🌍 David's AW News: Crazy Trip?

Greetings from Kathmandu, Nepal

Happy Halloween October!

Did you see the news? They said I was crazy to come here. 

Last week I was telling you about some strange things going on in China. If you missed it you can catch up here.

Floods decimated the Kathmandu plain and even the city has been hit badly. But I had flights and hotels booked, because this was a leg on the way to India. I spoke with Mr Padam, our lovely gentleman shipping agent. "Namaste Mr David, you are very welcome to be here." Our suppliers all told me not to worry.. so on Wednesday Tomas and I took a China Southern flight from Yiwu to Guangzhou. From there he caught the connection to Bali, and I took the evening flight to Kathmandu. Arrived at 12.30am local time but the captain said we had to wait for a slot so we circled the city for a while, the airport is probably one of the most disorganised in the world. It took me two hours to get through the airport. Unnecessary security checks to get into the baggage area, long queues and then a long wait for my luggage, which came off almost last despite the priority tag and me being the only business class passenger on the flight. 

When I finally made it out of the airport. A familiar face was waiting for me.. my hotel driver from the last visit. Welcome back Mr David. On the drive through the night streets to the hotel he told me the roads had only just been cleared and that it had been pretty bad and many customers had cancelled trips, so he said the hotel was very happy to see me. The staff welcomed me but explained there were still issues following the floods.. no running water in the room, actually it was running like mud. But it would be fixed by the time I woke up.

And the next morning (yesterday) during breakfast the manager, who I actually knew from another hotel (we had recognised each other on the last trip).. came to see me for a chat and catch up and thanked me for coming. Then I ventured out into the maze of streets that is the Thamel area and home to most of Nepal's giftware exporters.

I was lost in no time..

My first stop (when I found him) was to see Mr Padam, our shipping agent and old school gentleman never seen without his Dhaka topi, an old fashioned formal hat. We have five orders outstanding from February, a bit of a performance disaster and I wanted to find out why? But of course since I was coming to check all the problems - had been magically resolved and almost everything was in Mr Padam's warehouse.

Then I went to see Dipendrea, we call him Dip.. the trendy young guy that owns a small factory making many of our Hemp Bags. He told me his hometown had been badly affected and they were still in a mess. The casualties are much higher than the government admits. Infrastructure in Nepal (see the airport) is woefully maintained. This small country is stuck in a power struggle between its two mega neighbours, India and China - (unlike much of SE Asia) it doesn't quite seem to get its act together. 

But the people are humble and nice, easy to do business with and as you know the handicrafts of Nepal are practically a brand in their own right. So AW must do its bit in Nepal.

Geopolitics at play

I'm partly here because there are no direct flights between China and India.. The two biggest populations on the planet earth and neighbours have zero direct flights. Strange no? This is geopolitics at its worst. Despite this in Yiwu there is a whole Indian neighbourhood where Indian shipping agents and Indian business people are doing good business with China.  Anyway we need to be in India for the Delhi fair.. and since this issue means we have to go somewhere on the way.. I went to Nepal and Tomas Bali.. we will meet up in India in a while.

Speaking of India..

Did you watch the recent Bald and Bankrupt Youtube in Delhi entitled - I visited India so you don't have to..?

It's caused an absolute storm in India (30,000  comments). In it he visits parts of Delhi I know well - and (like Thamel) home to handicraft exporters. Regular readers will know that Delhi is NOT my favourite city in India and that Youtube episode is no exaggeration. I love India and most of its people but it has to be said (as Mr Bald fearlessly points out) parts of it are terrible.  Even the most hectic backstreets of Katmandu are clean and people are relatively honest and calm. All SE Asia improved over the last ten years.. except.. Well, let's not get in trouble. I'll be there soon.

Meanwhile back in the UK..

Lots of new stock coming online.. lot's back in stock.

It's the Halloweenmonth of October.. scary deals abound..Don't miss out. 

Namaste from Nepal.

Have a lovely week.

David