Before I left for Nepal I read through a number of weblog reports from the travelers trekking in the mountains ahead of me. The exciting accounts were from the hectic taxi rides through the city, the wonderful food, and the great fun making friends with the Sherpas. All of that was fine, but I became fixated on the minor detail of how all trekkers to the Khumbu practically have to crash land into the Lukla airstrip in an outmoded propeller plane from an airline named after a mountainous myth, Yeti Airlines. Richard was probably fabricating a little of his own myth too when he described the extreme conditions and the terror of every flight, how pilots would roll the dice with every approach for the sheer challenge against the terrain. I was pretty nervous on the early morning that we crammed our baggage and our bodies into the small airframe and rumbled down the runway. Getting airborne was a good first accomplishment for us, considering all the gear we had with us. Remember, we also had a couple of huge duffel bulging with extra jackets and school supplies we were going to donate along the way. Of course I remembered the maxim that falling/crashing doesn’t hurt until the last part.

Shopping in Nepal is hit or miss, and I’m referring to actually useful items instead of tourist trinkets. When we arrived in Kathmandu I wanted to get out and explore the city to track down some specific electronic gear (a PDA with keyboard) to take with me into the mountains. Kathmandu is really a large, bustling city, but I forgot that it is not as tidy and organized as some other cities. There are no department stores or even any mega-superstores in which to leisurely stroll around get a good view of the myriad choices. Instead there is a random pattern of small shops hidden away in winding alleys, and unless you know where you’re going you’ll get lost and trampled by all of the traffic. I asked Pema to take me shopping for computers and he said he knew just the place. Of course if you’ve been following my story you will remember the ordeal I had clawing my way through the jammed streets and alleyways to find a scant few electronics shops, but nothing I could use. Shovan here in the office claims that if you know where to go you can find anything you want and that they can put together custom components. That’s starting to sound like the Russian black market or something, but I’ll take his word.