This was inevitable. Didn’t count on knocking the ladder over while I was on the roof, though. Fortunately the neighbor’s 4 year old is pretty sharp and went to get his dad for me. The only thing missing is adding the eyes on the garage roof. Marriage may not survive that.

Don’t let anyone tell you the world is a small place. At least if you’re 6’3″ and flying home from Kathmandu. The world is a very, very large place and riding for 5+7+7 hours in an airplane is a lousy way to spend the better parts of two days.

Slept in our remarkably clean, warm, soft bed until 5am when it seemed like time to get up. Fetched a cup of coffee from the Keurig. Unsealed the duffle, searched for the longest possible wash cycle (we don’t seem to have a ‘biohazard’ setting), and let ‘er rip. Yes, that is a two hour and fourteen minute wash cycle.

severe american cheeseburger craving satisfied on way home from the airport. ahhhhhhh.

Landed uneventfully late Thursday night, took a quick shuttle to the hotel, took a shower, and was out in a nanosecond. After going without for over a week, showers fascinate me and I don’t miss a chance.

Now *this* was an English breakfast.

Made my way back to the airport for a 4pm flight. Tried to move it up but was not able to.

I somehow had expected the Doha airport to be more upscale. They are almost finished building their new one, which might be better, but the food court here looked like a weak version of what you would find on a UK motorway.

This time through I opted to pay the $40 for entrance into the Oryx club, a quiet place with comfortable sofas, fresh food, good coffee and wifi. The four hours went quickly.

After our banquet, we filtered back to the bar in the Yak and Yeti, but it got loud and quickly tedious and I said my goodbyes.

I was first to leave the next morning…a 7am driver was taking me to the airport. Coming down to breakfast, expecting to eat alone and just slip away, I walked into the restaurant at 6:30 and found Tara and Chris waiting at a table for me. An act of kindness that meant more than they could have known.

Sagar took care of all the details at the airport, pointed me in the right direction, and it was the start of another 5+7+7 hour set of flights. No joy.

Deana had arranged a final banquet at what seemed to be a large estate in the middle of the city. It was behind a tall wall and we had no idea it was there. Being the final night of Tihar, one of the two largest festivals of the year, the city was alive with candles and a combination of marigold leaves and paint on the sidewalks, inviting good spirits into peoples’ houses and businesses. Even the dogs got flower necklaces on this day.

Thanks Steve for the champagne.  You have class!

from across the intersection you can’t see the little signs on the tall wall that indicate ‘no photography’ in the vicinity. but the soldiers can see you. one well armed man came out of the compound, escorted us across the intersection and inside the security area where we were scanned, patted down, ushered into a back room with 2 way mirrors, and questioned about why we were videoing.
we gave the honest lame story. they took down our information, photographed our cameras, let us delete the videos and let us keep all our everest trek pictures. then after about an hour they released us.
fortunately it turned out to be the american embassy.
(no pictures accompany this post.)

(the next paragraph is shamelessly copied from *another* blog)

Named after the world’s highest mountain, the 40,000½ft Mt Rum Doodle (according to WE Bowman, author of The Ascent of Rum Doodle, a spoof of serious mountaineering books), this famous bar is still milking a dusty (1983!) Time magazine accolade as ‘one of the world’s best bars’. It’s long been a favourite meeting place for mountaineering expeditions – Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner, Ang Rita Sherpa and Rob Hall have left their mark on the walls – and a visit here feels like a bit of a pilgrimage for mountain lovers. Trekking groups can add their own yeti footprint trek report to the dozens plastered on the walls. The restaurant serves up decent steaks, pasta and pizza and there’s often live music. You can eat here free for life – the only catch is that you have to conquer Everest first!

We met up there for lunch. I was craving a cheeseburger but the closest they had was a veggie burger with yak cheese. Yeah, I went for it. So the Rum Doodle is not known for it’s food, but that doesn’t take away from its legendary status.

We filled in a yeti’s foot for our trek.  chris, we *really* could have used your talent there. But it’s hanging there now. Our two spokesmodels show it off.

took one more spin through the streets of ktm to see durbar square. once you begin to relax in this pandemonium of humanity, noise, dirt, demonic vehicles, smells and colors this place reveals more of itself to you. we were the only two people who looked like us, and nobody seemed to care. headed slowly through the maze of streets between durbar square and the center of thamel where we were meeting up with the others at the rum doodle for lunch.