The year had just turn to 2081 and the New Year celebrations were still ongoing, when I travelled to Baktapur in the Kathmandu valley. Nepal is in so many ways different from the rest of the world, and this includes the Bikram Sambat calendar, which is roughly 57 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar…. Baktapur …
Category Archives: Travel
Dogs of the mountains
It just wouldn’t be right to talk about hiking through the Himalaya as a veterinarian and not to dedicated a few lines to the canine inhabitants of this region. The dogs of this harsh environment differ somewhat from the ones I came across in Kathmandu. In the city, clearly size matters. Not too small, to …
Crossing Larke Pass
When I woke at two thirty in the morning, I noticed that more snow had fallen and the water bottle I had forgotten outside, had frozen solid over night. After adding another layer of clothing, I staggered out of the cave of damp and mouldy matresses, which I had shared with Ryan and Jeremy, my …
Arrival in Lho
What awaited us in Lho, was a truly medieval scene: On the unpaved road we walked in a mixture of drenched soil and mule dung. Chickens, cattle, dzos and an ownerless horse were blocking our progress, as the rain was just starting to fall in heavy drops like lead from a grey sky. The eyes …
Old is Gold
“Old is Gold” was printed in fat letters on the windscreen of the vehicle that was standing in front of our hotel in Kathmandu the next morning. While feeling slightly mocked by this statement, this slogan wasn’t helping to instill more confidence in me about travelling in Nepal. There is the common misconception, that hiking …
At the dentist in Kathmandu
Sitting in a street cafe over my copy of the The Himalayan Times, I am treating myself to the customary milky tea and a deep fried doughnut. My breakfast is not likely to cost more than 50 cent, a mere fortune compared to the 5 rupees ( 4 cent) I had paid for the newspaper…. …
Night at the Skills Lab
Not a lot of vet schools can claim to have their own subway station and the one at “Tierspital” in Zurich, is making for a pretty cool entrance. Walking up the ramp to the exit, surounded in neon-blue light, gives me the impression of walking on the bottom of a swimming pool or of entering …
Bells, whistles and nearly 3000 miles to run
Another early morning run…. Passing well attended “Shrimp Cottage” on the right side of the road, this one is taking me all the way downhill to the shore and by that, to one of the UK’s last remaining working fishing harbours, where trawlers of various shapes and sizes share the calm but tidal waters of …
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Room 214
“He’s a good chap in his way. Serious. Not one of those noisy bastards at the Continental. A quiet American.” This is, how Fowler, the main protagonist in Graham Greene’s novel “The Quiet American” describes Pyle, the charcter in the centre of his narrative. It is set during the French Vietnam war, when Greene was …
Motor scooters and Animal Doctors
There were two things that had to be done while travelling in Vietnam – taking a motorscooter taxi and visiting a veterinary clinic. Throwing all caution to the wind, I found myself on the backseat of a Honda Airblade within 30 seconds of ordering a ride on “Grab”, the Vietnamese version of Uber. How dangerous …
The Blue Vet Diary 