It's certainly been a busy (read: stressful) summer. Me and my girlfriend have decided to take a break from each other, so I have moved from Tunbridge Wells to Portishead to be closer to work/parents/friends. We are now having issues letting our TW house out as it's in a horrible area (which is part of all the problems in the first place). Not a nice time and I am still sulking (bring lots of beer on Sat!)We did go on an "exotic" holiday in Nepal, which was enjoyable. Nepal is a place of wonder, but more in a sense of it being a culture shock. It's a very poor country with tons of noise and pollution in the cities (I had a scratchy throat most of the time there), knackered Maruti 800's and no hygiene to speak of. Road rules don't exist, at least none that I witnessed and they drive more with their ears than their eyes as everything just beeps their horns at everything else. There are no pavements and no designated pedestrian paths. So, absolutely every single road and path shares its presence with crazy motorcyclists, bikes, cars, people, cows and monkeys.
Maruti's are wonderful. Most have done over 500,000km and are still going. Gear linkages don't exist, the gear lever just moves around freely. The 800cc engine is woefully underpowered. Often it struggled to get up a hill in 1st gear to the point of stalling. But... they work! They repair everything there. Hero Honda bike garages are everywhere - as are the bikes - and pretty much anything that's considered scrap over here is in the shops over there. Even black and white TVs are still in fashion (and in shops) and CRT TV's, I believe, are still being manufactured. I even saw a Peugeot 505 once but didn't get a chance to snap a photo of it.
However, the food is great and tasty (in better restaurants) and you can get a taxi from literally anywhere to anywhere. Our hotel was nice too, which was useful to get away from the chaos. It's certainly an experience.
Some flicks here
)
