This place is like wildfire magic; beating bustling joy meets immeasurably powerful experiences at every turn bringing more to each breath and each day than anywhere else I have been before.
It is like being inside a blissfully wayward dream - incredible richness and powerful spirituality meets a mayhem of dust, dirt and crazy traffic forming a lovely contrasting reality against the warm smiles and gleeful inhabitants that make up its population. Nowhere are there sights such as these - the towering stupas and majestic temples are everywhere, history and abundant culture on display at every turn, colors and sensational sights all worthy of exploration. Nowhere are there people such as these - where several thousand years of tradition collides often hilariously with modern technology and a mishmash of backwards western style, artsy spirituality and ancient Himalayan culture creating a community full of the most fun, relaxed, generous, kind and outlandishly welcoming people in the world. I dare you to try and find anything like it elsewhere. You won’t be able to, its uniqueness is also its most entertaining quality. A city where anything could happen, and usually does, just never how you expected it to or when you expected it to happen. Where a day following nothing but your instincts leads you on a voyage of discovery. This is my kind of town.
Each day I seem to fall more and more in love with this place. Even in the brisk winter cold the sky is bright and shining, and I wake early with anticipation of all that can come of a single day here. Spending time in Nala Gompa, with these precious monks that have quickly become more like family than anything else, in their presence I feel delightful wellbeing and purpose. Spending the day with them, sharing a meal, working on a film project, listening to their heartwarming giggles and playful brotherly banter, or watching them play soccer as the daylight fades into evening caps off a perfect day. Walking the streets of Bouddha, with all its wonderful secret twists and turns, alleys full of wondrous food, tantalizing smells and sounds, it’s like a maze of secrets waiting to be discovered. It seems at every corner there is another friend to meet, memories to make, in this endlessly entangled and intertwining community that makes its home here I find myself more comfortable than could be described in words. Another perfect day. Around the glorious stupa, basked in sunshine, freshly inaugurated with its colors flying high once again, the pride of Nepal is back in all its glory. Calling it only picturesque would be denying its truthful title as one of the world's greatest, and most awesomely inspiring places on this green earth of ours. It is breathtaking. Walking under its great shadow continues to be one of my fondest memories dating back to my first trip here so many years ago, and in many ways nothing has changed. It seems there are countless perfect days to be had here, and countless ways to spend them - basking in the cool limelight of the center of the universe, hiding under the great mountains of the Himalayas beneath the ever warming sun.
Nadační fond NALA
