To Nepal

So I finally took my first overnight train! If I had flown from Ahmedabad to Delhi, I would have had to get a hotel overnight before I could get a flight to Kathmandu, so instead I took an overnight train and reached Delhi a few hours before the flight. I left Ahmedabad at 6 pm on Dec 31st and arrived in Delhi around 8 am Jan 1st, so I spent New Years on the train! I had almost forgotten it was New Year's Eve until I heard people saying "Gyara minutes....Dus minutes" in Hindi and finally realized they were counting down til midnight!

I took 3AC class on the train, so I get a sleeping birth. In the day there are just two benches faces each other for 6 people to comfortably sit, then at night, above they fold down like bunkbeds each side, so there are three beds on each side. They bring pillows and blankets and everything. Around 10pm we all folded down the beds. This train didn't have plugs, so i couldn't plug my computer unfortunately. They brought so much food before that though! First a plate with dhokla, some kind of idli - and I thought that was dinner. An hour or so later, they bring a plate with some breadsticks and then a cup of hot tomato soup. Then later, some chicken curry, rice, and daal, roti, and dahi with ice cream later for desert!

When I got to the Delhi airport I was walking near the gate to my flight and did a double take when I saw a girl wearing a Ball State T-shirt! She was a group from Anderson University doing some kind of trip looking at hospitals and medicine in the area!

Finally I reached Katmandu, but the process of getting a visa ended up a pain. I didn't take much cash because from previous experiences, some places will not exchange Indian Rupees into other currency, so I planned on getting money out of the ATM when I reached. However I needed $25 American Dollars in cash to buy the visa, and so didn't have enough rupees to even convert. So I had to leave my passport, go outside and find an ATM, so at least I met Gaurab and his wife Dorothy then, so they knew what was going on. But then I had to go back in and wait for a long time, the line was soooo long, and there were only 2 people giving visas!

There was a bandh in Kathmandu, which means most of the city was on strike, but luckily we found a cab. That evening we drove through the city a bit, and went to some of the old squares, saw the building where the living princess lives and the old palace. It was amazing architecture and what an amazing public space! There were many street vendors selling lots of meat! "BEEF, PORK, RIBS,....vegetable medley" I had buffalo kebab that was amazing, and a samosa with chutney, and chicken sausage...sooooo good. I'll move to Nepal just for the meat! Then we came back and had dinner - rice and roti, chicken soup, spinich, beans, and chicken curry. Gaurab's family is very sweet, and their house is so nice! We stayed up for awhile talking about our projects, and they were telling me about life in Nepal and how things are changing. It's so nice to stay with friends when I travel places and to go with people who can tell you about the culture and show you interesting things! It makes the experience much more enjoyable! And I'm lucky to have such nice friends!