Thursday, July 26, 2012

Chapter Three: Too Many Dogs

Chapter Three is now available to subscribers. Read Chapter One here. Donate at least $10 to Alice's travel fund and get every episode delivered to your mailbox.


Whose dog is this?" I asked a nearby tobacco seller, squatting in the stone alcove that was his store.

“Nobody dog,” he said. “Bastard dog."

“'Street dog,'" said a pilgrim. 

I picked her up and the pilgrims kindly made way for me. I carried her to the Saturday cafĂ©, a popular veg restaurant that had a donation box with a phone number for an animal shelter. We were in luck: a veterinary nurse was working nearby and agreed to meet me by a big brass bell near the stupa. And I exhaled. Surely the shelter would welcome this poor puppy, she’d be taken care of, and my job would over. I could go back to thinking obsessively about that plot problem and enumerating my mid-life regrets.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Chapter Two: Nepal, the Practical Option

Kathmandu  is best known in the west as the last stop on the fabled “Hippie Trail” of the 1960s and 70s, which saw thousands of  young people hop the Magic Bus to Asia. Imagine a world where you could jump on a bus in London or Amsterdam and get off a  few weeks later in Nepal,  crossing Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India on the way.  

Now, imagine that meeting of cultures, when those hordes of young round-eyed palefaces in floral tunics and granny glasses showed up in Nepal, at that time an isolated and backward country which had been closed to foreigners until 1951.  The hippies came in search of exoticism, spiritual adventure and cannabis, three things Kathmandu had in excess.  Nepalis supplied eastern wisdom and their acclaimed hashish, then quite legal in Nepal, and the hippies supplied foreign currency and recipes for brownies and fettucine alfredo, planting the seeds for what is now one of Asia’s best tourism industries.  Until recently, Kathmandu was the only place in Southwest Asia where you could find a truly good baguette or a proper strudel...

From Chapter Two of Alice of Nepal.  Read Chapter One here. Donate at least $10 to Alice's travel fund and get every episode delivered to your mailbox.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

The Blind Leading the Blind

Copyright 2012 Kathrine Piper

Read Part One Here.
If you wish to read more, please donate at least $10 to get the remaining episodes. Make sure you include your email address. The proceeds will go towards Alice's crate, India animal export permit and airfare to Canada.