Technovangelist

Damn You, Jim Thompson!!!

The Admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:58:00 GMT

I am sitting here in the Krungthep Wing of the Shangri-La for afternoon tea after a morning of sightseeing in Bangkok. Have you been to this town before? Are you thinking of visiting? If so, I have collected a few tips that will make your visit much easier and far more enjoyable.

The first tip is by far the easiest and the least stressful method to see a great Asian city in about a day. You are probably here because you want to see temples, people doing their daily activities, and eat some wonderful Asian food. Get up early, because your day is going to be packed. At the beginning of the day, take a taxi to the airport, fly to Singapore, and take a tour that leaves from the airport right at the end of the terminal. They will show you so many wonderful things during your day-long excursion and you will even have some time for shopping and people-watching along Orchard, relaxing on the beach at Sentosa, and dinner at Jumbo’s. Its really the best way to see a fantastic Asian city with the least possible aggravation.

But if you are the type of person who really wants to see Bangkok and don’t mind a few headaches, keep on reading because some of the most useful tips are still ahead. There are two main ways of seeing this town. You could either join a tour from your hotel, or you could personalize your tour using your own two feet, tuk tuks, taxis, and boats. Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages. For one thing, the first option is going to be much more expensive. A hotel tour could cost you 20, 30, or maybe even 50 USD. That's probably more than a tuk tuk driver makes in a month, so you may be tempted to go the second route. But there is a big advantage to the organized, professionally managed tours.

Lets say that you have a few specific things that you want to see in Bangkok. Wat Pho and Wat Arun are probably high on your list. The Royal Palace is up there too as is the Golden Mountain, the Marble Temple, and the Teak Palace. They are all things that I wanted to see today and luckily they are close enough together that seeing them all in a single day should be possible. With an organized tour there is a 100% chance that you will see all of those during the day. You might even get to see a few other sites and there will probably be an air-conditioned coach taking you between each location. With your self-organised viewing of the city, you will definitely see the first place on your list, but then the tuk tuk driver will get a bit distracted. He knows that you have an agenda, but his agenda is much more important. The one thing on his mind is how to get free gas.

You probably don’t care about him getting free gas, but you should because your entire day is going to revolve around his quest for it. That means visits to gem stores, tailors, and more. Every Westerner through their doors means free gas for the tuk tuk driver. Why do they need free gas? So they can find more tourists who will get them more free gas. Its a never ending loop that you can be a part of. Now if you remind them a few times every minute of what is most important to you, you may have a chance of seeing that second thing on your list, but don’t count on it.

We had met up with a tuk tuk driver last night and arranged for a 50 Baht/hour tour of the town. We started at 10 and planned to see all the things I listed above. At the first temple we met a local school teacher who mentioned that our next stop, the Grand Palace, was going to be closed to Westerners until 2PM due to the Kings visit. We mentioned this to our driver but he didn’t seem to understand, so we had the teacher explain it to him. When everyone agreed, the driver started taking us on our way to the next place: Golden Mountain…or so we thought.

On the way to our next stop, our driver offered to take us to 2 other wonderful places: a gem shop and a tailor. We refused since we weren’t in on the secret yet. Although he seemed a bit upset at our refusal to see the real highlights of this country, he made it sound like we would continue to the Golden Mountain. We pointed to it several times on the map and he agreed. 10 minutes of racing through the city’s streets later, we arrived at the Grand Palace. Our tuk tuk driver insisted that despite being told that the place was closed and that we wanted to go elsewhere, this was the place to see next. And apparently this was the end of our tour. So we paid him his 50 Baht since we had only been gone for 1 hour and walked up to the entrance.

Guess what happened. The guy at the gate said the palace was closed and wouldn’t open until about 1:30. He suggested that we see the Lucky Buddha and come back at 1:30. “Can I see your map?” He grabbed my map, unfolded it and started scribbling his directions. He wrote the hours of the palace, circled it and the Lucky Buddha, and said come back at 1:30. He was a bit upset that the concierge had also written on our map, but was generally OK with it. He even found a tuk tuk driver and arranged a fare for us: 20 baht round trip. Perfect.

