Disappearances

The Beard has gone - hurrah :)

The camera has also gone - boo :(

Somewhere on the journey between Mamallapuram and here, some gyppo Indian has chiefed my camera and maglite. I suspect it was one of the herd of shouters that bundled onto the sleeper train at about 1am on the way to Varanasi. So i've had to stretch my already tenuous budget and get a new one. My watch went AWOL in Gokarne, so I'm timeless also.

Anywayz... I had my first ever cut-throat razor shave in order to stop being mistaken for a Muslim. The shave included a head and neck massage which seemed to basically consist of the barber giving me a good beating. Plus I was told that the rain we had the day I arrived was the first rain since the last monsoon. My sense of timing is as impeccable as ever.

I'm trying to sort out my trekking plans at the minute, I have to trek for a while to acclimatise and wait for the road into Tibet to clear enough to be passable before I try and blag my way in. I'm tentatively aiming for the Everest base camp trek, which takes a total of 32+ days if you don't fly some of the way, so I might be off your screens for a bit.