured it out – it’s permission. Permission to breathe, to let go of the timers, to live inside the moment instead of sprinting toward the next. The confusion comes only if I expect it to match the world I came from. But Kathmandu doesn’t match. It resists.

And maybe that’s the lesson: time isn’t something to chase. It’s already here, in the stillness, in the waiting, in the unhurried steps of a city that refuses to be ruled by the clock.

September 2025

KATHMANDU, NEPAL: HOTEL SUGAT

Published on October 5, 2025September 15, 2025 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

4aug25

KATHMANDU, NEPAL: PATAN DURBAR SQUARE

Published on October 4, 2025September 15, 2025 by jacquelinemhadelLeave a comment

This was once the royal center of Lalitpur, one of the three ancient kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley. The kings of Patan ruled from here, surrounded by temples, palaces, and public gathering spaces — most of which were built or expanded between the 16th and 18th centuries.

23july2025

KATHMANDU, NEPAL STREET ART: BIRDS

Published on October 3, 2025 by jacquelinemhadel1 Comment

September 2025

KATHMANDU, NEPAL: THE ALCHEMIST

Published on October 2, 2025 by jacquelinemhadel3 Comments

I picked up a copy of The Alchemist in a bookshop here in Kathmandu today. It wasn’t my first encounter with Paulo Coelho’s story of a shepherd in search of his destiny. Years ago, when I was living in Orlando, a friend had gifted me the book, telling me it was her favorite. Out of gratitude, I started reading it — but it didn’t land. The words felt distant, the lessons vague, the journey unrelatable. I put it down.

Fast forward four or five years. I was sleeping on a friend’s couch in Massachusetts, the ground shifting beneath me as I prepared to leave for a new life in Tokyo. Something compelled me to pick up the book again. This time, it was like reading another text entirely. The parable that had once seemed flat became profound, each page echoing with truths I hadn’t been ready to hear before. That second reading was life-changing.

And now, in Kathmandu, with two weeks left before I return to Japan after so many years, I found myself carried — almost otherworldly — into a bookstore. My hands landed on The Alchemist again. It wasn’t nostalgia. It wasn’t chance. It felt necessary.

That’s the thing about books: they resonate when we need them to. They wait quietly on shelves until the moment our lives align with their message. Sometimes we’re not ready, sometimes we’re not listening, but when the timing clicks, the words feel as though they were written solely for us.

For me, The Alchemist has become less about Santiago’s treasure and more about the reminder that stories meet us where we are. Orlando. Massachusetts. Tokyo. Kathmandu. Different chapters of my life, the same book, yet never the same reading.