Greetings from Pokhara...finally :)

Greetings from Pokhara!

I finally made it - after approximately 84 hours of traveling! This post is a play by play of my journey... sorry it’s kind of long (and sarcastic) but I feel I owe it to some of you who have been waiting for calls/emails/blog entries :) Maybe this will begin to explain the craziness that was my trip here...I can only now start to laugh about some of it haha...

My adventure began early in the morning on June 4 at the San Diego airport. It was smooth sailing (or flying, that is), from SD to Chicago and even from Chicago to New Delhi. The 15 hour flight to Delhi was long, but bearable, and gave me some time to catch up on sleep and romantic comedy watching. When I got to Delhi, I was directed to take a shuttle from the international terminal to the domestic terminal, which made sense to me, considering my next flight was from Delhi to Mumbai. When I got to the domestic terminal, however, I was directed back to the international terminal, at which point, there were no more shuttles running. Getting back to the international terminal in a cab would have been easy, had I exchanged some of my US cash for Indian rupees; however, since this was not the case (I had only been in India for literally 30 minutes, and don’t remember seeing a currency exchange yet), the cab driver began asking me for ‘gifts’ from the US in place of money - such as my cell phone, he suggested. I DON’T THINK SO! I finally talked him into taking $10 US dollars, but it took a lot of difficult coaxing, which was even more difficult given the language barrier. I had to get back into the back of the cab to pay him, as well, and I’m not exactly sure why, other than he kept saying the police would see us (sketchy).

Anyways, back at the international terminal, I found out my flight was delayed...don’t worry, it was only delayed 6 hours! So I managed to get on an earlier flight that would (or at least I thought) give me enough time to make my next connection in Mumbai to Kathmandu. After switching my flight, it was after 11:00 pm (June 5), and I still had to wait until 3:30 am (June 6) when my new flight was scheduled to leave. To make things more complicated, I was trying to call and/or text my parents to tell them I made it safely to Delhi, but my phone wasn’t picking up any service; plus, in order to get online at the Delhi airport, you needed a password that you could only receive via text...WHAT?! Finally, I was desperate enough, and asked nice man sitting next to me if I could have the password sent to his cell phone so I could send an email and/or use Skype. Thankfully, he agreed!

Again, the flight from Delhi to Mumbai was good, other than the fact that it was scheduled to leave around 3:30 am, but we sat on the airstrip for so long, I think we left closer to 4:30, which put us getting into Mumbai a little after 6:30 am. When we landed, I knew it was going to be tough to make my connection to Kathmandu, which was scheduled to leave at 8:00 am (still June 6). At this point, I had prepared myself to not make at least one of my connections, considering my trip to Pokhara involved 5 flights on 3 different airlines (BTW, if you ever travel anywhere, never put yourself through this...pay the extra $ to get to your final destination in as few flights as possible, it will save you stress, and as I’ve found out the hard way, $ in the end)...this also meant that I was having to collect my checked suitcase at every stop and recheck it. Anyways, I figured I would just be able to hop on a flight to Kathmandu later in the day. So after collecting my suitcase in Mumbai, it was about 7:00, so I knew I had to hurry... I asked 2 different people how to get to my gate and they directed me from the international terminal to the domestic terminal...this time, it didn’t make sense, since I was flying out of India and into Nepal, but I figured that after asking 2 airport personnel, I should trust their advice. There was no shuttle at this airport, so this time, I exchanged some money to get a cab...7:15 am. The same was true about my cab ride in Delhi, as well, but there basically are no traffic laws, and if there are, nobody follows them...plus, even though it was still early in the morning, it was already like 90-some degrees with at least 90% humidity (or at least it felt this way)...going on day 2.5 with no shower, yummy! The cab driver dropped me off, when I learned that I was at the right terminal, but it was still quite a walk to the Kingfisher Airlines counter, where I needed to check in, so I hopped in a little 3-wheel cab/bike thing (I forgot what they’re called) to get there...7:30 am, flight leaves at 8:00, losing hope...and then the cab driver is like, “What time does your flight leave?” I should have lied, but didn’t think about why he was asking, and so I said, “8:00 am.” He then proceeds to slow the vehicle almost to a stop, and tells me that he will hurry and take me the rest of the way only if I pay him $25 US dollars. “Okay, just keep driving!” I didn’t even want to argue.

