Dr. Dave's Journal DG takes you along as he shows up in random places around the world.

 I am sitting in a bar in Kathmandu, Nepal. There are four other people here and a band consisting of four twentysomethings sitting (yes, sitting) in a row on the stage at the other end of the bar. They are playing a mix of well-worn American pop/rock tunes and Hindi songs that are apparently favorites of the other four barflies. They're all Nepali. I am clearly not. I'm also the only person who notices that the electric guitarist is hopelessly out of tune and that the cabernet I'm drinking is awful. In its defense, though, I should point out that it only costs $5 as opposed to the $11 or $12 I had been paying at hotel bars all across India.

Kathmandu is a fascinating city - has more of a western feel than cities in India but the same chaotic traffic (though not nearly as much horn honking) and much of the same poverty. The air is also quite polluted and all of us have acquired various degrees of colds, sore throats, stuffy sinuses, etc.With all the people milling around the streets, signs and billboards everywhere, and massive traffic jams, it's hard to believe that this is one of the remotest places there is. Mt. Everest is basically just across town.

Tonight we catch a flight back to Delhi, rest up for a few hours at a hotel near the airport, then head on to Paris and then Washington, DC. And then a day or so of sleeping.