On the Wild Side

Greetings from Kathmandu, Nepal. Yes, we returned to Kathmandu, our first visit after the pandemic. This city went through a nightmarish time and is now still getting itself together. Last week we were in Bali and I was telling you what things cost in Indonesia.. If you missed it you can catch up here. Since then we took a Batik Air flight to Kuala Lumpur and a connecting flight to Kathmandu arriving late evening. Our contact in Nepal; Mr Padam, his son and our guy Bryant from the UK who had arrived ahead of us were waiting to greet us outside the airport in the cool mountain air. It was October 2019 the last time I was here.. in those innocent pre-covid days and a totally different age.. Tomas has been here with me before, but this is the first buying trip for Bryant and I know he is nervous and excited. Actually, over the last few years, Bryant has been the point of contact at AW for reorders, so Bryant has built up good relations with our suppliers and Mr. Padam our shipping agent here.. now he can meet them in the flesh. We got off to a flying start the first morning when Mr.

Dom, one of our oldest suppliers came to our hotel with a big bag full of all the items he had been working on for AW ahead of our visit. And boy has he done a good job.. amazingly creative, with some exciting beautiful products exclusively for AW and thus for you. We have a few suppliers here and the first job was to catch up with them all and see what fresh ideas and products we can find. We have suppliers of Tibetan incense, singing bowls, hemp bags, felt products and brass bangles.. And the plan is to increase the products we buy enough to regularly fill a 40ft container that can be shipped by sea via Kolkata port. Actually, most exports from Nepal traditionally go by air, because Nepal is of course land-locked and that is a significant extra cost. During the pandemic, the airport closed completely and the only way to ship was by land to India and by sea from Kolkata port. We (and all exporters) were forced to ship by container even though shipping costs were extremely expensive. New roads opened up and India made it easier to trans-ship to help keep Nepal's economy alive. Now costs are normalising so an opportunity to trade more effectively has opened up.

But is it possible to find enough good products to achieve that aim? I was a little worried about this.. The area where exporters set up showrooms is also the backpacking area known as Thamel. It had a reputation as a wild place after dark with dodgy dive bars, unsavoury characters trying to con foreigners and drugs freely available. Now the organised begging gangs are gone, a subtle police presence keeps the bad actors away and many trendy bars and boutique hotels and nice restaurants have opened. A portion of the muddy streets have been paved, the pedestrian only area greatly extended since my last visit.. and most importantly many new creative young people are displaying their products in clean modern showrooms. That said the maze of narrow streets is just as confusing and you can find yourself in pretty rough areas still. Just wandering around we realise there is huge creativity and endless products - but the only problem is that only eight days to make it all happen is a tall order.. A few random images of Thamel life. The wild side still exists, the other evening I went alone to a local shop to buy shampoo, and a very polite elderly gentleman in suit and tie, with a leather briefcase approached me . "Excuse me sir", he said with a slight bow, "might you be interested in buying something to smoke", and then listed a variety of herbal products. Cannabis has been illegal here since 1973, but so much part of the culture it seems to be mostly tolerated. I'm told though that tourists can be technically jailed of up to a month for using drugs.

Meanwhile back home in the UK.. great excitement.. we have a new bath bomb product - Gemstone bath bombs are here!! Your customers can take a bath, and find a gemstone, each stone has a different meaning. Add some fizz and find your gemstone wisdom in the bath.. a leaflet explains the meaning of your gemstone. I just found out a container arrived from Indonesia this morning.. so many more wonders are coming your way.. including a wonderful range of recycled beer bottle products.. from the same supplier as the hugely popular Molton glass on wood.. a new green glass range.. I loved them and hope your customers do also.. beautiful and also great value. After Kathmandu we go to India.. the adventure continues. More news next week. Take care David