One of our favorite holiday destinations is Nepal. Its capital Kathmandu is very dirty, dusty, smelly and noisy, but when I am there, enjoying the view of the Bothnath Stupa with its prayer flags fluttering in the wind… it is the best place to be. What has all this to do with hippos? Let me explain. Thamel is the name of the most scary looking hippo of my collection. It is also the name of a very touristy-guesthouses-restaurants-shops area of Kathmandu. Some people do not like it, and head for the breathtaking landscapes and majestic mountains as soon as they can. Of course we do too, but I like this area very much. The hustle and bustle, the tourists, the rickshaws, the places where you can have Yaks embroidered on t-shirts or jackets and a million little shops where you can buy all kind of souvenirs, tea, singing bowls, carpets and Gurkha knives. One of those shops had some carved animals in its window, but no hippos. I did not expect to find any hippos in Nepal, but as all collectors know…. you can’t help looking. So I said: “I’ll just have a quick look inside”. My dear husband followed with the “here-we-go-again” expression on his face. And to my surprise we saw 2 hippos (collecting dust) on top of a cabinet! The second surprise was: they were made of leather, they looked solid but they were very light weighted. I bought one. It was rather cheap. I think the shop owner never expected to sell one of those; he looked like he was happy to get rid of it. Who knows, when the glaciers melt away, they will find the remains of an ancient breed: the Himalayan Hippo. I am sure they looked like Thamel.
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