I tripped and SMASHED MY CAMERA

The internet has been down so I'm sorry not to have thanked everyone who gave stars and hearts and even looked and read about Kevin the Egyptian Vulture.

So this was written on Tuesday 3rd:
I awoke yesterday with the smile still on my face from my aerial exploits with Kevin the vulture and took a picture of the sunrise on Machhapichu from the roof. But the smile disappeared a while afterwards when on my early morning stroll I tripped not far from home and fell headlong in the dusty road with my camera under my stomach knocking the wind out of me. A concerned group was soon around and kind hands raised me and took me to a bench outside a small shop where I was offered water (Ajamburi would have been pleased that in my addled state I could still remember not to drink the local stuff). A couple of cuts had sticking plaster applied and then someone pointed to my nose which had taken a bashing and brought a mirror for me to attend to a trickle of blood from a cut, made by my glasses I presume as it was under my eyebrow, and to rid myself of the dust. I made light of it all and pointed to my nose and glasses and said even if my camera was broken my nose and glasses weren't and everyone laughed and started to disperse. Poor camera, it had really taken a bashing so after I had returned home and cleaned up I pointed my then swelling cauliflower shaped nose towards the city to find a repair shop. I gave it to the man above and he said he couldn't look at it until 3, at which time he phoned and told me the bad news of what it would cost and the good news that it could be ready by 5 if I gave him the go-ahead. Well, it cost less than it would have cost just to have it looked at in England so now I have it back, a bit dented but working. HURRAH!

A week ago two householders in the village of Armala just north of Pokhara awoke to find that 2 small buildings beside them had disappeared. The ground had just opened up and they slipped down. After lunch yesterday Sanja took me out to go and see, with hundreds of other locals, the many other ghastly sink-holes that have suddenly appeared in the rice paddies. One huge one, 20 feet across, was in an area that had just been used for threshing all their rice – had it happened then people would have been killed. Most of the holes were round with the sides falling straight down about 7'. Some had edges that were giving way. An underground 'rivulet' appears to be the problem and in 1998 after a survey the ground was found to be vulnerable and people warned not to build on it but of course they have. Now more holes appear daily (this is a link to see some of them - look for December 2nd on picasaweb.google.com/pricebelinda). I can't imagine how ghastly it must be for all those living in this valley as they see the holes (currently numbering around 40) working their way along the flattish valley ground towards their homes. They are not appearing in a straight line but dotted around, three here, one there, two filled now with water, there another one just starting to sink. I had a borrowed camera with which I caught some of the things I saw but unfortunately the date stamp was on incorrectly so I couldn't use it for my blip. There was no 'elf an syfty there to stop people getting too close to anything, only a couple of policemen sat by the river where a new hole in the bank gushed muddy water to join the clean, there was a red flag beside one hole with dodgy edge and a bit of string across the road to stop people driving further as there is a central crack along the tarmac and the mud sides are beginning to move away from the tarmac. Three boys sat on a bank with a ledger taking money and the name of the donor. Apparently the two buildings lost were still being paid for on a mortgage – there is no insurance here. Nothing like this has been seen recently and it isn't monsoon time when there is so much water around, Civil engineers were promptly on the spot and 3 giant digging machines have dug a huge trench to try and divert the water that they have found but now it is just a time of waiting and watching. It was really sobering – mother nature's handiwork suddenly exposed – but this is not the explanation favoured by the villagers for during the harvest a serpent in the rice fields had been killed and they now think he has come back to wreak vengeance especially as the shape the holes have taken is serpentine..

There is a similar explanation for the landslides that occurred on Sarankot last year. A new temple had been built right on top and Shiva's temple has been upstaged therefore angry Shiva has punished people with destruction.

I've just been told a story about sink holes around Pokhara lakeside about 30 years ago. A man climbed down in one and was asleep until he was shouted at by a soldier to 'get up and out, no, get down' and then the King, who was taking a walk for the lakeside had been cleared for him to do so, peered over the rim and had a chat with him!