First full day in Nepal. My body and mind were a wreck after sitting in airplanes for so long with pretty much no sleep. Got “lucky” enough to be seated next to a screaming toddler on my 14-hour flight from Miami to Doha, Qatar and again on the 4 hour leg from Doha to Kathmandu, Nepal. I met the family during our brief layover in Doha. They couldn’t have been nicer, and little girl more adorable, but she could make some noise. Got to the hotel around 4:00 am, in bed by 5:00, and set the alarm for 7:30 to set my internal clock to local time. Had an excellent breakfast with a bunch of the crew. Arno is a 57-year-old astro-physicist, who lives in a tiny town in northern California with his wife, an archeologist. He rides a GS 800, often with his wife on pillion. They self-toured Ecuador on a motorcycle, and are into hiking, climbing, mountain biking, and skiing. Ian, 47, is a board-certified general surgeon, currently in hospital administration, living in Boone, NC. He’s super funny, 6 foot five and could talk with a rock. He has a motorcycle problem and owns a Harley Road Glide and KTM Super Adventure. He rides mostly solo, as it’s the one thing he can do just for himself. He’s also a servant and went to Honduras with his wife to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. Jackson is the youngster in the group at 32, here from Denver with his dad Robert. He is a commercial cabinet builder, has a pair of DR-650s that he rides around CO. Very nice guy, quiet and intelligent. Lupo is a friendly German, funny, with a German sensibility. Brett and the crew from Nepal finally managed to escape from China and will arrive here this afternoon to lead our group. In all his travels around the world, their 8-day unscheduled ordeal in China was among the sketchiest as it involved a loss of liberty that could have ended very poorly.
After breakfast, I went for a walk to check out the city. According to Wikipedia, Patan is one of the oldest Buddhist cities. It is a center of both Hinduism and Buddhism with 136 bahals or courtyards and 55 major temples. I walked to Durbar Square, the epicenter. It was a bustling Saturday afternoon full of people of all ages. The transportation of choice is motorbike and it’s a beehive, not unlike Ecuador. I love it how people hold hands as they walk. Funny thing is it’s not men holding women’s hands; that would be too immodest. It’s a platonic thing with same sex friends, a beautiful public display of affection, and a visual example of the kind and gentle nature of the local population.
That night, we grabbed dinner across the street from our hotel. Ordered some tasty chicken dumplings called Mo Mo, chicken sausage, and French fries, all washed down with a tasty local beer. Met Matt & Steve from Santa Barbara who’d spent the past few days in Doha, taking in the sights and got checked out on a pair of camels.
