Monsoon evaluation in the morning sun.

I dare not say it – I can feel the sun coming… yesterday morning we got a call from guests who cancelled a night of their bookings a few hours before they were supposed to check in. They had been in Pokhara for 10 days without a single glimpse of the Himalayan Peaks… but on the morning of their departure they saw the peaks… they simply had to stay one more day to get full experience!
These news made us so happy…

This morning at 5 am – while checking the water tanks on the roof – I got a glimpse of the peaks myself… today is the first day where I can feel the flowers and the trees taking over… that means that the rain will stop.
This is our 4th monsoon – and to be honest – it has been the easiest one so far (even if the rain will continue for weeks). And it’s kind of weird – Lazimpat and Kathmandu has never been worse.

The road widening project has left the city in a state that most of all reminds one of a war zone with bomb shell houses and mud covered ruins everywhere you go. Whatever Nepal gained from Tourism Year 2011 is drowned in mud and dispair… but thats another story.
I don’t know why we feel the monsoon has been easier this year – but I guess its because we’ve been better prepared. Both mentally and practically…

Intuitively we have engaged ourselves in a lot of practical projects improving Tings: rooms have been painted, four rooms have got new floors, the kitchen has been repaired and cleaned, the water drainage in the garden fixed etc…But the biggest projects – and things all our regular guests will notice – are the make over of the top floor and the renovation of the garden.

 

The constructions:

• The Top floor will now be open for everybody. We have put new slates on the terrasse and integrated it with the studio room so we now have a spacious lounge room where guests can chill or work – either in the shade on the covered terrace when the sun is too hot or in the heat from our stove when the cold season starts…
• We have two new rooms on the top floor – we call the rooms The Corner Suite and Top Lounge. Both rooms are spacious with private terrasse. We still haven’t got pictures that are good enough to post on this blog. But as soon as we have we’ll let you know.
• In the garden we have covered two parts with an ‘open’ fiber roof. The one in the back corner will be the perfect spot for private meetings/dinners and the big one under the trees at near the entrance will be perfect for chilling in the hammock or the sun beds. Once we have put curtains up, it will be perfect for doing yoga…
• Finally Annette has made new chairs and tables for the garden… 3 tables with mosaic flowers that matches the colors in the garden and 12 wroth iron chairs…

 

New Initiatives: Tings 4 Sale

• Well,,,, this is actually not big news – our regular guests knows that we have our own Soaps and Annette’s Pashimas for a while. But these things has been so popular that we try to build it into the Tings Universe by developing new products, designing them and present them as Tings products.
  We still haven’t found the right way to present them – a web shop and a showroom are the most obvious possibilities we have in mind…  Right now Tings4Sale has the following items:
  • Tings Lamps (two different)
  • Tings Soap (five different)
  • Tings Tea (5 different – bot more will come) – this is obvious. We get tea you can’t get else where in Nepal – and when we buy tea on our travels, why not buy extra so real tea lovers can enjoy the tea at home…
  • Tings Pashminas – here Annette is constantly designing new collections. Right now we’re working on an art collection with the most exclusive (and expensive) pieces this country has seen so far… these are not for Nepal. To be published in October.

 

News from the lounge:

After being operational for a year and a half we have a pretty good idea of what our guests like. So basically we have just build these “likes” into our menu. And divided it in two… one for the summer and one for the winter. The idea is still to have a very limited menu and add 1 – 3 ‘Today’s Special’ on the white board – we haven’t been too good doing the latter. But we will. We do have a few new items:

• Spicy glass noodle salad (Thai style)
• White Ice Tea (this is already a hit)
• Tings Tonic – Earl Grey Gin Tonic (so is this)
• Mini Calzones…

Art@Tings and other activities

This is something we do for fun only! Our plan was to get involved in the jazz festival this year but the expected support from Denmark was messed up with corruption, bureaucracy and nepotism so it killed all the fun… But we have a few projects in the pipe line

• Poetry: In October we’re working on a poetry event with Photo Poetry, Poetry work shops and Poetry reading… the artists are Anne Lelong from France (but living here) and Yuyutsu RD Sharma who doesn’t need introduction. This project is still work in progress.. but already now it seems that we’ll get somthe really exciting happening…
• Painting/Installation/ ?: In December we’re working on an art project with four young artists. The first Nepali artists at Tings as a matter of facts. What kind of art is hard to say… the involved artists will work something out…

• Tings Dharma Club: This is something we have been looking forward to. Our teacher from Denmark – Lakha Lama Rimpoche – will move to Kathmandu for five months each winter. He will give teachings once a week at Tings

What else?

Hmm…. these spontaneous morning-monsoon-reflections took overhand… but personally its nice to now that we have done a bit of work the previous two months.. after all.
Updates on each of the above will follow – so stay tuned.
/Annette & Thomas

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