July 21 - July 26, 2001:  Friends, school visits, and lessons learned!  -  Kathmandu, Nepal

Flying out of Lhasa and my Luggage Angels…

Kathmandu…well before I get there I have just a little airport story to tell. Can’t miss an airport story can we now? I had scoped out the scene on how to get myself to the airport and it turns out there is an early morning bus that will take you in for just 16 Yuan (if I recall correctly) and unless you love to blow money that beats a taxi any day. My alarm, thankfully, went off at 5:00 and Hiro (the cyclist from Japan) got up and helped me take my bike box and gear down. Wow, at 5:00 am! What a guy!!! I loaded in a taxi with the help of a friendly taxi driver and then we sped off down the road to catch the bus that does the 2 hours drive to the airport. Although I had to “thank-you but no” to a couple of porters that wanted to “help ‘n’charge” the transfer to the bus was trouble free. Hiro, with another generous deed, gifted me his little steel trolley for hauling his “bike in a box” (coming soon as McBike Burger to a McDs near you… studies show the McBike Burger is found to contain more whole grains, minerals, and antioxidants than 79 percent of all other McD-burgers.)….anyway…this great gift unfortunately perished only three minutes into its PeaceBike service, doubling under the weight of PeaceHorse One. A police officer who was standing around saw the late trolley crumbled on the street and decided to help me get my luggage into the airport. Xie-xie!(Thank-you!) Once in the airport I remembered that, as usual, I was over the 20 kgs weight limit. I had asked my travel agent to “see what he could do” about this but after trying he said I should just ask some other travelers if they could take a bit of my luggage. In many parts of the world asking someone to take your luggage with them onto an airplane is like saying, “Would you mind holding this bomb for me?” so I was a bit tentative about asking.

I asked one happy looking fellow if he could watch my gear while I was using the restroom and he said, “No problem.” Later, as we were getting a bit to eat in this little snack bar I ask some travelers if they just might be able to possibly, only if I needed it, take a bit of my luggage but they said no. One of the travelers then spoke in French to the guy that I had asked to watch my luggage and then they, together, offered to take my luggage if it was going to be a weight-limit problem. Oh, angels, angels, angels! These angels introduced themselves to me as Pascal and Savine. I thought the weight factor would slip through but I thanked them for their offer, just in case.

Well, the extra 20 kgs over weight didn’t quite slip through and the person at the ticket counter wrote out how much overweight I was and told me to go to another counter where I could pay the extra charge. Perfectly, Sabine and Pascal were right behind me in line and I gave them one of my heavier bags. I was still a bit over the weight limit and was very thankful that the ticket agent had mercy upon my luggage and crossed out the extra weight comment on my ticket. Thank-you to all…I have got to get this bike on a diet plan.

We had a great flight…one of the best I have had actually. I met two Spanish speakers, one from Venezuela and another from Spain and we shared our stories. We also got to ooh and aahh as we past by Mt. Everest and I actually got a photo of the peak on the PeaceBike Cam!

Walking off the plane in Kathmandu felt good…to be warm again. I thought that Kathmandu would be cold like Lhasa but it is actually much lower in elevation, in a valley. A taxi driver offered to take me to a hotel for 4$ a room and that included the drive and I was more than happy to accept without a thought at haggling.

Mr. Vinod and School Visits

After a great “Thank-you Dinner” for my angels I got settled in to living in the tourist zone of Kathmandu. On this entire trip no city is built up for tourists like this place. Quito, Cusco, Antigua, and San Cristobal are similar but Kathmandu takes the cake. You can get hats with 3^{rd eyes stitched on them, Tibetan prayer wheels, camping gear, and just about anything. It is a great place for all those trek weary travelers to relax. But this is not most of Kathmandu. This is only the section especially for tourists called Tahmel. I would give travel tips for Kathmandu but it is just so easy find what you are looking for.}

Along with great places to eat and things to buy one can also meet friendly locals. Although, at least in low-season, the phrase, “How are you?” actually means “Come and look in my store.” because there are so many shops and fewer tourists. In the middle of this I met a young fellow named Vinod, who “just wanted to talk”. I was ready for another motive to pop up but within seconds of meeting I forgot all about buying and selling and we became quick friends. I told him that I wanted to go visit some schools and share with them the story of PeaceBike. He told me that he knew of two schools nearby and would take me there for a visit with the principals and possibly the students the next day.

