23 March Sunday
I took a taxi from the airport to the Tibet Guest House and as I walked in, I recognized every staff member and it seemed they recognized me. They welcomed me back as if I had been a long time in the mountains trekking, but like a person coming home after a long absence there was a special moment of recognition that’s higher than usual, almost as if we all recognized some real but unspoken degree of community or family bond that existed between us.
They gave me a break on the room, $15.00 which was my previous rate instead of the current rate of $25.00.
Rikshi, the bellboy who’s been here forever and looks like he’s wearing the exact same clothes he had worn when he helped me in ’98 and every other year and has the same little mustache, showed me to my room. Since I had just come from the airport bank and had only big bills, I gave him a 500rps note, he thanked me greatly and said it would buy milk for his baby for a month.
I quickly changed and went to Qayoom’s but he’s in Kashmir now. I burst into his rug shop and bellowed with my arms flung open, “My Brother’s!” and Yuseff, Q’s natural brother, gave me a bear hug and was astonished to see me after my 5 year absence as if a ghost stood before him. We talked for awhile then I went for food, realizing that jetlag and the fact that I had slept only an hour or two on the plane and was truly exhausted.
I lay down at about 3:30 – woke up briefly at 7:30 but this sector of the city’s electricity was off, went back sleep and with minor awakenings in the night, slept til 5am! So great to be back in Kathmandu! What a magical place. A lot of people grouse it's gone downhill with tourism and commercialism but compared to everywhere else still one of the greatest places on earth to be.
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