Back in Kathmandu

Arrived back in Kathmandu yesterday, this time with traveling companion Rebecca, a fellow resident of Cable, Wisconsin who I went to pre-school/grade school/high school with.



We spent a few days in Chicago first. We watched the premier of "Ice Road Truckers: World's Most Dangerous Roads" which took place in Delhi and the Himalayan roads of northern India. This gave Rebecca, who has never been outside of the U.S., a taste of what was to come. The show featured harrowing trips down Indian roads, which are quite similar in their chaotic and dangerous nature to Nepali roads. The memorable parts of the show were the non-English-speaking side kick to one of the Canadian drivers repeating the lines, "punch, punch" and "keep on trucking" in a thick Indian accent. We walked down to Navy Pier and took a picture in front of a sign that said "Delhi, 7.437 miles."



We left on the journey to O'Hare at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, October 6th and arrived in Nepal the morning of Friday the 8th.

We had an overnight layover at New Delhi airport, which is brand new and fantastic. They re-did it for the Commonwealth Games (Olympics for England and British Commonwealth countries). We met quite a few other travelers who were also going to Kathmandu and coming from Chicago.



On the flight to Kathmandu, there was a male Sikh flight attendant with "Manmeet" on his name tag. This provided much hilarity for Rebecca and I. They say that your "porn industry name" is the street you grew up on and your first pet's name. But with a name like "Manmeet" you are destined to be a star should you chose that line of work!

The taxi ride from the airport is a huge culture shock for new arrivals like Rebecca, with the streets swarming with cows, holy men, funeral processions, and a vast array of vehicles honking and trying to avoid hitting each other. We arrived at the lovely Shechen Guest House which is a quiet oasis in a monastery compound. Matthieu Ricard, Time Magazine's "Happiest Man Alive" was there and I had a nice chat with him catching up after several years. He kindly helped me to create and publish "Compassionate Action: The Teachings of Chatral Rinpoche", which Shechen published in 2005 and printed an expanded version last year. The book is now published in Russian, Hungarian, Spanish and has an international English version through Snow Lion Publications (2007).

Rebecca and I are going to Shyalpa Monastery later today to visit with friends and see a new part of Kathmandu and then on with our adventures. I'll keep you posted.