Zwemmen in spoor van Evert van Benthem

Korstiaan de Boer zwemt wekelijks tien kilometer. Hij popelt om aan de Overijsselse Merentocht mee te doen. | beeld Lucia de Vries

22 augustus 2019, 03:00

 

Zwemkampioen Korstiaan de Boer duikt donderdagmorgen samen met 23 andere sporters het kanaal in om in estafettestijl de 200-kilometer lange Overijsselse Merentocht te zwemmen. Net als Maarten van der Weijden halen de leden van zwemclub Steenwijk ‘34 geld op voor KWF Kankerbestrijding.

Hippinis

First published by Nepali Times

How two female flower children joined East and West in the streets of Kathmandu 50 years ago

Lucia de Vries October 12, 2018

In the early 1970s, two women from very different backgrounds met in Kathmandu and became intimate friends. Both were ‘hippinis’ whose unique stories will be part of the Photo Kathmandu festival next four weeks.

The Gangster of Love

Trilochan Shrestha was a hippie even before the word was invented

Lucia de Vries  October 12, 2018

When Nepal became a destination for overland travelers in the 1960s, one young man was ready: Trilochan Shrestha, probably Nepal’s first hippie. Born in 1945 as the oldest son to a wealthy Newar family, he grew up in Jhhochen where his aunt lived.

Drones to the rescue

First published by Nepali Times

Mahabir Pun’s National Innovation Centre tests medicopters to treat patients in remote areas

In an unassuming office in Kupondol, electrical engineer Suraj Karki turns on the DC power supply, and the room goes quiet as his team waits for the octocopter on a table to show signs of life.

Sure enough, its coloured lights blink, and the rotors start spinning with a whine. Relief and excitement floods the office. Later, after a successful outdoor test flight, Karki’s team names the medicopter Puspak, after the legendary flying machine from the Ramayana.

The Kathmandu Chorale turns 35

First published by Nepali Times

“A collective friendship built upon the love of music and globalisation at its best.”

Lucia De Vries

Every Monday evening for the past three decades or more, music lovers from across the Valley gather in a Dhobi Ghat school to practice Western chorale music. It is a weekly highlight for singers like American psychiatrist Nadine Rogers.

Being taken for a ride

First published by Nepali Times

We need to better manage human-elephant conflict, understand the elephant’s value in the wild for the eco-system, and step away from exploiting them in captivity

Jan Schmidt-Burbach is an adviser at World Animal Protection (WAP) and recently completed a detailed study into the conditions of elephants used in tourism in Nepal and other parts of Asia. He spoke to Lucia de Vries about his findings.

Feeling Groovy

Finding rare images of Kathmandu’s colourful hippie era

LUCIA DE VRIES

Relics of the hippie era in Kathmandu have been slowly erased by the passage of time, and whatever remained in Jochhen from that psychedelic period was brought down by last year’s earthquake.

One of the few hippie hangouts that is still intact on what used to be called Freak Street is Snowman Café. On a recent afternoon, it was packed with Nepali youngsters but none of them had any idea how the street got its name.

William smoking bong “I brought this bong from Kathmandu and used it for a while. It is basically a bamboo water pipe. It got me so stoned that I forgot what day of the week it was. So I gave it up.”