Beware of bears and falling masonry

[writinghawk]

Today is the festival supposedly commemorating the anniversary of the Buddha's first teaching, and there were celebrations up at the 'shukti' or 'throne' of the important local fourteenth-century philosopher, high up above the monastery. I met a group of school students who had walked up the extraordinarily long and steep forest path from town on a

Comments

[lillibet]

What wonderful snapshots of your life there. And congratulations on achieving proper tea!

[nickbarnes]

This is great. Thank you for reminding me of your blog, which somehow isn't turning up in my RSS feed. I've had a very happy half hour reading all about Kathmandu and Himalistan.

[espresso_addict]

I too am much enjoying these snapshots of life. Do they have coffee?

[writinghawk]

Oh yes, though tea is the drink of choice, instant coffee is also everywhere (and there may be other kinds; not being much of a coffee drinker I have not tried to find out). The main problem is to stop them loading everything with incredible quantities of milk powder (essentially enough to be the equivalent of boiling your tea or coffee in milk instead of water, as well as the concomitant sugar which the milk powder contains) and/or sugar.

[bookly]

I'm not sure I would have recognized a horseradish. Well done on avoiding a tricky question. I'm glad the dogs are (mostly) placid, the bears absent, and the gallery not dangerous (for whatever the latter is worth).

[writinghawk]

Actually I realised later that they are not horseradishes either; they look vaguely similar (and the name was suggestive), but do not have the same distinctive kick. A quick morsel of research suggests they are what is called in English 'Chinese radish'. They're cooked as a vegetable (e.g. they can be the main ingredient in a curry), and I didn't find them very easy to take to.

[kalypso_v]

I fear for the future of that wall, and indeed the shedra. I hope no one's in the relevant bit next time it collapses.

I also hope you can avoid bears, though it's interesting that the students recommend the same technique for dealing with such encounters as Aesop.

And I admire your handling of the horse radish incident.