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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

To the Kingdom of Bahrain and beyond!


This is a photo I took in the Bahrain airport six weeks ago, when I was on my way to Nepal. Note the sign indicating the mens and ladies prayer rooms. Wow. That was different. Call to prayer in the airport and the whole bit.

It's crazy to me that it has already been six weeks since I arrived in Nepal. It's Wednesday morning now. Today is my last day in Hetauda. It has been a wonderful visit. I still have lots of stories to tell and photos to share. Today, though, I'm starting to think about my journey west.

My travels will begin at 7:00 tomorrow morning when a Tata Sumo comes to pick me up near Tiffany's dhera (that's Nepali for apartment). We'll drive north towards Kathmandu. The journey takes about four and a half hours. It can roughly be broken into thirds. The first and final thirds are paved. The middle third is not. We will go over two ranges of hills. Somewhere in the middle we'll stop for khaja (that's Nepali for snacks). The food in Nepal is very good. Even stopping for khaja in a little hamlet on the side of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere is a treat. Likely I'll have something similar to the curried potatoes I had on a similar stop a few weeks ago. Mmmm...


By the way, here is a pic of one of these infamous Tata Sumos, as well as one of the little roadside inns where we had our khaja on a previous trip.


And then it will be one final round of Kathmandu before... Bahrain for a few hours. And then Jeff, Ruthie, and family, Geneva, Switzerland, France, CERN, and if I'm lucky... fondue!

3 comments:

Molly Strong said...

Wow - hard to believe how fast time has been going! Thanks for these new thoughts, pictures, reflections, and information. Love you! :-)

Tiffany said...

Brian -

I think you leave in just an hour or two for Switzerland. I miss having you here in Hetauda! But am so super glad you came and visited, and are now visiting new, fabulous places (and people).

I am sitting here with Dudumaya ji in the office - just closing things up after a staff meeting. She is telling me to say thank you to you for the photo you took of the two of us. I put a copy of it for her on her pen drive.

It's super fun reading your posts/experiences of Hetauda and Nepal.

Travel safe...

xoxo, Tiffany

brian said...

Thanks for the kind words, Tiff. Yes, it was a wonderful visit! I miss you and Hetauda...

Glad Dudumaya ji liked the photo. ;-)

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology I am actually making this comment from... you guessed it: none other than the Kingdom of Bahrain itself. Nice airport, really, for what it's worth.

Be well.