Kathmandu days

[writinghawk]

To recap for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know me, I'm in Kathmandu, on my way to teach English in a remote monastery high in the Himalayas, in the obscure kingdom of, let us say, Himalistan. I was supposed to be travelling there on Sunday, but have been kicking my heels here while waiting for the process of obtaining Himalistani entry papers

Comments

[kalypso_v]

Thanks very much for the report - I look forward to reading more when you have time to write them.

[writinghawk]

I forgot to mention ordering Tsampa at the Tibet Kitchen. It's a Tibetan kind of do-it-yourself dumpling; when in Tibet I watched our Tibetan driver mixing it and ordered my own. You pour butter tea onto a bowl of barley meal and shape the dumplings with your hand. This waiter is not Tibetan and has a different technique. He pours tea into the bowl, adds butter, sprinkles on barley and mixes it with a spoon, pressing it against the rim of the bowl. He has a flamboyant style which involves rapidly spraying tsampa all over the table and the floor. I repeatedly but feebly say 'Thanks, that's fine', but he carries on regardless until half the tsampa from the bowl is spattered about the restaurant, gives a triumphant look and retires. (I thank him and use the technique I have previously learnt to mix my own dumplings with greater success.)

[kalypso_v]

It sounds as if you might make a career preparing Tsampa if the papers never arrive.

[lillibet]

A wonderful read--thank you!