In short, the next day was a great success for PeaceBike, and cross-cultural friendships. Vinod introduced me to the grade 9 and 10 students and then I gave a short speech to the K-5 grades. That afternoon Vinod took me to People’s Campus and we got a great chance to discuss globalization, technology, and cross-cultural friendship with his grade 12 colleagues. After that discussion we went to another classroom and then met some of the professors of the school. Finally, we headed back to the other school to do a ClassConnect letter writing activity with two of the fifth grade classrooms. I was so impressed with these students’ writing. Their letters were some of the most thorough, thoughtful, and well written letters that I have seen on this entire trip! Thanks to the teachers and students of these schools for taking on the PeaceBike challenge to make peace in your family, community, and world. And a huge thanks to Vinod for helping make all the connections. I couldn’t have done it without out you, my friend!

Tahmel

Although Tahmel was not Nepal or even Kathmandu it made a nice place to rest up a bit and get prepared for the next leg of the journey. One restaurant even had vegi-burgers and another place had movies showing while you ate. Still I wanted to explore outside that section of town so I rented a bike (PeaceHorse One was still “Bike in a Box”) and headed out to find my fortune. This being the rainy season I found lots and lots of traffic dodging potholes, and sloshing in the mud. I rode for about an hour and just barely made it out of the city. I took a few pictures and then headed back.

Lesson of the day… “Always reconfirm your flight!”

I knew I should have called just to check and make sure the flight I had a ticket for still existed but then I found myself busy with school visits and other important matters and just put it off. I figured that getting to the airport a few hours early would buy me enough time to get everything sorted out…I figured wrong and learned my lesson. I got to the airport and was strangely the first one in line for my flight. Someone then told me that there was no flight. It had already left at 8:45 this morning not 2:30 in the afternoon.

All my confirmation fear came true in that instant and I spent the next two hours paying for it, actually paying my taxi driver for it. Thankfully, a few good people at Royal Nepal Airlines worked above and beyond the call of duty and got me a no-extra-change rescheduled flight for the next morning. I was working with them to get a flight for the same day because I was hoping to get to Chennai, India before my younger sister, Penny, did. Penny, 17 years old, applied to be a PeaceBiker for one month and ride with me in India. She will make school presentations with me in India and then back in Oregon upon her return for her final year of high school. I wanted to get to the airport before her so that she wouldn’t have to come into India all alone.

The next day, July 26th, with a new flight booked for me, Penny and I would race to Chennai. I was supposed to make it in about 30 minutes after her. After a call to Mom and Dad at home-base Penny would get the message that I would be coming in just a bit after her and I would pick her up as soon as I could. In the early morning I met my taxi driver again and we headed to the airport. I then flew to New Delhi, ate lunch in the airport, flew to Bangalore, met some interesting co-passengers, and made one more hop to Chennai.

^{On the ground in Chennai, Tamil Nadu...}

^{I was met in Chennai by a fellow named Paul, a friend of ours who was arranging transportation from the airport for both Penny and I. I heard that Penny had already landed and that he had picked her up. Although this was not the plan I was too excited to see my sis to care. It had been almost two years! Then, across the parking lot I spotted her. (Pause …add your own dramatic background music here…) A huge hug! It was like a bit of home was in my arms. My dear sister Penny was in India with me!}

^{From here on…at least for the next couple days Penny will take the story. Please feel free to also send her email as she would love to hear from Friends of PeaceBike and PeaceBike Kids. Her email address is penny@peacebike.org}

^{That was what a man can do in Kathmandu and now I let sista’ take over for a while on the journals as we are together in India.}