Since then we've hardly missed a year and travelling has taken a back seat to shopping. Over the years, too, our buying trips have focused more and more exclusively on what we've been most drawn to: antiques from the Himalayan regions of Asia. We gave up our open shop in Gloucester and moved to the nearby town of Ipswich where we now sell privately to dealers and collectors. In the last few years we have relied more and more on Internet sales where we now meet collectors from around the world.

Nearly twenty years after that first visit we still return to Kathmandu every year. While we grow older, the city seems to become younger year by year. Each return visit is heralded by the disappearance of yet another old landmark as one more ugly concrete building rises in its place. The wonderful handmade items we used to find being sold on the streets or crammed into small shops have grown increasingly hard to find, often being replaced by mass produced new tourist trinkets.

Fortunately, as it has become increasingly difficult to find quality items to buy, by now we have gotten all our ducks in a row: we know where to stay and which restaurants to avoid; we have used the same shipper for years, and most importantly, we know where to shop and where to find what we are looking for. In spite of this streamlining, it still takes us a good six weeks to accumulate enough purchases to take us through another year. We have made many friends along the way and we always look forward to our visits, but we've never since found the time to enjoy Asia at the leisurely pace of that very first visit.