Homecoming

(Originally posted 5 September 2008 in: Nepal, Kathmandu)

Dear friends.

The time has come for me to go home. The past few weeks I have been hanging around in Kathmandu trying to find an internship or anything that looks like a real job. Nothing so far and because it was low season I haven't been able to meet a lot of fellow travellers to hook up with. So after all this solitude, home looks quite appealing. I just don't have the motivation anymore to arrange all kinds of wicked adventures. I'm sure I'll come back some day to really do the 3 weeks Annapurna circuit, one of the most beautiful hikes around so they say. Hopefully with some of you guys!

I did go on one 'adventure'; I took the bus to Pokhara, a small city close to the Himalayas, to do some daytrips and check out the scenery. The bus on the way there was bloody hot, luckily I had a windowseat so I was alright, but my neighbour was dying. At dinnertime it started raining, and I'll tell you these weathergods were pretty pissed of. Basically it didn't stop raining the whole week I was there. I just took a nice room with television and drank as many banana lassies as I could. Yes, yes, so far for adventurous and courageous backpacking.
Last week I came back to Kathmandu to pick up my Indian visa. It is cheaper to fly back from Delhi so that's why. The Indian visa looks way more sophisticated than the Nepalese visa, which just looks like a printed piece of toilet paper (no offense). The past week I have been waiting in vain for replies to internship applications, and actually it bothered me less and less that I didn't get a reply so I didn't really chase after them either. So did I just watch television? No, that was just the last few days in Pokhara, if I had been watching more television even I would have been ashamed. No, instead I am on to my 6th book. I'm getting really intelligent here. Allthough one might ask how intelligent you get from reading Bridget Jones. But my book standard is improving, I'm now reading about the farming culture in former Rhodesia in the 50s. If the electricity lets me, because there are very frequent powercuts here so often candles is all I got.

I feel a bit weary about having done so little in Nepal, but that is something I will go over with myself when I get back. Now I'm off to India! I have just booked my bus and train ticket and hope the hundred or so kilos I have with me won't kill me. It's a pretty long journey to Dharamsala, the place where I'm going. After I decided not to join the Buddhist programme in Kathmandu, I registered, as advised by my neighbours, for a 10 day course Introduction to Buddhism in Dharamsala.
Dharamsala is supposed to be really nice. It's the home of the Dalai Lama and apparently it is amazingly popular among Western hippies, whom I will join in a few days. I wonder how I will cope with the daily meditation practise and no speaking for 10 days (!!). Anyway, I'm looking forward to it, I heard many good stories about Dharamsala.
Tomorrow morning I leave early for a busride of 8 hours to the Indian border. There I will stay the night and leave the next morning for a 3 hour busride to the place where the train departs. There I will have an overnight trainride of 15 hours to Delhi. In Delhi I will hop from the train on the 12 hours bus to Dharamsala. On Wednesday I will start the 10 day course and spend the last few days of my adventure abroad hanging around in Dharamsala probably. And then...

On October 2nd I will fly from Delhi to Stockholm, where I will spend the night at the airport and than take a cheap flight to Amsterdam, where I will probably arrive on friday October 3rd around 10 in the morning! Yeeh! Hope to see you all soon!