Katmandu काठमांडौ

I sit beside the dark
Beneath the mire
Cold grey dusty day
The morning lake
Drinks up the sky

Katmandu I’ll soon be seeing you
And your strange bewildering time
Will hold me down

Chop me some broken wood
We’ll start a fire
White warm light the dawn
And help me see
Old satan’s tree

Katmandu I’ll soon be touching you
And your strange bewildering time
Will hold me down
Pass me my hat and coat
Lock up the cabin
Slow night treat me right
Until I go

Be nice to know
Katmandu I’ll soon be seeing you
And your strange bewildering time
Will keep me home

Cat Stevens - Katmandu





Despite burning with high fever for 3 days in a fanless Thamel guesthouse, the Happy Family, which is a happy enough place with the owner, Hari Gurung - used to sit and play chess with him on those long blackout, candlelit nights (lets forget the time i fell asleep and burnt my hair...); i loved Kathmandu. Such a beautiful, mystical place where the spiritual was in the everyday - every turn you came into ancient toles, a square where there was a small pagoda, flocks of pigeons being fed grain for good karma, old bronze temple bells, statuettes of Ganesha, Tara, Shiva, ancient bodhi trees with prayers hanging from it, and the people... Going out into the Kathmandu valley, the Emerald valley where there were more temples, hills, villages, old ancient towns where people have lived for the past thousand years...

Magical, beautiful Kathmandu... Your strange bewildering time,
Will keep me home.