The driver took us on a fairly direct route to the Lucky Buddha and we were met at the entrance by another teacher. Apparently Thailand is trying to eliminate the image of angry rioters in its streets and has opened all of its temples to foreigners. It has also made all teachers into free tour guides in exchange for the government paying for school supplies. Sounds good, right? Almost. Our teacher showed us around the temple and then directed us to the hall of Lucky Buddhas. We wandered a bit on our own, taking photos of the Buddha in various poses from different times. When we returned to our instructor/guide he was completely freaking out.

Another group of tourists looked inside the temple and decided to continue on. He was begging us to explain to them that it was OK to go in. This guy was going absolutely insane: “why are they so scared, tell them its OK” was his plea. If I had seen him for the first time like this, I probably would have moved on too, it was totally bizarre. For the rest of our walk around the temple, we listened to the teacher ask why the other tourists were so scared, that it was OK, and that they need to see a calm Thailand. I hope he gets over it. We made it to our tuk tuk and continued on to the Golden Mountain.

Well, that was the plan. Our driver offered to take us to two wonderful places: a gem shop and a tailor. He then explained why we wanted to go there and clued us into the free gas. So we allowed him to take us to the gem shop. A 5 minute visit was all that was required for free gas for him, so we did our browsing and made it out to the driver. Now we were off to the Golden Mountain. “Boat Ride?” No, Golden Mountain. 5 minutes later we find ourselves at the pier to get a boat ride. This was apparently the end of our tour.

The boat driver wanted about 50 dollars for a one hour ride around the canals. This is absolutely ridiculous, so when we suggested a more reasonable price he refused and our tuk tuk driver was disgusted too. We decided to go to the Golden Mountain instead. Everyone agreed and we were on our way. A few minutes later and we were at a different pier asking a different boat driver for a price. Ugh, no Golden Mountain. This time the boat ride was a bit more reasonable so we caved in and went on our tour. I think the tuk tuk was eager to get rid of us since we didn’t want to visit a tailor.

When you start your day in Bangkok, you might want to be nice to the other tourists that you meet, even introducing yourselves to them. Certainly do not be hateful to them because you will be seeing a lot of each other during the day. Apparently all the tuk tuk drivers have the same agenda and know that they need to visit the same places at the same prescribed times. We saw the same “scared” tourists at the Lucky Buddha, a gem shop, and on a different boat. We would probably have seen them at the tailor if we had added that to our tour.

One of the mistakes I made at the beginning of the day was that I only got a single map from the concierge. I should have collected a dozen or so instead. Throughout your day, you will meet many local Thais and they are all eager to give you advice: where to go, when to go, and what to wear. And they all want to write out their instructions on your map. And they all take offense at not being the first person to write on your map. If you only have one, then there will be markings all over your map in different handwriting using different pens and inks and none of it will make sense.

After our boat tour, we made our way to the Grand Palace. Remember this is where we were a few hours before but they told us to come back at 1:30. Well, the guy at the gate this time said that if we had come earlier we could have gone in but the Palace closed at 1 so our best bet is to come back tomorrow. Luckily, he had some suggestions for how we could spend our time. “Do you have a map?” He took my map but looked a bit flustered when he saw that others had already written on the large sheet. “Have you been to the Lucky Buddha?” We had, but not to the one he circled. He flagged down a tuk tuk to take us there but we refused, deciding to walk around the edge of the palace instead.

On our stroll through the flea market across from the palace walls, we had at least a half dozen people look at my bare lower legs (I was wearing shorts because it is stinking hot), nod their heads in disgust, then ask if we had a map so they could point us to the Lucky Buddha. It was getting a bit annoying. After a while we reached another entrance with a sign in front that read: Be Careful of Wily Strangers. Hmmm, good advice, though I am not sure what they gained by writing on our map. Maybe the ink is some kind of drug and they get high from rubbing their hands on it. A woman in front again warned us that we would not be allowed in because it was too late and asked for the map.

I said no, you cannot see my map. I didn’t want to know about any damned Lucky Buddha, just tell me the rules about getting into the Palace. She was confused. If I come any other day, will it be open? Yes, I was told. But bring pants because I won’t be allowed in without them. Now we knew the rules so we continued until we could find a taxi.

Then we found what must have been one of the main entrances to the palace. Guess what? There were throngs of tourists in shorts flowing in and out of the place. It was about 2:30 and it was definitely open. For those of us in shorts, one can rent some nasty trousers to wear on top to cover up. It had been an exhausting day already and I had no desire to wear someone else’s lice-infested pants, so we decided to come back another day.

