The Long Slog to Kathmandu -- The Epic Journey Before The Epic Journey

Left Richmond a little after 5 pm on May 12th to drive to Dulles. Therese was driving me up so I wanted to leave a little early since she had to drive back home. My Qatar Airways flight didn't leave until 10:50 pm.

No sooner did we leave the condo then a torrential thunderstorm hit downtown Richmond bringing traffic to a screeching halt. We tried a couple of back routes but it still took us almost 45 minutes to get out of town. The first stressor for the trip.

Once we got going, the ride to Dulles was pretty uneventful. Pulled into the hourly parking just before 8 pm. Plenty of time. Get up to the ticketing counter and the agent asks for the credit card that I used to pay for the tickets to check me in. Uh . . . I didn't have it because the bank replaced it a couple of weeks ago with a new number. She couldn't do anything without it.

It took 30 minutes to get through the customer service phone system at the bank to talk to a real person. In the mean time, Therese called Matt and then Katie who looked up the account online to get the old number. After we had the correct number, check in went smoothly. Second stressor for the day. What a way to begin the trip.

At 8:30, I said my tearful good-byes to Therese who had to drive 2+ hours back to Richmond. She will miss me and I'll miss her.

Went through security and took the tram out to the terminal. I thought that I'd better check the credit card I planned to use to get rupies in Nepal. Of course, none of the passwords I thought were correct would work in the ATM. Stressor number three! h well, Therese better move some money into our debit account. I'll need rupies when we go into the mountains because there are no ATMs out there.

Boarding the Qatar Airways flight went smoothly even though 350 passengers were on the plane. They are a class operation. There didn't seem to be many Qataris on the flight. It was mostly Indians and a large, rough crew who looked like they were Blackwater or Halliburton employees.

The flight pulled back a few minutes ahead of schedule and we were on our way. I was near the front, two rows behind the bulkhead seats. Big mistake -- that's where they put the babies and toddlers. There were five babies, at least one of whom seemed to be making a fuss at any given time. Just had to turn up the volume on the headphones.

There were also a lot of really, really old people on the flight. They wheeled about six of the up just ahead of me before I boarded. It took them forever to get to and in their seats and required several of the flight attendants to assist. It also took them a long time to get to the lavs during the flight. You have to give it to them to be travelling half way around the world with their infirmities.

The ride was very smooth the whole way. It was just l-o-o-o-n-g. The meals were not bad; I had a glass of wine; I watched three movies, I did laps around the plane and talked to a couple of other insomniacs in the back galley. Did I say that the flight was long?

I didn't want to sleep on this leg of the trip, but I did doze off a couple of times. Twelve and a half hours later, we landed in Doha. It was dark when we took off from Dulles, the sun rose over the Atlantic and then set as we flew in over the Gulf.

Deplaned and went through transit quickly. The flight to Kathmandu wasn't scheduled to leave for another six and a half hours. Headed up to the Oryx Lounge. It's worth the $40 for comfortable chairs, food and drink, and clean restrooms.

In the lounge, I was able to connect the netbook to the internet and called Therese. Thank God for Skype. It cost about 20 cents for a ten minute call. Not bad.

Gerry had sent me an email that he got out of Dublin and to Manchester on time. The QR flight from Manchester left right on schedule so he should have no problem making our connecting flight to Kathmandu. He said that Sean Wall surprised him and was coming along on the trip as well. For those that know Sean (and Gerry), you get it.

When I came out of the lounge at 11:45, the airport was a madhouse. Not the businessmen that you see during the day, but a mass of humanity trying to board flights to all over Asia and the Middle East. The airport almost looked third world in some respects.

Met up with Gerry and it's the same old Gerry. Just like he never returned to Ireland. The first thing he wanted was the Richmond gossip so I gave him a copy of the Times Dispatch and Style.

We checked into our flight right away and began boarding. There were a lot of Nepalis on the flight. I seemed tall compared to most of them!

We couldn't get seats together, so Gerry sat in the back with the chickens and goats (only half kidding). The flight was uneventful but I didn't sleep.

It was great coming into Kathmandu flying over the hills an into the little airport. The terminal looked like something out of the 1950s. It took a while to get our visa and clear customs. Our guide for Himalaya Expeditions was waiting for us at the terminal entrance along with a thousand other taxi drivers. It was a madhouse scene and truly third world.

The ride in from the airport to the hotel was crazy -- buses cars, motorcyles, bicycles and pedestrians all vying for the same road space. They drive with their horns here. The streets are winding and filled with trash. There are people everywhere and young kids either going to school in their British-like uniforms or begging from the Westerners when the car stops.

We met a Brit named Frank who came in on the same flight as us. He seemed a little odd, probably the same he thought of Gerry and me.

Left Therese a voice mail. I miscalculated the time between Kathmandu and Richmond -- it was midnight there, not 10 pm as I thought. Oops.

I've been up since 5 am on Wednesday, with only a bit of sleep on the plane. I need to try to get a couple of hours now even though it's only 10:30 am. So, I'm signing off for now.