Back in Kathmandu

Got back yesterday to be greeted by proper South Asian monsoon weather, none of this namby-pamby British version that you've had for the last month. (Apologies to anyone who was flooded out of their house for making light of this. Mind you to put your troubles in perspective, 27 people died last week in Nepal following a rain induced landslide).

It was great to catch up with lots of friends and family over the last 2 weeks, apologies to those we missed (assuming you would have wanted to see us). However it was also nice to get back to our little flat in Kathmandu. After a big traffic jam getting into Heathrow and long queues to go through security, it made us appreciate the speed of things at Kathmandu airport and having a car to meet us courtesy of our travel agent. We would not have been saying this had we arrived the day before when there was a traffic strike in Kathmandu (apparently to protest against the police roughing up taxi drivers at the airport) and we might have had to take a cycle rickshaw home. Thinking of traffic, I realised last week when crossing the road at Victoria station how I've become acclimatised and feel safe in anarchic Kathmandu traffic but have become nervous of grand prix style traffic in London.

The flat was in good shape, we always worry that we have spilt a grain of sugar in the kitchen and will come back to a massive ant invasion. However a slight panic tonight when in addition to a power cut I discovered we had no water. So far we have escaped the impact of the water shortage and it seemed surprising that there should be any problem now the rains have come. We were relieved to hear that the problem was that the electricity had gone off before our landlord had switched on the pump to get the water up to the roof tank, hopefully he has done this now the power is back on otherwise we will be going without a shower in the morning.

Both of us were back at work today. Alex, one of my colleagues at BDS, was feeling the worse for wear having been beaten up by police over the weekend (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Rest_of_World/Cops_assault_Nepal_youths_for_carrying_condoms/articleshow/2205972.cms). He seemed remarkably cheerful despite this, possibly because he has received worse beatings from the police in the past. Apart from the obvious issues regarding police treatment of gays and transgenders this incident highlights the law and order problem in Nepal. A recent newspaper described the police as either not caring or not daring. They either take the law into their own hands ignoring due process and human rights or they take no action at all because the perpetrators have political connections that make them above the law. I'm sure that there are some good police out there but if this is how a serious national newspaper views the situation, it is not a great position to be in with elections due in November.

So much for an early night to catch up on the sleep we missed when flying on Saturday night.

Cheers

Roshan