On to India

Greetings from Panipat, India Yes we are finally back in India, after three years. Arriving in the midst of Holi celebrations. Last week I was telling you about the wild side of Kathmandu and shared some images of our time with supplies from Nepal. If you missed it you can catch up here. Since then we took Indigo air from Kathmandu to Delhi (downhill as it feels), a short flight from Nepal to India. I'm travelling with Tomas and Bryant. Tomas (our product and marketing wizard) is an old hand and has travelled in Nepal and India before, but Bryant is totally new. He has been working in the UK office placing re-orders with Indian and Nepali suppliers for a few years so already has good relations.. so finally now covid is over, Bryant goes to meet the suppliers. It's been a very busy week in Kathmandu. And I'm happy to report that it was very successful and productive. We have greatly expanded our range of hemp products, found an amazing new singing bowl supplier and landed some new Tibetan Incense ranges. I'm very excited about Nepal products in general, I'm hoping in the future to further extend our range of stock from Nepal.. Even though we have been so busy, we managed a couple of excursions - after a visit to the hemp guys factory on the outskirts of Kathmandu and a long meeting finalising our order.. he suggested taking us on a tour of the nearby Monkey Temple. I had never been there before and was quite surprised.. Most of the visitors seemed to be local tourists, and the temple is perched on a hill with spectacular views of the city, Of course there are Monkeys hence the name Monkey Temple and beautiful old buildings and an ancient Stupa. It was also Holi here one day earlier than in India.. and here more restrained than the crazy Indian riots that take place.. Bryant was given the Holi treatment in our hotel by the staff. The street crowds are good natured, calling out "Happy Holi" and only splashing colours or water bombs if the recipients are up for it.

Sadly our time was up in Kathmandu and we had to say a sad farewell to friends there.. On Wednesday we had to leave for India. We arrived in Delhi, the airport is huge, but international arrivals seemed very quiet, almost no queuing and within the hour we were through immigration. Mr Chatterjee and his son were waiting for us outside. so a long overdue reunion. Mr Chatterjee had organised two cars to take us all to Panipat. As we exited the airport area, it seemed awfully quiet for India. This is because we had arrived on a national holiday, the festival of Holi. When we did see anyone in a taxi or other cars or the odd stragglers curbside, they were all covered in the multi colours of Holi and looking very happy. We have nice clear blue skies and temperatures of 30c. Actually very nice weather for India this time of year, I was expecting it to be much hotter and muggy and grey. The journey to Panipat was smooth and fast on a brand new four lane highway. We had been promising Bryant an India of hectic traffic, masses of bikes, tuk tuks and holy cows. The city of Panipat is a textile city with not many creature comforts, our hotel barely has internet and the rooms are basic - but we needed to visit our supplier here (Rag rugs) and add more products.. The very popular rag rugs always sell out within weeks of arriving (more coming soon) so we came to arrange a bigger and better supply. As I write this the weather and conditions in the UK are completely opposite. I hope you are managing to cope safely. It looks like trade all round will be disrupted by the extreme cold and snow. Here is the situation in Sheffield..

However we are open and have enough staff to pick orders.. the AW hero's have made it to work and are keeping things going. Thanks guys!! Hopefully we will get a courier collection today, but if not then by monday all should be OK.. This week we have lots back in stock including beautiful candlesticks from Indonesia.

Also some amazing new products from the team at Aromatics.. Its all happening.. Hope you are managing the weather ok.. More news from India next week. Take extra care.. David