January 2, 2014 — short note. From Kathmandu to Delhi.

Hi All –

Very short note (and no photos) as today was really a travel day.

Dealt with packing and logistics this morning.. including our decision to ship our winter clothes to California and lighten our load. Actually, that was always the plan, but it was colder in Kathmandu than we anticipated so we needed those clothes there.. and then we thought it was just five more days so maybe just continue to carry everything. But since we are having a lot of trouble getting rid of these colds we decided to just go with the plan and ship the stuff. So we had to deal with a shipping company, getting a box, and weighing the goods to stay within the allotted amount of weight. Done!

Left Dwarikas midafternoon to tackle the Kathmandu Airport, which — much like everything I’ve described about the city — is a mess. The airport is located dead smack in the city.. We could practically walk from our hotel. It’s a run-down structure, with many security checks. We probably went through about six different inspections, two of which were “body searches”… men queue up on one line and woman on the other. Far fewer women traveling so I was always well ahead of Mike.

They even do a final body search (with your clothes on) and hand inspection of carry-on baggage as you are boarding the plane — at the base of the stairs — with little makeshift curtain areas.

The flight is only 90 minutes, but the checking and boarding process is longer than that. Flight uneventful although the movie was pretty funny — about a king and queen of India in medieval times, and their son who falls in love with a servant and tries to defy his father by wanting to either marry her or abandon his position as next king. Very melodramatic. The servant winds up in the dungeon twice and the king decides to send the prince (son) off to war where he will likely die (but with valor, according to the king). I think you can guess the ending (which I didn’t actually see since the plane landed before the concluding scene!).

Arrived in Delhi to a totally gleaming, huge, modern airport with multiple terminals — making New York airports pale in comparison. Terminal 3, the International Terminal where we arrived is 5 million sq. feet and handled 36 million passengers last year. After getting our baggage (easy!) we lined up to get a taxi to the hotel. Taxis are amazingly cheap! The hotel is about 40 minutes from the airport (sort of like Oakland to SFO) and the fare was about $10!

We were in India (southern part) 20 years ago, so we are looking at everything with comparative eyes. In any case, the road from the airport to the hotel (a sort of ring road highway) with six lanes was in good shape and the cars were new (except for the taxis which are pretty beat up) but the driving habits are as they have been throughout the rest of the trip— with everyone riding on someone’s bumper and cars weaving in and out of lanes and riding two lanes constantly.

Anyway, we are now situated in New Delhi and the adventure should pick up tomorrow. It’s a short stay — four days.. and we are now really feeling like the trip is ending and that it’s time to head home. Both of us are thinking about our offices, projects, teaching, and how to get everything done—more than thinking about where we want to go each day. So we’ll see how we fare.

I’m sure by morning we’ll be energized to see the city — but it’s clearly vast and difficult to navigate. It’s not a walking city, so you have to be pretty reliant on having a plan and then dealing with the transportation options to get you there (metro, taxi, tuk tuks, etc.)

Take care –

More tomorrow.

Fern