On the road again!

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Waw, it feels so wonderful to find myself writing a travel blog... I just arrived to Kathmandu last night after 2 days in different airports and airplanes, and I am so happy to get back into travel mode that it almost hurts! In fact I am so happy to that I can almost disregard the frustrating keyboards that we find in internet cafes in Asia! My apologies in advance for the typos and missing letters!

So I landed last night in some amazing thick dark clouds. Got my Nepalese visa in no time, and smiled to see nothing really changed: there was confusion between my visa application and another tourist's application and I had to help the clerk sort it out and he was so happy that I noticed the mistake he said "thank you Canadian" several times. Then I waited for my luggage for over an hour to finally accept the fact that it didn"t follow... It was hilarious to see the luggage that came from our plane, one out of 3 was a big TV. In fact there was so many TVs that we left Bahrein half an hour late yesterday because it took them forever to load them on the aircraft.

Babu was waiting for me outside and I was so excited to see him again after almost 2 years. As we drove out of the airport, Babu ran slowly into another vehicle, no real damage but it was so perfectly typical of life here: While Babu was super calm and smiling despite the incident, (as if nothing something nice had happened), 2, then 3 ten 6 Nepalese guys gathered to inspect the damage. I laughed thinking about how differently people in my country would have handled the situation. Everybody was smiling, no yelling, no blaming, no anger. Amazing. Inspiring.

Babu dropped me off at my hotel and I totally enjoyed a hot shower (always a nice surprise when there actually is hot water!), washed my hair with regular soap (my shampoo is probably still in Bahrain), had supper at one of my favorite restaurant in the dark (no power, as expected) and crashed into my bed for a wonderful sleep. I feel totally rested and already recovered from the jet lag.

And so I walked in the quiet streets of Kathmandu this morning, recognizing a few faces, the same guy selling the same musical instrument, playing the same song, the same "rickshaw mad'm?", the same "yes please" from the shop keepers, I had forgotten the sound of people sweeping the street, the horns, the scooters, but it feels so wonderful and familiar at the same time, I am totally excited to be here and feeling so much like a nomad again. ahhhhhhhhhhh! I know eventually when you travel for months you can get tired of this feeling but after almost 6 months of sedentary life, I am totally ready for some adventure. And it feels nice to not have a schedule, go with the flow and take time to drink one more pot of Nepalse tea.

Today I have to deal with the lost luggage and start thinking about the trek. My group arrives in 2 days, it will go very fast after that. MEanwhile I feel like eating in all my favorite restaurants at the same time. I also have to shop a bit for the essentials since I have no extra clothes or in fact no extra anything for now. Kathmandu hasn't changed much but the prices seemed to have doubled in the last two years. I went back to the same internet place, they have flat screen now. Maybe I shoud suggest investing in keyboards for next year?

Life is soooo good! Now I have to go for breakfast part 2.

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