Travel to EBC — The Second Leg and “The Texans”

I am finally in Kathmandu, Nepal. After an extremely long layover and a shorter flight, I landed in Kathmandu late morning. It makes for a short night when your plane is going towards the sun as we did. The airport here was quite efficient, but from looks and style, there was no comparison to the one in Qatar, modern vs. old, almost third world style. The process here was to deplane by stairs out on the tarmac, walk to the terminal, then go create a visa application on a bank of processing terminals, most looked like 80`s technology, but they worked great. Next was the standing in line to pay for the visa and get a receipt. Finally you had to take the visa application and payment receipt to the passport agent and the visa was pasted in the passport and stamped. Then to the security screening for incoming passengers, the guy running the x-ray machine was standing up helping push bags through, he never looked at the monitor. From there it was just a wait for the ride from the hotel. The airport was busy.

My few trips to Indonesia helped prepare me for the ride on these city streets. It can only be described as mass “organized” confusion. Lots of motorbikes, taxies and small busses. I am always amazed how everyone knows where to go and road rage is non-existent. Plus, they drive on the wrong side of the road! The route to the hotel was blocked by pipe work, so the bell hop met me about two blocks over and actually carried my bag those blocks through muddy streets And alleyways. The hotel, while having a 2 star rating, is quite comfortable and clean. It has a small courtyard and that creates a little oasis in an otherwise grittier area.

We met the group and leaders tonight to introduce ourselves and discuss what to expect. The group will be smaller than I thought with only 7 trekkers, one team leader from the outfitter, a Nepal guide and probably 5 porters that we will meet in Lukla. The group was a little of a surprise as before today, I had no idea of the group makeup. Let me back up, on Saturday, I called a friend and business partner in Midland. During that conversation, I mentioned I would be gone to Nepal for three weeks. He told me he had a friend from Midland that was taking his two college student children there and I needed to watch for them on the trek as they were leaving about the same time as me. Well, you know the rest of the story, They are here and choose the same outfitter as I did, plus the daughter convinced a college buddy and her dad from San Antonio to come. If I did my math correct, we have six Texans that showed up in Nepl with the same outfitter. I know those five planned theirs and I am crashing their party. I am just lucky to have people with us that understand my dialect. It will be a fun time ahead.

Tomorrow I will tell a little about what we talked about during the organizational meeting. Tonight, I am fading as my tired has almost caught me.

Life is full of surprises, I hope we all see them and enjoy them when they come!

1 Thessalonians 5:11

continue to day 1