Namaste from Kathmandu

Ok everyone, we’re officially in Kathmandu after a marathon of flights spanning 3 days and as many continents. We spent 10 hours in the Delhi airport, which wasn’t as bad as one might imagine, largely due to the serendipitous companionship of two fellow travelers: Prakriti, a very sweet young woman who attends the University of Chicago and is a native Nepali, and Allen, a self-described “red-neck” who spent two of the last three years as a military contractor in Iraq for the US government and is in Nepal to find his fiancé and bring her back to the states to get hitched. Needless to say, we had much to talk about, and we’re both now sure that we will find wonderful wives during the next couple months (but for real, the people here are astonishingly beautiful).

Anyways, we emerge from the airport in Kathmandu with freshly stamped 3 month visas in our pockets, and there’s a man standing with “JOHN WISE” written on a sign, ready to sweep us up and take us to our hotel. Let me be clear here: Kathmandu is a wild place. The drive to our hotel took about 20 minutes, but in that time we watched a monkey scale a brick building, smelled the unmistakable odor of burning garbage, and heard the symphony of horns that fills all the streets. Eli and I couldn’t even speak, the shock was so intense; it was clear for the first that we were very very far from home.

It might sound grimy and even dangerous, but let me assure everyone that so far, the people have been exceedingly kind and interested to talk with us, and the country obviously has a lot to share. Our hotel is awesome, our first taste of buffalo was delicious, and we’re raring to get some much-needed rest and plunge into this great place.

Thanks for all the support thus far, we promise there will be more pictures soon.