We had a choice of returning to the hotel in a tuk tuk or a taxi. We figured our chances of actually getting to the hotel were much higher in a taxi so we looked for a taxi queue. There was one a bit in the distance, but as we got closer so did the police and it disappeared as it wasn’t a legal queue. So we walked back and the same thing happened again. Eventually we just found a lone taxi and ran to it. Ahhh, air-conditioned comfort, all the way back.

So that’s what you are in for if you decide to take on Bangkok on your own. Looking back, the 50 dollar tour might have been a bargain. If you really want to see some of Thailand and skip the aggravation, go to the Jim Thompson House. You can take the SkyTrain there which probably has a stop near your hotel. Ours was across a street from a stop and we took it to National Stadium, then walked a few blocks to the House. It was easy. And the house is absolutely beautiful. You really should come here and visit. But this is the time you can skip the organized tour.

Unfortunately we did this yesterday around noon. As we walked towards JT’s place, a concerned Thai told us it was closed for lunch. He asked us for our map (I didn’t understand the map writing fetish Thais have at this point), and drew out where we needed to go. One block over was the Gem Production facilities. Great, just what my sister needs, more shiny things. She says she can walk into these places without buying anything but I don’t believe her. After a good hour of looking at EVERYTHING, she narrows down the selection to 3 items. Couldn’t decide so she took the lot. Rummaging around her bag she realised she left her wallet and credit cards at the hotel. So guess who had to pay for them…Damn you, Jim Thompson.

Days 7–12 – Jiri (The Walks)

The Admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:18:00 GMT

Although my sister was in Jiri for work, I was there just for vacation. So I went on a few walks in the area. There is a hiatus for some of the projects at the clinic right now, so some of the workers are without a job until they start up again in a few months. So Chatra was available to take me around a few days. Although Chatra is in his 50s, he is far more energetic than I was in my 20s. And since he has always lived in Jiri, he knows everyone. Before working for my sister he took tourists on longer treks all around Nepal, so if you need a guide anywhere, Chatra is a good choice. If you need to contact him, let me know an I can get you in touch with him.

My first day in Jiri, I actually wandered a bit on my own. Just down to the town at the bottom of the road and into the hills a bit. Its a 2km walk down (and 2k back up) but in this heat, it is extremely tough. The views along the way though are stunning. This is a deep green valley filled with trees, steep mountains at its edges, and houses scattered along its walls. I ended my walk out at a bridge a short way up the hill where I did one of my HDR panoramas. And then walked back up to the clinic. By the time I arrived, my shirt was drenched with sweat and my sister thought I was about to peg out. I was completely exhausted but it was a wonderful walk.

The second day was my first with Chatra. We decided to go to the monastery at the top of the valley. The first part was a repeat of my walk from the day before, but we kept going after the bridge. And going, and going. And at the top was a small building that didn’t look all that special from the outside. I removed my shoes and went in. There were 20 or so monks chanting away, occasionally breaking to blow the horns at various intervals. I had never seen such an amazing thing. Locals came in and out for a moment with the lama at the corner of the room. They prostrated in prayer in time with the chants. Incredible. And I was very thankful for having a camera that could handle a high ISO with minimal noise, and the 50/1.4 for low light photography.

The third day was a walk to the top of the valley. It was a shorter walk but very much steeper. As we walked up the clouds started rolling in and by the time we were at the top we were completely enshrouded in fog. Thankfully we stayed at the top for a while because after about 30 minutes, the clouds cleared and we had a great view of the valley floor. At the top, there were some small structures marking the sites of ashes of some of the dead. This was a place where they burned the remains of people who had died in the area and it was almost exactly as it looked 15 years ago when I came up here on my own. There was also a memorial for three photographers who had died very nearby.

By the end of that day, the skies had completely cleared and we were given some fantastic views of the valley from the clinic. The weather here can change drastically every hour, so when the skies clear during the monsoon season, its good to capture it while you can.

I really enjoyed my stay in Jiri and look forward to a return. Hopefully I wont wait another 15 years to see it again.

Days 7–12 – Jiri (The Stay)

The Admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:52:00 GMT

We spent four full days in Jiri plus the 2 full travel days there and back. I had been there 15 years ago and was surprised both at how much things had changed and how much things had stayed the same. Jiri is an amazing place 60 miles east of Kathmandu. It used to be on the route to Everest before helicopters took trekkers all the way to the mountain. The Swiss saw Jiri as a wonderful place to invest in and built a hospital and a cheese factory. Over the years it has grown quite a bit. Many years ago, my sister started a project there to study infectious diseases. I am sure there is a lot more to it, but it is way over my head. She still goes out there to help manage the project, and has funding to continue another few years with various other projects.

