So much sunshine, but so little electricity

Nepali spring is fantastic. The temperature is about 25 - 30 degrees C, there is sunshine pretty much every day and it's a nice dry heat. The excessive amounts of sunshine do mean that our camera just can't handle the light, so I can't really post any pictures of our walking at the weekend as everything just looks white! Perhaps we need to experiment with the settings or something.

We went with some American friends to Nagarkot, which is on the ridge to the east of Kathmandu Valley. It is famous for its excellent mountain views.  Not last weekend though. It's been really dry lately and there is so much dust we couldn't see much at all.  We got up at dawn to see the sunrise over the Himalayas but all we could see was one tiny peak. Oh well, as the sun came up it was pretty awesome as it rose directly behind a peak, so looked like Pac-man:

The problem with the sunny weather though is that there is no water in the hills and therefore no electricity in Kathmandu.  We have about 12 hours electricity a day, and most of this is during the night. So today for example we have electricity from 9 am to 12 pm, then from 6 pm until 3 am.  Monday and Tuesday are good days as we have electricity in the evenings! Last weekend I got an email about Earth Hour suggesting I turn off the lights for an hour on Saturday. No problems there, I honoured Earth Hour by turning them on for an hour!