Now that we managed to catch up with 12 hours of sleep, and have some semblance of internet connnection, let's review our journey.After Christmas lunch with friends, we finished packing and cleaning (friends were staying at our home while we are gone, in part to do some work at Dorcas House in Tijuana), we drove up to LAX for a direct flight to Bangkok on Thai Air. Christmas Day traffic was light. LAX was bustling but lines not too long.
The flight to Bangkok was 16 hours nonstop, the longest either of us had ever experienced. We flew Economy Premium which gave much better legroom. Even so, I only slept a little, probably from excitement--and, if truth be told, a bit of trepidation--while Donna slept somewhat more than I.
In Bangkok's new (3 years old, according to a sign) and very modernistic airport we had a 4 hours layover. Then it was a 3 hours journey to Kathmandu's Tribhuvan Airport. It is a rather small airport for a city of over 2 million inhabitants. We obtained a visa on the spot, and then found our driver to take us to our hotel.
The Hotel Samsara is a reasonable mid-range hotel in the middle of the Thamel district, which is the main tourist district (more on that below). Although it is not fancy, it is friendly, and so far we have eaten dinner and breakfast here and the hotel food is quite good. We can see a little of the city out our window. 
Our first evening here with walked through Thamel. The streets are bustling with people, motorscooters and taxis. Apparently all drivers believe they have to honk their horn every 30 seconds or else they will cease to exist.
Our walks through Thamel were made more challenging by the fact that there are almost no street signs. I don't mean, "no street signs in English"--there are almost
no street signs whatsoever, in English or in Nepali. (I can read about eighty percent of the script so I could probably puzzle out a street sign if one existed.)
Our first night--we slept 12 hours. The next morning we got up, had a delightful Indian-style breakfast, and wandered down to Durbar Square. In the bright light of day and no longer dizzy from lack of sleep, we were more confident in our ability to manuever around the city.
Durbar Square was an intense clot of history, people, and cows. Yes, cows wander the streets here. So do a surprising number of dogs. Dogs can clearly scavenge food from the ubiquitous piles of trash, especially at this moment as the garbage collection is held up due to a strike, but I had to wonder--who feeds the cows?
In the afternoon we went to the Kathmandu Institute for the Nepali language, where we have arranged to take a six-day, 12 hour micro-course in Nepali. It will prove challenging but interesting. After that we went to a bookshop to purchase notebooks ("kaapi" in Nepali, as in "copy" for copy-book) to keep notes in, and then had dinner at Thamel House, a restaurant across the street from our Hotel.
