time for festival shopping

Yesterday morning I went to Tilganga again for another check up and  got the thumbs up. I am now seeing better out of my left eye than I have for decades and I am now back to roaming the streets as carelessly as ever.This is a pic of some of the shoes of people who were waiting for attention while I was there - another pile was further up the stairs.

Tihar is coming in a few days so I have been busy buying myself a present - well I'm worth it! This time of year everyone also does work on their house to make it pleasing for the goddess Lakshmi to enter. In honour of this I purchased a new shower curtain for the hotel room - how glamorous is that for only Rs350! I also need to start thinking about a present for my bhai for the bhai tikka day on Sunday - we have to exchange gifts and eat lots of sweets - I think I can manage that one OK.

Meanwhile Kathmandu has been swamped by tourists in the last few days - all the hotels were full and people were being sent out of town to get rooms. How crazy. And yet the government (if you could call it that) is hoping a million tourists will come next year. God help us. The airport won't cope, there aren't enough hotels, and we already have rations of electricity and water. So I don't think it will be a grand success. But I could be wrong - I was once before!

Robin and the boys are now in the Limi Valley and heading for a pass to get back to Simikot - they've had fine weather and all is well. Their menagerie of horses, donkeys, dzopkios and yaks is also doing well.

Today I went shoe shopping and had to take some photos for you girls - just tell me which ones you want!