We arrived in Kathmandu Saturday evening and went directly to the Hyatt. The Hyatt here is a beautiful hotel, a respectable blend of contemporary construction and Nepali design. I still can’t believe we are in Nepal—it is surrealistic to say the least. Sunday morning we woke up early and drove to a viewpoint in the hills, a small town called Nagarkot, to see a section of the Himalayas. It was amazing, though the ride up was nothing less then terrifying, cars and buses play an outlandish game of chicken at every turn with only inches of shoulder area abutting a sheer drop off. These drivers are crazy! I’ll gladly accept a ride in a New York City taxicab any day of the week compared to this terror!

From Nagarkot we toured a couple of town areas. City streets here are almost identical to India but a bit cleaner and less densely populated. Kathmandu has a population of about 6 million spread out over twisty, dusty, pot-holed streets in a valley surrounded by foothills with peek-a-boo views of the snow-capped mountains, amidst cascading, steep plots of farmed land. Regrettably, like many major cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong) smog hangs thickly over the landscape like a veil of stagnant, gray-stained air that never dissipates.

People here in Kathmandu look mostly Indian with a smattering of East Asian features. The language is similar in script to Hindu and Harsha can read it but the manner of speaking is hard for him to understand, I liken it to the way I feel when I’m trying to understand Australian slang.

There are three historic town squares in the area. We drove to one after we left Nagarkot called Bhaktapur, an ancient area where 400- to 500- year-old buildings hug the street and Hindu temples adorn every corner. In India the Hindu temples are stone and marble monument-like buildings; here in Nepal they are modest, mostly brick and carved wooden structures that are minimally restored (and in risk of falling apart), fashioned in a somewhat tiered pagoda style.

I have finally become a bit adept at understanding Hindu lore, and it is beguiling. Nepal, in contrast to India, is fervently religious (non-Hindus cannot enter those temples) and processions in their town squares occur randomly throughout the day. Buddhists are in smaller numbers but their stupas are attended by devotees with adoration and patience. It was particularly interesting when we passed one school where all the students were lined up outside in straight rows, solemnly praying for the gift of education. Fascinating.

Later that day as the sun was setting we stopped at one more section of Kathmandu called Pashupati where more then a dozen Hindu temples are crammed together along a small river bed. In the center of this area an outdoor platform is used as a crematorium and it is continually ablaze with wood stoked pyres sending the dead to their next reincarnation. None of that seemed disturbing until I saw one of the attendants sweep the smoldering embers and remaining pieces of burnt logs into the river below. Along with endless piles of garbage littering the water the amount of dangerous pollution being thrown into the city’s water supply was painful to see.

That night we went to bed early so we could get up early for our next excursion. In the morning with some trepidation we took a flight to get an aerial view of the Himalayas. Shortly after take off, up close and personal, the sheer faced, rugged tops of the mountains appeared. With utter bewilderment we tried to comprehend the panorama before us. We gasped and strained our necks to behold the implausible. Spellbound, we stared at the stretch of Himalayas we slowly flew past. Geologically speaking the 2400-mile long Himalayan range is very young which explains their gargantuan size. Pyramidesque vaulted formations are endless, like fingertips reaching up to touch heaven. Then finally, after about 25 minutes of flight time, Everest in all its 29,000 feet of pinnacled glory comes into view. It indeed stands above the rest: a haunting shadow embedded in a landscape of glacier and rock. For me what was most astounding was realizing that Washington’s Mt. Rainier would barely be a blip in the Himalayan expanse. Envision that Everest is almost three times the size of Mt. Rainier, but even more astonishing is that several of the other mountains are at least twice to two and a half times Rainier’s size. If there is any sense of being at the top of the world it is surely here and if God is listening, at this height, it is a toll-free call.

I’m back in Mumbai now waiting for my plane to go home. After 5 weeks of being on the road I am ready to leave and head back. I long for Seattle, a comparatively quiet, organized part of the world where stop lights and stop signs have meaning, pedestrians have the right of way, people don’t spit on the ground among other bodily functions inches away from you, and cows, camels, and monkeys don’t have access to the streets.

It has all been a richly diverse, intriguing experience but truly there is no place like home.