It was a chance piece of good fortune that took me to Nepal. Unfortunately this came at the expense of my cousin’s bad luck. My Indian visa ran out, as planned, at the end of March when I was due to join him on a road trip through Thailand and Cambodia. A week or so earlier however, a temple employee in a pick-up truck had mown down him and his brand new chopper at a junction and he now lay in hospital with a badly broken femur. I left the bedside manner to his mum and decided to show up once he’d got the hang of his crutches and needed driving to the pub. So, a chance to see the mighty Himalaya beckoned. To quote a Willie Nelson lyric: “Fate frowned on him and then turned around and smiled at me”. (more…)