Beckteria

I Made It!!!

So, I wanted to let y'all know about the last day of my vacay. It was weird and crazy.

Let's start out by saying that strange things were happening to me pretty much all day on Friday. This includes meeting somebody in Kathmandu that had actually been to Missoula before. On Saturday, I had this sinking premonition that something bad might happen. Not life threatening, but still something that was gonna throw a huge wrench into my plans of returning home.

Apparently, there were political demonstrations on Friday (I didn't see anything happen) and again on Saturday. I woke up on Saturday thinking that my luggage was gonna get lost or something. My last travel companion and I agreed to meet at 2 pm at the hotel to go to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for 4:10 pm. He went shopping. I left around noon to go get some food and maybe do last minute shopping.

I went to the main part of Kathmandu (a few minutes away on foot), Thamel. I heard something about Saturdays being a holiday in Nepal, but I was still a bit shocked at how empty the streets were. Usually, there's a ton of traffic--bikes, taxis, rickshaws, pedestrians, and more. Then I saw about 8 men in military uniform, look down the block to see a bunch of people streaming in the same direction with a police van, and more military men. Hmmm. Then I see that most of the stores are either closed or pulling down the garage-esque door to the store front. I figured this was a good sign to return to the hotel and eat there. One of the hotel guys told me we should leave early (1:30) because there are political demonstrations going on. Then it made sense. Regardless, I still had to wait for my buddy to get back. And the sales shark told me that there was no cab that we'd have to walk. I thought he was joking because it was his responsibility to get and pay for a taxi for us. That was the deal.

2 pm, my friend comes back. No cab, no sales shark that was supposed to arrange the ride to the airport. 2:30, the hotel manager tries to get us a cab. Usually, people are all over you trying to sell their cab services. Not that day. I only saw 3 cabs.....The hotel manager says it's gonna cost more than usual, so we have to pay. WTF!!! But, we have to get to the airport. So, we agree.

The hotel manager gets in the cab with us. We start towards the airport and make it maybe 5 minutes before we hit an area where the demonstrators are burning tires in the middle of the road. The cabbie tries to find alternate routes, apparently there are none. We get out and start to walk.

We tried to get another cab, but still cars weren't getting through. Eventually, a car with a handwritten sign that says "tourist" on it pulls over. A white lady is in front on her way to collect her husband from the airport. The hotel manager also gets in. We were super, super lucky to get picked up. I had felt some raindrops....

And then it poured. We were still passing some piles of tires being burned or waiting to be....Saw a ton of people with luggage on their way to the airport in the deluge. People kept looking into the back of our car to see if we really were tourists or not, apparently they had no beef with us.

In the car ahead of us, I kept seeing these black guys get out and saying "peace" and just trying to get through. At one point, we were all stopped and I heard a LOUD thud on the trunk and another on the roof. Either somebody hit our vehicle with a bat or threw a brick at us. I'm not sure what. I wonder if it's because they looked in the car and saw our Nepali hotel manager and not us.....

We made it. Then we both got stopped in customs for a long while because our Nepal was cancelled when we went to Tibet and we didn't get another one (even though it was free). Originally, we were just waived through, so we thought we might end up with trouble when we left.

Next, our carry-on bags were x-rayed 2 or 3 times. We had to identify our check-in luggage too. A short bus ride to the plane where our carry-on was searched for the 2nd or 3rd time where upon it was discovered that I didn't have some sort of stamp on my boarding pass. Back on the bus to get a stamp, back on the bus to the plane, searched and patted down, again. At this point, my highly prized bottles of green chili sauce were confiscated because they're in glass bottles. Amazingly, I did get them back at the Delhi airport.

As you can imagine, the flight was delayed. We had plenty of extra time in Delhi, so it wasn't so bad.

We had our carry-on searched 1 or 2 more times in Delhi where upon my green chili sauce was taken forever. They wouldn't let me put it in my checked luggage. No sir-y bob.... Fuckers. I love that sauce.

Anyway, a 10 hour flight to Osaka from Delhi, a 2 hour train ride, a 15 minute walk up hill home, and I made it! I'm back, baby!!!!!!! I really missed Osaka. It's so awesome here!

The good news is that the worst thing that really happened was the chili sauce. I'm upset about it, but I'm hoping another one of my traveling buddies will buy me more as he's still in Nepal. We'll see....

Ciao!

posted by Bex @ 8:04 PM