Easter fun in Delhi

Well I managed to survive the karaoke night (mostly because apparently I didn’t sing loud enough!) and had loads of fun, except that I never want to hear Metallica again.
Robin called yesterday from the middle of nowhere to report that they were STILL about 12 hours drive away from Tuting, their first destination where they can start walking.They have been caught by landslides caused by heavy night time rains, and were hoping that the road would be cleared by 2pm. Fortunately the people in the village where they were stuck were extremely photogenic and hospitable, and yesterday morning they put on a fashion show. One of Robin’s boys, Nawang from Tawang, showed them how to pose and strut the catwalk, much to everyone’s delight.They are mostly animist people who live in bamboo and palm huts, and for dinner Robin and the gang had fish head curry. MMM may I please have seconds?
So what is on the telly? Well, this morning I can choose between stories about Hanuman the monkey god or Ganesha the elephant headed god – both involve grown men dressed up in gold headdresses, way too much makeup, ‘pearls’ and ‘rubies’ and appalling superimposed backdrops. Fabulous. There is also news/TV in: English, Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu, Bangla, Marathi, Oriya, Gujerati, and possibly my favourite: "Topper TV”. Topper TV is currently educating me on the comparison of different types of crystalline solids – I have no idea what it is talking about. Earnest professor types present all sorts of educational programmes, with a test at the end, so that the kids will become class ‘toppers’ (as they are called here). Oh look, the molecular arrangement in glass! Way too scientific for me, think I’ll go back to Hanuman and Ganesha.
The resident cat here, Hydra, has loads of thick fur and now that summer has come (it was 39 the last few days) she is struggling to stay cool. So I have appointed myself in charge of combing her regularly to get rid of her excess fur. In the interests of ‘fitting in’ I have given myself a title(everyone in India has a catchy title with acronym): District In Charge of Keeping Hydra nEat And tiDy. Yes I know what it spells.
Have had some more pool time which is a nice bit of sanity and coolness – don’t know why there aren’t more people there but I guess they are all working or shopping.
The rest of the house has gone to church for Easter Sunday, and I am here lying in wait for the cat to appear. Then I'll head to the pool when the driver comes back, then us girls are off to the golf club for lunch followed by a spot of shopping in a market. Life goes on.

Greetings from Kathmandu

Well hello you lot. I've made this blog so that I can just sort of rabbit on about what Robin is doing, what I am doing and what is happening with the GHT, both here in Nepal and in the rest of the Himalaya.
Since we got back to Nepal about 3 weeks ago, we had the disappointment of our Tibet trip being cancelled at the last minute and the excitement of seeing just how much interest there is in trekking the GHT - certainly here in Nepal where it all sort of started.
Robin goes a bit stir crazy if he is stuck in Kathmandu for very long, so fortunately he was able to fly out west last week with his trusty sherpa guide Pema, and big Dawa, to research trails out west that he didn't get to last time around. Sadly, there is still a lot of poverty out west, food is in short supply but dust isn't.
Meanwhile I have been here in Kathmandu trying to remain mildly sane while battling with the noise, pollution, touts, limited electricity, and lots of friends arriving back for the season and wanting to catch up. oh dear.
But right now life is good. The sun is shining (so we get hot water) and I can use the internet. I'm never short of something to do or someone to meet up with. In fact getting to India in a couple of weeks will probably be a good chance for me to chill out a bit - although I will still have lots of work to do I think the electricity is a bit more reliable.
So what is the plan? We head to India on the 25th March, then Robin and Pema will go to Arunchal Pradesh to have a look around, before Robin then heads to Bhutan. I will be in Delhi, then come back to the 'du in mid May before I go to Bhutan for a look around and to collect Robin at the end of his trip.
The big news in town now (apart from Tibet being closed which is putting a few people's plans out of whack) is that time is running out for the new constitution to be written. I think it is due in mid May - and if the parties can't agree (which it seems they clearly cannot) the Maoists are threatening to 'assert' themselves. For some reason none of the parties seem to able to agree with any of the others about anything. Which is a shame as it is the regular folk who suffer when the government 'dilly-dallies' (as the papers are fond of saying!)
But, more spectacularly, the prison authorities in Kapilvastu (southern Nepal) are in strife because there was a tunnel dug in January whereby some rascally prisoners escaped, and the prison authorities don't have the money to FILL THE TUNNEL IN AGAIN. Apparently everyone is queueing up to be put into cell number 7! Consequently....
Well enough of my opinion for now.
I'm off to do some more work before the power goes again.

Judy