I am just starting to recover from the longest and most debilitating illness I’ve experienced out here. The Katmandu monsoon is not what I expected. In a single day, it can be quite cold and quite hot, and it’s always very humid – nothing gets fully dry. All perfect conditions for disease. And there is a major water-borne disease problem here – which I have discovered to my own cost.

I can now drink untreated Indian well-water with relative impunity. Tap water in Nepal is a different story. The civil war has had very detrimental effect on the country and especially its infrastructure, including the water supply – there is not nearly enough of it and what there is, is not drinkable. The Government estimates that presently 72% of the water from Kathmandu taps is not fit for consumption. There has been a bad outbreak of gastroenteritis in the Valley and even cholera – with more than ten people dead from that. The Government has been using loudspeakers on vehicles to warn people not to drink the water without boiling it.

The warning came too late for me – I’ve been sick on and off for weeks – in fact it’s been more than two months. At first I managed, but these last few weeks have left me very depleted of energy and somewhat lighter. A Dr friend, Karunamati, told me that the average life expectancy in the place I have been living is just 19 years. Apparently, that is mainly because of tainted water.

On the bright side – to keep myself happy I wrote up the notes of a poetry-writing walk that I’d undertaken in 2000 whilst living at Guhyaloka. So, on and off, I’ve been living once again amongst those extraordinary mountains and rocks.