Cheers from the 'du

why is it 10 degrees cooler here in Nepal than it was in India, and yet I feel hotter? It's quite sticky, and of course no power and I've not joined a pool yet.

So I arrived yesterday afternoon after flying west along the Himalaya - which I could see above the clouds at about 5500m. managed to get to the immigration counter first, which meant I had a long wait for luggage. It's good to be back with all my friends and family here, so I celebrated by having a few at Sams last night and trying to catch up on all the gossip.

Today was my Nepali niece's engagement and I took my friend Billi along, so I wouldn't be the only foreigner there. And here we all are looking bemused by the entire thing! Yashu is the one in the red sari with the grass necklace thing. She and I bought that sari for her mum as a present a few years ago - it's the 'best' in the family.



I was supposed to go to another friend's housewarming puja (blessing) but didn't know where her new house is, and couldn't get her on the phone, so I fell asleep instead, bathed in sweat because there was no power! It is easy enough to adjust to stumbling round in the dark, but when it gets to about 2pm and there's no breeze you just conk out. Even the burglars wouldn't be bothered!
Robin seems to have gotten some luck. We (the people in Bhutan) and I failed to get anything definitely organised, but then some random guy wandered up to him yesterday and announced that he would go across the pass and gets some yaks, and come back this evening to take them over. How weird.
In Nepal of course the focus at this time of year is mountaineering expeditions, many of which are trying for the summit as we speak - well as I write anyway. Seems we are all keeping an eye on the weather. Robin seems to be out of the bad patch he's had for 6 weeks now - would that be called something more than a patch?
Gotta go to the immigration office tomorrow to extend my visa, and see if one of the nearby hotels wants to make some money by letting me into their pool.

Oh, here's a picture of some desserts we had in Delhi:
this was Indian Summer - all mango - even the egg. Mango creme brulee, green mango something something and mango with fresh berries

This was Devna's chocolate fondant - love the hat - with mango icecream and berries and hot chocolate sauce inside. And yes thanks, it did taste as good as it looks.






I now have another hour of power left today - it was off for 6 hours then it only comes for 3 on Wednesday after 10am - looks like I won't get a lot done on any Wednesday!
And look, now it's nearly cocktail o'clock! Cheers you lot.