Day 1

I made it to Nepal. It took 2 days, three airplanes, and 23 hours of confinement to a economy sized seat, but I made it. I would love to tell you that the trip was uneventful, but alas that would not be honest. Those who know me best know that there are two certainties in my life…no not death and taxes (although those would apply also), but the two that plague me on a regular basis are 1) always picking the slowest check-out line in a store, and 2) Murphy’s law always applies when I travel….if something can go wrong, it will. Certainty number one continuously baffles me. One line can have 5 people in it and another just one person. Being the educated person that I am, I assume that the line with one person will be the shorter one. But true to form, the one person will say something like…I would like to have these items rung up separate from these and these…also I have this newspaper and I know there is a coupon in here somewhere. Why do people have things rung-up separately? I will never understand it. As for the travel and Murphy’s Law….I have the worst luck when it comes to travel. Either my flights are canceled, delayed or I end up sandwiched between two extremely large individuals…not to mention the 4, yes 4 times I have had coffee spilled on me by stewardesses ( is that the PC term or is it flight attendant? Either way they spilled coffee on me. Then of course my bags are ALWAYS the ones that are lost. Arg! I thought things were going well on this trip. No delays, fat people, spilled coffee or anything of the such. The map on the monitor indicated we were somewhere over Japan when it hit……food poisoning. I thought the potato salad I ate hours earlier tasted a little odd. But then again I was on an international flight and I can’t pronounce half the items on the menu. (a note to the Waterfalls who will be making that same flight in December……don’t eat the potato salad) Like clockwork, it hit about 5 hours later. For your information if you are ever on a plane and someone is in the bathroom alternating between kneeling and sitting…. No amount of beating on the door will expedite or change anything. The good news was that there was no problem at all getting everything out of my stomach. One whiff of the odor coming out of the toilet took care of all of that. What a horrible ordeal. When I finally did emerge from the bathroom, it was apparent that my wrenching might have been a little on the noisy side. Guys were giving me the thumbs up, women had looks of compassion and kids were downright disgusted. Then the icing on the cake was upon arriving in Kathmandu I learned my bags were lost. To be honest I really wouldn’t have cared that they were lost; I should have just assumed as much and just taken the first taxi to the hotel returning the next day to get them. But inasmuch as I didn’t know that they were lost I had to sit in a very hot, humid airport for almost an hour waiting for them. In the end I made it to the hotel. The first thing they told me was that there was a slight mistake and I was scheduled to be in a room with a shared bathroom. Let’s see….me sick with it coming out of both ends and a shared bathroom…….not a good combination. I am certain at that moment I looked about as pathetic as a human being can look. The manager was standing there and asked me “are you okay”….I told him that in fact I was not. Next thing I knew I was being escorted to a suite with a private bath. God bless them. I arrived to my room yesterday at 2:00 in the afternoon laid down on the bed and woke up today at noon feeling much better. I rolled out of bed to find a get well card from the hotel management that was slid under the door. Only in Nepal. I have always stayed at the Tibet Guest House when I have been in Kathmandu, but this time I am staying that the Kathmandu Guest House at the recommendation of Landon John. So far, so good.