Leaving Nepal

As I sit down to write my final post from Nepal I find a tear forming in the corner of my eye… Hang on. I was going to give a shamelessly sentimental ‘things-I-will-miss-about-Nepal-and-my-new-family’ type spiel, but I have managed to keep this blog utterly inane and frivolous so far; I see no reason to stop now. Instead, here’s a picture of me blowing up an orphan:

  

101 Uses For An Orphan. No.73: Fireworks holder. That’s an awful caption. Sorry everyone. Try this one: Despite my extensive safety briefing, some idiots insisted on playing silly-buggers. Much better. (How scared does Govinda look, by the way? He he. He’s only acting. He’s fine and we expect him to be discharged any day now).

 Yep, homeward bound on a bus tonight. (Yes, a night bus. It goes against all the sensible advice, I know, but fits my schedule. Besides – I figure the trade-off for the driver’s reduced visibility is that I won’t be able to observe the bad driving. I will hand him a 6-pack of Red Bull as I board the bus and hope for the best). I’ve extended my visa as far as I can and it expires tomorrow. I still have a week of travel by bus and train through India and a sight or two to see (e.g. the Taj Mahal), so there will be a couple more posts, but I probably won’t get them on until I am home. A couple of big ‘thank you’s are due, too, so please watch this space.

 Speaking of which – the blog has received over 4100 visitors since I have been away, which is most gratifying. Even accounting for accidental and repeat visits (what? You’re joking!), that has to be better than writing two thousand postcards! Also, despite the impression given by my vacuous musings and tongue-in-cheek tone, it has not always been fun and games here, but seeing that friends and family have been keeping an occasional eye out for me has been a great help. Thanks, too, for the emails and comments. Even the smart-arsed ones from Ron Burgandy. Much appreciated.

  Trying to sum up an experience like this with a few trite comments would be pointless, and I am not foolish enough to try. (A t-shirt which reads ‘I’ve eaten goat testicles, how about you?’ would come close but still leave much unsaid). Suffice to say it has been one hell of a trip, and coming to Nepal feels like one of the wisest – if not the most sensible – things I have ever done. That being said,  I feel I am coming home a bit like Biggles* after one of his forays: the tank is near empty and there are a couple of holes in the wings, but I am fine and looking forward to hitting the mess (i.e. Mum’s cooking). I have a thousand photographs and a hundred completely pointless anecdotes that didn’t get posted, so I look forward to shamelessly inviting myself around to your respective abodes and boring you senseless with a slide-show and demonstration of traditional folk-dancing. If you are lucky I will bring alcohol.

 See you soon! (Fingers crossed).

Vaughan

* Always liked Biggles, sorry. Often wished he met a few more girls during his adventures, but there you go.

Silly buggers. Stoked I found ‘double happys’ though.