First Impressions

I could tell I was headed somewhere different as soon as I stepped on the plane in Chicago. There were more more colors, more languages, and a lot more bustling around than I've ever seen on an airplane, and I was delighted to find sag paneer on the dinner menu they handed out shortly after take-off. Fifteen hours later and two bad movies later, I landed in Delhi, where I spent a ten-hour layover with a handful of other travelers headed to different international destinations, watching as much of the very disappointing LOST finale as my batteries allowed and trying to finagle a horizontal position on the airport chairs so I could get a few hours of sleep. Finally, thirty-something hours after leaving my hotel in Saint Louis, I was in Kathmandu.

I spent most of my first day in Kathmandu fighting jet lag, trying to stay awake all day so I would be able to sleep at night. I mostly failed, but in a break from my naps I did manage to find a lot of temples, a white hippie with dreds down to his waist playing a didgeridoo, a pair of monkeys, and a place to buy a mountain bike. And I don't know why I was worried about being able to sleep through the night.