A less than auspicious start...

Ke garne. This is a Nepali phrase meaning "What to do?". It is basically used to cope with all of life's little disappointments. And although our flight to Bangkok (part one of our three part tour of third world countries) is not until tomorrow, we decided to stay the night before at a hotel near the airport (as opposed to leaving at 5 AM).

The fun actually started earlier in the day. Although Daughter #1 has been very excited about the trip for approximately 2 years now, she had held off packing her clothes until today, because "I need to wear them". Now keep in mind that her bedroom is overflowing with clothes. She could probably clothe the entire Nepalese nation. So naturally she could not set any of them aside for the last week to be packed. Ke garne.


After some minor conflicts abour how best to pack the assorted backpacks and duffles, we have everything ready to go when the limo driver arrives. OK, by "limo" I mean "car", and by "driver" I mean "old dude who may well have snuck out of the nursing home". I am afraid when he starts to carry bags to the car that he will have a heart attack, which would be pretty inconvenient for me. But he has a GPS on the dash, that is giving him directions, so it should be OK. Sure he thinks it should be about a 2 hour drive (Sure when I drive it, it's closer to 3 hours, but everyone knows I drive very conservatively, at least 5 mph below the limit. Safety first!). And I am a little puzzled when we go past the airport, and drive another 20 minutes into Manhattan itself. And I'm pretty sure that when when the GPS is saying that the hotel is on the right (with no sign of a hotel) that we are nowhere near where we should be. So we spend an extra hour driving to get to the hotel. Ke garne.

We head to the airport hoping to see the hotel on the way. As we pass several other hotels, the driver stops so he can call our hotel. Which turns out to be about a minute and a half down the road. We pull into the parking lot. Well, not the one for our hotel. This hotel has a big sign, an airy lobby, with cookies at the counter. Our hotel is down an alley. With no sign. And no cookies. Ke garne.

Oh, and just for fun, the last day we spent at home was marked by intermittent thunderstorms, which woke me up during the night. I guess Mother Nature is getting us ready for monsoon season , since the forecasts for Bangkok, Kathmandu, and Lhasa are all calling for rain. Ke garne.

Well, at least daughter #1 seems to be having a good time as we start our adventures. Don't forget to check out her blog.