It is Indra Jatra in Basantapur but in Britain, the Queen is dead. Through an early September cloudburst we navigate the uneven flag-stoned narrow streets around Om Bahal. Water drips down my collar, drenched awnings hang limp and locals shelter in the shopfronts amidst an air of anticipation. Not far away, the…
New book on the British cemetery reminds us of expatriates who lived and died in Nepal over the past two centuries The British cemetery at Kathmandu is little known but not hard to find. Keep the imposing white sweep of the British Embassy gate on your left, and then walk past…
The pioneering New Zealand mountaineer who preferred not to climb Everest When I bring Nank to mind we are always laughing, often uncontrollably. He is crouched pixie-like on a low table in a Wellington bar, stomping tongue-extended in a Maori haka through Dave Bamford’s kitchen, or skipping nimbly along the…
Remembering an eco-tourism project in Afghanistan, following the footsteps of Ahmad Shah Massoud Kids playing on rusted tanks abandoned by the retreating Russians, war debris comfortably incorporated into stone walls to contain sheep and goats, and flickering green flags of the martyrs’ graves, too many graves, under a cloudless sky.…
Tribute to Nepal’s most celebrated Ayurvedic doctor Rishi Ram Koirala who died last week at age 63 I had an appointment with Rishi Ram Koirala the day before he suffered his fatal heart attack. Last week Nepal has lost one of its most celebrated ayurvedic practitioners, the founder and medical…