She travels Overland

 I have deliberated , procrastinated about writing this blog.  This is what I've got up to in my extra enforced month in Kathmandu.   I get a taxi back  from Nepali immigration to the Bodhi guesthouse, and immediately get my old room back.  It's huge, it has  red/orange painted walls, an attached bathroom, and three huge windows over looking Boudha.  All for $13 per night.  I'm grateful to the lovely staff: Robin, Rameshwar and the lovely Didi, who makes breakfast, cleans our rooms, and  does our laundry.   I email the Lischa German NGO with my English teaching certificates, and offer to travel to Chapang to teach for free for Board and lodging.  Danni emails back several days later saying the school is closed, due to a two-week COVID lockdown throughout Nepal.    Staying at Bodhi guesthouse are Sarah, a Buddhist nun form UK, now with American citizenship.  Sarah zooms around Kathmandu on an electric moped....

 I can't quite believe I'm in back in India, and in Kerala again.  I'm searching through some emails , looking for my train , and the search reveals emails between my friend, Clair, in which we are hooking up for the start of the Cochin- Darjeeling TucTuc ralley in 2006.   A group of crazy (!!) Brits each put together £2-3000 per team, to buy brand new TucTucs, which they ten raced across India, starting in cochin across the country to the mountainous, tea growing area: Darjeeling, still on my India bucket list.  The race took some 3 weeks, with many breakdowns and adventures along the way: such as sleeping beside the road, and relying on the hospitality on India to feed them , or give them shelter.  They then donated the TucTuc to the Indian TuTuc drivers association so that they could disburse them  to the most needy.  A TucTuc can bring a cash income for a struggling family.   This time I see businesses: cafes, restaurants, ...