I have never been more surprised or delighted to wake up in a specific place. I opened my eyes, looked out the window and found our bus driving through the most incredible scenery. On our right, mountains covered in rich, exotic foliage drove up and faded into mist. On our left the road was skirted by an abrupt fall into a river. On the other side of the river the mountains soared upwards, and were covered in agricultural terraces. Little huts dotted both side of the mountain and the mist hung over all.
It’s hard to do the scene justice in writing, and because we were on the wrong side of the bus I couldn’t take the pictures I wanted. It was a grand, sweeping vista and augmented by all the Asian movies I’ve seen which take place in similar scenes. I had to remind myself, “Yes, you are in one of those places! You’re in Asia.”
The road we were on continuously climbed up into the mists and mountains until everything on the left side was a grey void, and it seemed as though we were hugging the edge of existence. There was some kind of traffic jam and were delayed for some time. I began reading and when I looked up again we were in Kathmandu.
It’s hard to say how Kathmandu is different from Lucknow unless you've been to both. Lucknow is flat while Kathmandu is hilly. The streets in the latter city are narrower, the buildings seem taller and more squished together, but both cities are fairly similar. Of course Kathmandu is a capital, so it contains many more tourist sites and to my delight more international food.
We arrived in Kathmandu in a time of political disquietude. Nepal has been moving towards republicanism for the last couple years and we got to Kathmandu four days after the King officially quit his palace. The government was holding meetings and the students were in protest over bus fare. When our bus arrived in Kathmandu it was soon swallowed up in a traffic jam caused by a student demonstrations. We sat for a while, and then our bus turned around and tried a different route. It drove into a little muddy street and began loading and offloading cargo.
Neha and I were a little concerned at this point. It was 10:00 AM and we were supposed to have arrived by 7:00 AM. We waited patiently, but were debating getting off the bus and striking out on foot. Luckily God sent a taxi into the little street we were on. We got in and drove to the Bahai Centre where we were going to stay.
The Bahai Centre is one of the nicer buildings in Kathmandu, designed by an American architect and kept in the pristine condition that most Bahai owned structures seem to be in.
It was in a fairly nice part of town with narrow streets and three story houses. I was severely tempted to move into the top floor of that orange house across the street.
Neha and I were welcomed and then showed to our room which had its own bathroom and a small kitchen. It was very nice.
After we settled in a bit we went walking to find some lunch and a phone to call my host family. Our lunch consisted of mo-mo’s, a Nepalese/Chinese dish which is very similar to a wonton.
We then went back to the Centre, and got some proper sleep. While we were there, there was a Ruhi Book 6 campaign going on so there were many youth at the Centre. We ate dinner there and talked with the youth before going to bed.
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