All the hurrying and the $25 cab/bike ride later, I come to find out that the flight I was supposedly scheduled on didn’t really exist...again, WHAT?! Apparently it was cancelled long before I ever left SD, but nobody ever told me. I knew this flight had been cancelled and rescheduled once, clear back in April, but apparently it happened a second time. So now I didn’t have a flight to Kathmandu at all...which wouldn’t have been a problem, had there been another flight to Kathmandu out of the Mumbai airport for anything less than 48 hours!! P.S. crying in life can sometimes get you things you want, but just FYI, crying at the airline ticket counter can rarely and/or never bring about (a) the magical appearance of flights to your city of choice, or (b) even a discounted ticket to get you where you are going. I paid “up-the-wazoo” to...get this...fly back to Delhi (yes, where I had just arrived from), and then on to Kathmandu. But wait, it gets better, the flight to Delhi left at 8:00 pm (June 6) and the one to Kathmandu left at 1:30 pm (June 7)...awesome! So, between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm on June 7, I paid to sit in this swanky hotel lounge so I could have internet, food, and sleep on a couch rather than an airport chair. Then after flying into Delhi, I learned that people are not allowed to enter the airport until, at the most, 3 hours before their flight...so my trying to get in at 10:30 pm on June 7, when my flight left on June 8 at 1:30 in the afternoon, did not work (sorry mom and dad, I didn’t tell you this part)...so I spent the night at this “visitors lounge” across the street from the airport, yes, in a chair, for some other odd amount of money...again, the lesson here is pay the extra money to get the good flights in the veryt beginning! I spent the night/morning reading, playing cards (which is obviously not common in India, by the way people were looking at me), watching Twilight, New Moon, Coyote Ugly and Center Stage (bahaha) and attempting to sleep. By this time, I realized I desperately needed some rest, and a shower, so since I was going to also miss the last flight out of Kathmandu to Pokhara on June 7 (figures, right?!), I decided to book a hotel (the Kathmandu Guest House) online, instead of staying another day/night in another airport lounge.

I made it to Kathmandu by 4:00 pm, to my hotel by 5:00 pm, and was in bed by 7:00 pm. The hotel was nice and peaceful, and I wish I would have had more time to explore it and its surrounding area (called Thamel), but I was simply too exhausted. There were a lot of backpackers and hikers staying there (and yes, most of them were white, Brit haha), and two couples from Ireland who I think were ‘swingers’ traveling together.

And this brings me almost to the present. I left for Pokhara the morning of June 8 (yesterday) at 9:00 am and arrived by 9:30 am. Sabita, the wonderful woman who is so graciously allowing me to stay with her, was at the airport with a cousin, a friend, and a car waiting to pick me up. Since arriving yesterday in Pokhara, it has been a rush of emotions... relief for finally being ‘somewhere’ after spending so many days/nights on airplanes and in airports (I was beginning to feel like Tom Hanks in “The Terminal); gratitude, for the hospitality everyone I have met has showed so far; freaked out, in that it only now is starting to feel like I’m REALLY going to be here for 8+ weeks; homesick, since everything is so different from La Pine and SD; sadness, because I miss all of my family and friends; excited to start my internship with CWES tomorrow; and simply overwhelmed by everything.

I’m going to hold off writing about what I have done since yesterday afternoon, through today, since this post is already so gosh-darn long! I’ll post again in a few days telling you more about Sabita (who, just quickly, is so kind, and I could not have asked for a better hostess/house-mate), CWES, and Pokhara, my new temporary home :)

Again, hopefully this helps some of you realize why you haven’t heard from me...it’s not that I am not thinking about you, it’s just been nearly impossible to think about blogging and/or answering emails...and additionally, I have not really even had access to the internet much (even now, I’m typing this in Word, in hopes of posting it later today by going to a cyber cafe or something). My mom and dad are really the only ones who have been getting my EXPENSIVE text message updates (yes, my phone eventually started working at some point on my journey).

Hope all is well with all of you; and don’t forget to leave comments if you can, I love reading them. Miss you and love you!