Travel
Island of tea and tourism
The British love affair with tea can probably best be seen in Sri Lanka, one time island of Ceylon. Committed advocate of decolonisation as I am, I must nevertheless confess that I do find the name Ceylon more attractive and…
Passage to India
Last year when I went to Nepal, my journey strangely took me from Manchester to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to Istanbul, then Istanbul to Kathmandu, taking some forty hours in total. This owing to the limitations and convolutions attendant on international travel…
Leaving the City of Temples
When I first arrived into Kathmandu mid June, I had no idea how long I would be in Nepal, what I would do, or where I would travel to. I knew I wanted to go up into the mountains again,…
Diwali
I returned to Kathmandu two days ago and am now back in the hotel with the large yeti in the back garden. It seems strange being back here after a full and very eventful five months further up country in…
At the Kedareshwor Temple
My last full day in Pokhara, I went up to the Kedareshwor Shiva Temple to conduct a brief farewell and thanksgiving puja. I had been there ahead going to Muktinath and upon returning too. The temple location is really beautiful,…
Leaving Lakeside
My time in Nepal is approaching its end. On Tuesday I am due to fly back to Kathmandu, ahead of leaving the country. As usual when you are confronting the end of a period of time spent anywhere, you get…
Full Circle
It was way back in June when I first arrived into Kathmandu, before making my way to Pokhara, which has been the base for my several travels since. Well do I remember in my earliest posts, describing the scene from…
Of Yak and Yeti
As koalas and kangaroos are emblematic of Australia, tigers of India, pandas China, so yaks and yetis have a similar totemic function here in Nepal. For me, however, the beauty and mystique of the high Himalayas is ever symbolised by…
The Road to Salvation: Strange Proverbs and Threshold Guardians
It was a short drive down to Kagbeni, a small village cum town that, given its strategic location between Jomsom and Muktinath, has likely served as a staging post for pilgrimage traffic across the centuries, given the town itself is…
The Road to Salvation: The Goal
Morning duly dawned. Amongst a series of nightmares that night, I had also dreamt that I would forget the flowers I had bought for the temple down in Kagbeni. Customarily you find stalls selling garlands and flowers for temple offerings…
