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Greetings from Kuala Lumpur Hope you guys are doing well and the Christmas uplift is coming your way.. Last week I was telling you about our trip to the gemstone mine.. in Jharkhand - a small Indian state - a surprisingly peaceful and beautiful place .. I'm working on a YouTube about our trip.. coming soon, but if you missed the newsletter, you can catch up here . As is traditional, we spend a few days in South Goa with our good friends. The last days in India, sorting out the loose ends and relaxing. Me, Toni and Mr Chatterjee..Then yesterday Toni headed back to Spain, Chatterjee and I parted in the airport, him going home to Kolkata. Me onwards. I just arrived from India to KL on an overnight red-eye flight. The journey started with a taxi from our apartment in Goa to the airport, in which a young, crazy guy on a motorbike tried to squeeze through an impossible gap and managed to scrape two taxis in one go . Fortunately, no-one was hurt, but two angry Goan taxi drivers y...

Greetings from the 60th Edition of the IHGF Delhi Fair. Mr Chatterjee, Toni and I are at the huge Indian bi-anual trade show. It's a big deal because this is the 60th edition.. Actually 30 years of trade shows. It's changed a lot over the years, and many familiar faces, old friends, competitors and the odd fraudsters are here. More than a few read this newsletter. I have been attending more years than I'm happy to admit. It was here that I met Mr Chatterjee, who became a good friend and our agent.. our Man in India. He is a well known figure in the show.. mostly because he is tall, towering above most other Indians and sports that trademark white flash hair style and always wears the brightest of clothes. I feel a bit like AW and this trade show have grown up together.. see below why. Last week I was telling you about the noisy city of Varanasi and our search for silk, if you missed it you can catch up here ..  But I also found time to make a YouTube video about it. Thanks...

Greetings from the banks of the Ganges. Toni and I are in Mr Chatterjee's home town, Serampore , just along the river from Kolkata. Last week I was telling you about our last day in Nepal, getting a Tika blessing and then travelling to Varanasi on Buddha Air. If you missed it, you can catch up here . Varanasi is very wet, crazy, busy, noisy as hell, holy cows everywhere, but despite all that, it's surprisingly clean and tidy! I was pleasantly surprised. Plus, we found the people open and friendly and didn't at all get hassled or swamped by beggers. We went looking for Varanasi silk, real silk.. Because it's something special if you can get it. These days, polyester has been improved so much that it's hard to tell the difference (at least when it is new) and the traders in most touristy areas of India will sell you the fake silk because of the huge profit they can make. However, there is something special about the real Varanasi silk. It has that Billionaire v...

Greetings from Varanasi, India Happy October - can you believe it is October??!! It's also Dashain (Nepal's main holiday - like Christmas) and in India Durga Puja - actually the world's biggest (under the radar) celebration. Buddha air services has only one international flight.   And we took it, it goes to Varanasi.   From one holy city to another. Last week I was telling you about Dashain - the Nepali Christmas - and flying kites. And our trip to Bhaktapur, a nearby city which is surprisingly nice, but hides a secret the Gen Z are angry about. I made a YouTube video about it see below.. or check last week's news here . The Tika blessing Our last day in Nepal was a major holiday and a special day in the Dashain festival.. We were lucky and honoured to be invited to the family home of one of our suppliers - the Lokta paper guy . Like Christmas they have lots of traditions.. including flying kites on the roof, and the Tika blessing ceremony. This is tradition...