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Mystical Nepal

Kr
2004-08-10 15:38:06

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February 14, 2004

I arrived at LAX airport on Saturday morning for my long awaited trip to Nepal with my Dad. We had originally had this trip planned for 2002, but cancelled after the September 11, 2001 attacks. After several years, all the pieces fell into place for us and we were finally able to make it to Nepal. When we checked our luggage at the airport, we were told that Tom Cruise was filming a movie, just down the hall from where we were. We walked down the hall and we were right in the midst of a film shot, with Tom Cruise only a few feet away. He had his hair dyed gray for the movie and his camera crew surrounded us. We watched them film a scene where Tom Cruise and the other actor switched bags in the airport. After a few minutes of gawking, we headed to our gate for the long flight ahead. With good fortune, we had the exit row for the entire flight, allowing so much more legroom. It was 10 hours to Tokyo and another 6.5 to Bangkok. I watched the airplane map as we went over Alaska, the Bering Strait and the International Date Line. We arrived in Bangkok at midnight and were shuttled to the Asia Airport Hotel. Even at midnight, balmy Bangkok was bustling with activity. When we got to the hotel lobby, we looked in and saw a huge cloud of white in the air and when we asked, found out it was mosquito spray. We held our breath and made it through the lobby and were happy to finally rest.

February 16, 2004

Early Monday morning we headed for the last leg of our flight to Kathmandu, Nepal, a short 3.5 hours from Bangkok. Kathmandu was a city that seemed so foreign and exotic to me. It was a place I knew about from songs and travel stories, but I never thought I would actually see it with my own eyes. Nepalese teenagers stared at me in the airport and we tried to communicate, but it was futile because of the language barrier, so we just sat and smiled at each other. I was as ...