St. John's to Kathmandu Solo

July 6 2006

Well hello! I have made it to Kathmandu! I’m alive. I’m safe. And most importantly I am still in one piece. Ask me 5 days ago how I was doing and I would give you a totally different answer. I was out of my mind. I had a quite a few bumps along the way. First off my flight was cancelled Thursday, June 29 due to high winds in Toronto. The earliest flight out from NL was Saturday, July 1. So, my Nepalese journey began 2 days late on Saturday at 5:40pm. I was rushing to the airport with no time to spare as per usual, said my farewells to my mom and walked through departures trying to keep a brave face. I was feeling pretty good about everything and was excited about finally getting to Nepal. I was originally supposed to be there Saturday, July 1. So I was anxious to get on the go. I landed in London Heathrow early Sunday morning. My ticket was only guaranteed to London. I knew before I left NL that I was going to have to make my way to Qatar Airways and try to get on the 10:55am flight to Doha that day and then try to catch the connecting flight to Kathmandu 11:35pm that night. I knew there was a possibility that this would not work out but I was not thinking about that. I was too nervous to think about that possibility. So to make a long story short I had to over night in London. To anyone reading this blog – this is more than likely a minor problem. However, to me, it was traumatic. I had a pain in my stomach and in my chest and I was walking through Heathrow Airport fighting back tears wondering - where am I? What am I doing? Where am I going? Dramatic you think? Sure… I get that a lot. But I was honestly really scared. Traveling alone to another country was never something that I thought I would enjoy. Anticipating my trip to Nepal, my only worries were that something might go wrong with the flights and or my in-country coordinator, Neer, might not be in the Kathmandu airport to meet me. So anyways, I was I nervous wreck. The only calling card I could find to buy was 50USD. I felt totally scammed which added to the situation.

So I had 30 hrs to burn in London. In almost any other circumstance I would be out of my mind excited. I ended up getting the tube to Warwick where Astra is living. She was so good to me and with only an hour notice of me arriving. She came back to Heathrow Airport with me the next morning at 6:30am and saw me off to Asia. I was worse by this point. I was only getting more nervous with every passing hour. It all started in London and I couldn’t knock the feeling. It’s weird because in NL I was counting my days down to leave.

I slept the 7 hrs to Doha. I arrived there at about 8pm and it was 36 degrees! I couldn’t quite grasp the fact that I was sitting in an airport in the Middle East. It was nothing like I had expected. I figured I would be the only person there who was not Asian. I was totally wrong. Every face imaginable was in that airport, a lot foreigners and tourists. At 11:35pm I boarded the plane to Kathmandu. This was an overnight flight. Everyone slept except for me. I was too nervous to sleep. I was agonizing about my last and final worry – Neer would not be at the airport to get me. I kept my mind from wandering by reading the entire duration of the flight. The sun was rising as we flying into Kathmandu. I could see the Himalayas – glimpses of the snow capped mountains through the cloudy sky. It was amazing. It made my nervous stomach almost completely disappear. I took my first picture through the plane window. My journey had begun.