Do you have something you no longer want or are just generally tired of looking at? Not to worry, just light it on fire and burn it! This seems to be the philosophy of everyone in Nepal.

I know what you’re thinking. “But what if the thing I don’t want is made of plastic or rubber, and lighting it on fire would produce dizzying, noxious fumes? Should I still burn it then!?”

Yes, especially then! Just don’t burn it in your backyard— that would only irritate your friends and family, and possibly make them sick. No, burn it all out in the street or somewhere even more public, so that it can irritate everyone’s friends and family and make everyone sick!

My eyes were watering and stinging almost the entire time I was in Nepal, from all the things they are constantly burning. Trash, yak dung, fires for cooking and heating…

And granted, the woman in the photo above is burning things for a religious purpose, but so are a lot of other people, and all the religious fire burning is just one more thing adding clouds of smoke up into the atmosphere. The air in Nepal is often so thick with smoke that you can’t exactly tell who is burning what or why, you just wish they would all stop it.

You can read my full account of what it was like to TREK THE EBC. For those of you who don't know, the EBC is a high altitude, fourteen-day hike (give or take) that goes to and from Everest Base Camp; and here's a small snippet for you, by Day Two I became wholeheartedly convinced that what EBC really stands for is "Everything's Burning Constantly."

My eyes are stinging again just thinking about the Himalayas.

Just when I thought I'd seen them burn every single thing imaginable, in Kathmandu, I witnessed (and smelled) my first ever dead body on fire, which you can read about HERE.