Finally

On Saturday afternoon we arrived in Kathmandu. We flew in a huge plane from Delhi to Kathmandu with only 15 other people. There was a man in a pink shirt that kept looking at us. When we got in the plane he was sitting far away at first, and then I looked around and he was right behind us. He never said anything he was just quietly menacing. I was wondering if we were to expect this kind of behavior in Kathmandu, but nothing else like this has happened.

In the Delhi airport, this clerk kept coming up to talk to Meredith and me. However, Meredith is a skilled airport sleeper and managed to put seats together to sleep almost 6 hours, so I got the majority of the attention.



I couldn’t go into a bathroom without five or six people telling me I was in the wrong place and “this is the women’s restroom”. Maybe I should expect this. I started to think that I should probably pick a gender and stick with it while in Nepal. Boo. Anyhow, the clerk kept saying that I was a “man/woman” and that it wasn’t wise to look like that. He wanted Meredith and I to accompany him to smoke cigarettes. Luckily, he left me alone after a while. Also, when I went through security, the smile-less guard kept telling me to go the "gents" line. I kept saying that I was a woman, but he insisted over and over again to go in the other line. I finally took off my jacket to convince him with my breasts. That did it. He covered his face with his hands, laughing and turning bright red. Ah well.

Albert, Meredith’s boss, sent his friend Khusbu to pick us up at the airport:



Khusbu has turned out to be an awesome guide and friend. He dropped us off at Albert’s apartment where we will be staying for a month until Albert returns from the States. I realized on the taxi ride from the airport that driving in Nepal would be ten times more scary than any scary trip I've ever taken in New York or Italy or France. There are no stop signs or traffic signals of any kind and yet somehow people are not killed every second.

So, how does Kathmandu look and feel? It's new and old at the same time. Like Europe, only more extreme. Everything is jumbled together. Cornfields and decrepit buildings, stray dogs and palaces, slums on the river and temples, cows on the street and huge houses. Our apartment is across the "street" from a field full of corn and marijuana:



Meredith has serious allergies and got really red and puffy and sneezy and snotty. She took some pills, but there was something in Albert's apartment that was affecting her. We decided it was the sheets that were making things so bad. So we cleaned them. Look at how ridiculously dirty the water is:



On Sunday we went to Khusbu's house about 20 minutes away from Alberts. It's a very nice house with a big backyard. AND a puppy!! Lord, the cutest golden lab pup.



We played with the puppy and with Khusbu's son. His son is a very clever and friendly kid. He taught me some Nepalese and we played Mastermind with him.



Since Meredith was so affected by her allergies, she decided to go take a sauna and massage. Khusbu invited me to go take a look at some of his property and then to an orphange he manages. His property is in an area called China Market where there are all these small shops that sell DVDs for like 20 cents.

Then we went to his orphanage. This has been the highlight of the trip so far. All these awesome kids live there. Very smart and they all speak english. They heard I played guitar and brought me one to play. I played them a short song and they clapped. Though, they also clapped before I began, so that's not really an indication that they liked my music. They were very confused about whether I was a boy or a girl. But, even children in the States are, so I don't think it's a Nepalese thing. One of the kids, Madhu, said he would show us around Kathmandu. The orphanage is paid for by a German billionaire named Ludwig. They all call him 'papa' in the orphanage and have great affection for him. They talked about him a lot. Khusbu said I could come teach a seminar (in what? I don't know...) every week to the kids. I would really like to do it...

After the orphanage we met Meredith in Thamel which is the most touristy part of Kathmandu. We saw some white people and ate some expensive food, which wasn't expensive.

Can't believe we're here. Probably should start believing it though.

3:27am – Los Angeles
6:27am – New York
4:13pm - Kathmandu