Arriving Safely in the Kathmandu Valley

I am thankful to have arrived safely here in the Kathmandu Valley, and although a little jet-lagged, I am in awe of the voyage I have made in the past 9 days.

9 days ago, it was February 26th and I had one day left of work at American Block in Houston, TX

Friday, February 27th: I decided not to skip out on my last day of work and at 4pm I started driving to New Orleans, LA to spend the night at my favorite hostel, India House. By coincidence, while en route, a student of mine called to ask me how to get to the hostel, since he was going to New Orleans for the weekend. Upon arriving I saw some of the staff I had gotten to know in my stay there over a year ago. I told them that I wished I could stay longer, but I was on my way to Kathmandu and had to leave the next morning.

Saturday, February 28th: I woke up to find my student, sleeping in the bunk under me. I got some coffee and sat on the front porch, relaxing for a few minutes and looking at the familiar wall of the Catholic Church across the street. A young German woman asked me how to get to the store so she could get breakfast. I told her that it was too far for her to walk alone and I got some fruit from my car and gave it to her. She offered to give some fruit back to me later that day, but I told her that I would be gone and the favor did not need to be repaid. Before leaving, I found my student still sleeping so I woke him up, told him what Jazz club to visit that night and to be sure and invite the young German woman, along with anyone else that would come.

I left the hostel and drove into Mississippi on a lovely calm morning. By the time I drove out of Mississippi, I was in the midst of a Memphis snowstorm. Driving 30mph on the highway and trying not to rubberneck the cars that had fallen in the ditch, I made it to Nashville to have dinner with an old friend and roommate. She had returned to Nashville to be with her family after staying for a few months in Houston, TX. I was glad to hear how well her life was going, and very happy to hear what seems like storybook good fortunes for her and her fiance. After dinner, I decided to get a moderately priced hotel in East Nashville, instead of the most budget priced one.

Sunday, March 1st: Waking up well rested, I was glad I made that choice. If there is nothing to say about a hotel room, that is good, usually the only things said about road trip hotel rooms is how bad they are. I drove on to Washington, D.C. encountering 2 snowstorms and 2 rainstorms along the way. Arriving at my friends house in Baltimore at 11:30pm, I was greeted by him and his fiance. We all talked for a while, and after his fiance went to sleep, my friend and I stayed up until 4am talking about all the good fortunes we had in our respective cities in the past 2 years.

Monday, March 2nd: I stayed in Baltimore for the day, sleeping in, eating Thai food, unpacking the car, repacking everything into a few bags, and concluding the day by getting a notorized bill of sale, to sell my car to my friend.

Tuesday, March 3rd: We woke up at 6am and after a short time getting ready, made the cold walk down to the metro rail stop. A few train and bus changes later and I was purchasing a ticket to NYC on the Pennsylvania Rail Road (this time not playing Monopoly). I slept for part of the way to Penn Station in New York, and then called my sister to tell her what time I would arrive. After my sister picked me up, we returned to her burrough of Brooklyn, ate a Japanese lunch, and returned to her apartment before going into her job in Manhattan. From 6pm to 2am, I sat in the corner of her restaurant working on the Haiti assessment trip report on my tiny laptop. We took the subway back to her home and made it to bed around 3am.

Wednesday, March 4th: After sleeping in a little we decided to both do our laundry at the local laundramat. I was in need of laundry since I was on the travel diet of clothes, having only about 4 changes worth. While the clothes were in the washer, I took some time to go to a drug store down the street and pick up some vitamins and other odds and ends before leaving. After laundry, we returned home to get ready for dinner in Manhatten with my sister's boyfriend. We had a nice dinner together and I got to meet him for the first time. Returning home on the subway at 11pm was reasonable. I went to bed after packing everything in a little tighter, taking care of last minute items on the apartment's wi-fi connection, and putting out the next day's clothes.

Thursday, March 5th: I woke up and got dressed for the near48 hour journey to Kathmandu. After a very speedy lunch we left for JFK international airport. Arriving as planned about 5 hours early, I took the time to call my grandmother and mother to say goodbye before calling my cell phone provider and asking them to terminate my service. Getting on the plane at 5pm, I said goodbye to the USA.

Friday, March 6th: Somewhere between Thursday and Friday, we landed in Brussels, where I had a 2 hour layover. I realized in my half aware state that I needed Euros to buy something from the soda machine, I read passages from my Nepal tourism book, and I managed to get onto the next flight to Delhi, India, without issue.

Saturday, March 7th: At this point it is uncertain when one day begins and another ends. During an 8 hour layover in the Dehli airport, there was confusion for all the passengers with their boarding passes, where they had to wait, and what exactly was happening. I reminded myself that it wasn't this specific airline, as I had been told a few times aleady in Houston, "Good luck getting out of Dehli!", from experienced travelers listening to my itenerary. During this time, I did get to meet some Nepali people and I'll go into more detail in another post. After many hours of uncertainty, and a few hours of confusion, I found myself on the airplane to Kathmandu, relieved that I had "made it out of Dehli" on the first shot.

Arriving in Kathmadu I had a slow but sure path out of the airport. Getting off the plane, changing money, going through the one visa line servicing our incoming flight, finding my baggage, and being waved through customs. One of the Nepali people I met in Dehli helped me to get a pre-paid and safe cab ride to my Guest House. Once there, I headed out to look at other Guest Houses, since the room I had was reserved by someone else in three days and I would need to pick another lodging by then. Walking the streets of Patan (Lalitpur), a city adjacent to Kathmandu but now officially part of Kathmandu, I saw many things for later posts. After eating the local dish "momo" at a cafe and visiting several guest houses, I returned to my current lodging. I took a quick shower and after a change of clothes I took an unintentional nap in my room. Waking up at 9:30, I knew I was out of the load shedding time for this region and we would have electricity until 12 midnight.

I am thankful to be in Patan safely. I cannot help but think about the changes of the past 9 days and everything it took just in that time to get here. 9 days ago, I was on my computer at work in Houston, TX. Today I sit at a computer in my guest house in Kathmandu, furiously typing so that I will be complete when the rolling blackout arrives as planned at 12 midnight.

Thank you to all the Rotarians in Houston who have helped in making this possible.

Also, momo is fantastic and I plan to each much more while I am here!