Night –

It was finally sunset. You watch with an unwavering gaze, as the fiery red orb of light slowly sinks beneath the city skyline, and threads of light linger above, interweaving with the rolling clouds, turning the sky amethyst purple, with streaks of orange mixed in – like a child’s painting. The last remaining rays soaking the surrounding, crumbling buildings were now being quickly eaten away by the shadows. It was a beautiful, yet a tedious time of day, as darkness was approaching, but the city was still alive and full of life. The sound of music echoing from the restaurants and laughing floods the streets. Old friends chatter and new friends are made. And the vibrant colours of prayer flags shine in the lights, fluttering in the warm evening breeze.

Morning –

It is dawn, you stroll down the road, the age-thinned and frayed straps of your backpack dig into your shoulders – you want to put it down, but everything you own is in there, and u won’t dare to risk losing it. The bus trundles from the depot. Everyone is awake, but their eyes are bleary, reactions slow, tiredness running in their veins, like their blood. You climb up the stairs and drop into your seat, rest your head on the window and look outside. The city was a vast, intricate, network of noisy, streets and alleys, and all you can hear the everlasting honking of vehicles and motorcycles. Impatient shop owners who have to get to their stall, mothers, and fathers who have to leave their children at school, face the puzzling challenge of navigating through the huge amounts of people and traffic, that seemed to have a life of its own, moving like schools of fish throughout a coral reef. 

Noon – 

The bus is anything but luxury, the seats are dulled by the grime, and it rocks us from side to side as we travel the unfamiliar roads deep into the countryside. The ferocious afternoon heat drains the sweat from your forehead trickles down your face. There are those who chatter, their voices rising and blending together as they look out the window, the mountains, their bold contours and peaks, to your eye, look like the green line of a doctor’s graph. the slopes are home to so much life, a base for trees and shrubs, grass and ferns, rice paddies and farms.