WHOA. Let me start at the beginning
Wednesday night I flew to London and spent about an hour at Heathrow. The flight was pleasant; there were alot of empty seats and I got a whole row to stretch out on. Also I enjoyed a couple Heinikens courtesy of British Airways. In London everything was overpriced and everyone serving me made a point to call me sir at least every other sentence. Maybe I will get into London on my way back but who knows.
Onto Bahrain I went. As soon as I stepped onto the Gulf Air flight I had a rush of excitement (I've been having alot of those lately). The arabic music and people made it clear I was going far far away. Another uneventful flight, the Pakistani man sitting next to me wasn't very interested in talking and was preoccupied with escorting his father to the bathroom every 45 minutes.
Bahrain International really was not much to see, besides a bold attempt at consumerism that rivals North America, and swarms of religious devotees. Originally I was to spent 6 hours there. However delay after delay added up (apparently Gulf Air is known for this) and I ended up spending a glorious 12 hours at the airport. There I had dinner with a young English woman who was working as a graphic designer in Bahrain, played guitar and discussed hitchhiking and religion with an Austrian who had spent a month in India to see a holy man (I can't remember his name but there are pictures of him even here, he also has a massive afro which is an expression of his spiritualiy), and spoke with an American woman for a few hours who was the only other North American on the flight to Kathmandu (there was a small French group though). We met a Nepali who had been studying in Dallas and spoke perfect English and learned a few things.
So now I am supposed to write about Nepal. I really don't feel like sitting at the computer much longer, it's taken me a while to type this as the keyboard totally blows. Let me just say that I have seen much of what I expected and much more that I could not have. The hotel I am staying at is far from the tourist area (Thamel) on the eastern outskirts of the city. Wow so many things to write about I am having a hard time deciding what to get down. Allow me to shoot off a few points: First I met Rajesh who runs my program, Cultural Destination Nepal (CDN). He seems like a great guy with much knowledge of Nepal and the world. The roads here are madness. Constant honking and cars bikes and people everywhere. Makes Costa Rica look organized. Food is tasty though disturbs my stomach. No major problems there yet. Jet lag is not bad suprisingly; slept 10P - 7A no problems except it is COLD at night. Not like Canada but the buildings are concrete. Everyone at the hotel is awesome, have spent a few hours chatting with the manager Nima, his brother, the owner, the cook, and the marketing manager Damodar (aka Dumbledore). Interesting trying to communicate depending how much English they know, but am learning more Nepali all the time. Room is not bad. Beds are hard but I have my own bathroom which is supposed to have hot water though I have not experienced that yet. There have been (and will be until the monsoon in summer) daily power outages from around 12-3 and 5:30- 8:30 and a few other times I haven't quite figured it out yet. So yea thats a bugger. Great rooftop for hanging and strumming some tunes. Walking in town I have yet to see a white face.
I have to run, I am walking to Pashupati and maybe Bodnath this afternoon with Nima. Pashupati is one of the most holy Hindu temples and Bodnath is a Buddhist stupa.
