Greetings from Kathmandu!

Hope you guys are doing well and trade is good. I’m back after a month away, and this time Tomas and Toni are here with me.

Last week I told you one story from Crystal City in China: our meeting with the gentle, quiet boss of a tumble-stone business. If you missed it, you can catch up here.

After our Crystal City adventure, we faced the epic drive back to Yiwu. Ten hours on the road, with Tomas and Coco sharing the driving. The roads were excellent, with huge bridges and tunnels along the way. The internet was so good that I could work perfectly well from the back seat on my laptop. China infrastructure is just streets ahead.

Back in Yiwu, we hit the market. There was so much to do, but between the friendly, efficient people there, a city where you can find just about anything, and a dash of AI help, we managed a rather superhuman amount in seven days.
Here’s just a taste of what we’ve been working on. Shhh… between us for now.

Then it was time to move on. There’s no easy way from Yiwu to Kathmandu; however you slice it, you end up with a long layover somewhere. We took a late evening China Southern flight to Guangzhou, arriving around midnight, with our next flight at 8 am.

I’d seen some sleeping pods at the airport before. About £20 for the night, bookable online, and only a couple of minutes from security. Perfect, I thought.

Well. Imagine a reclining chair inside a thin plastic box. Just enough room to wriggle. No soundproofing to speak of. Airport announcements, cleaning machines, and little scurrying noises that my tired mind decided must be rats. Probably pigeons.

Neither Tomas nor I slept a wink.

Haha, never mind. At least I could work. When morning came, we were through security and on our way to the gate in minutes. Another China Southern flight, this time five fairly pleasant hours to Kathmandu. I seem to be becoming a regular on that route.

Bicky, our new Nepal agent, met us when we arrived, and Tomas met him for the first time. The first thing we noticed was how quiet everything felt. After the recent disaster, tourism has clearly suffered too. For a place where so many people rely on visitors for their livelihoods, that quiet has consequences of its own.

Toni, our man from Spain, arrived the next morning. So now the three of us are here, with Bicky, ready for the next part of the adventure. I’ll tell you how we get on next Friday.

It’s good to be back in Kathmandu, though it’s hard to see the city without thinking of the people whose lives have been turned upside down. Thank you again to everyone who supported our Nepal Appeal. Your kindness means a great deal, and we’ll keep doing what we can.

Take care, and all the best,

David