In the fifteen years since my last visit, the town has grown immensely. There are so many more houses along the road down to the town at the bottom of the valley. There are many new businesses that have started to buy supplies, house visitors, and more. Its really incredible to see that. What hasn’t changed all that much is the basic infrastructure. But that isn’t limited to Jiri as you can see the same lack of progress around the entire country. Most of the homes in Jiri have a single bare electric lightbulb for light. Power goes out at various times throughout the day. Kitchens are basic with one or 2 portable gas burners. Toilets are often outside with limited or no running water.

My sister’s clinic is quite advanced by local standards I think. The bathroom is actually indoors. There is a tap in the bathroom that can be used to fill the bucket required to flush the toilet. Its a crouch over kind of toilet, but that is standard in many countries. Whats really amazing for us is that there is now an shower in that room. Its not a Western shower, but it does occasionally get some warm water for a few minutes so if you time it right, it can be almost perfect. You should not expect that kind of luxury in most lodgings in the area. They will all promise it, but you rarely get it. The clinic is also unusual in that when the power goes out, there are generators that can kick in to keep things going.

The ground floor of the clinic is used for health care activities. There is a small office to do initial diagnosis, a back room for more private assessing and an x-ray room used for some of the bones studies. When more light or room is needed, they just step outside into the sunlight, assuming its not raining. While I was there, they needed to set a badly broken arm someone came in with, so that was done on the driveway. Thankfully I broke no bones during my stay, because I would probably not been man enough to stand it.

The next floor up is the living quarters and lab area. There are two rooms for guests who stay over. My sister took the front room and I took the back for a couple nights. The back room was also the main living room. The lab is on that floor, as well as a few small offices and the bathroom. One more floor up is the kitchen and dining area.

Dining at the clinic is wonderful though a bit repetitive. Morning is a fantastic spicy omelette, some curried vegetables, and roti. Lunch is some Magi-noodles (I think they are the local brand of Ramen Noodles) mixed in with fresh onions, peppers, and other vegs. And Dinner is rice, yellow dal, curried veg, and something really spicy that I couldn’t handle. Repeat that menu every day and that was dining in Jiri. The big change over the last time I was here was the variety of the available vegetables. Pumpkin, cauliflower, and more are all grown locally. And they use not only the pumpkin, but also the pumpkin greens which taste wonderful. Groceries are easily available so there is less need to store in-house for several days like before.

Since there are several projects going on, mostly by researchers at my sisters institution, they needed a second building. So just up the street is another house where I stayed the nights I wasn’t in the main clinic. The benefit to me was that this had a real bed. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it gave me a bit more space to spread out. Now let me be clear. I don’t mind roughing it so an uncomfy bed is OK. But a ThermaRest pad on the ground would be an upgrade. Its hard to believe my sister stays here 3 or 4 times a year up to 2 or 3 weeks at a time.

But when staying out in Jiri, you have to plan a significant amount of time for travel. Although i mentioned it was 60 miles away, that is a full days journey. It really does take 8 or 9 hours to drive that distance. And the road is rough. VERY rough. Often it is a single lane with huge buses flying toward you from the opposite direction. On every bend you have to honk many times to let the other driver know that you are coming and they do the same (usually). If you run in to each other, the only escape is to fly off the edge and often its a long way down to the valley below. In the last 15 years, this road has improved immensely. It is paved almost the entire way, though there have been a few landslides that have taken out small sections.

At one of the higher points in the road, it gets very bumpy. Its a stretch of about one or two miles and it takes about 15 minutes to traverse. Its all rocks and its the bumpiest ride I have ever seen. I took a movie of it so when I get to a faster connection point, I will be sure to upload it somewhere. Thankfully that is the only point where it is that rough.

Jiri has fallen off of most tourists’ maps which is unfortunate. In my next post, I’ll talk about what makes Jiri such a nice place to visit. There are quite a few things to see here that are amazing.

Day 6 – Wednesday June 24 – Bhaktapur and Pashupatinath

The Admin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 03:57:00 GMT

When I went off to Durbar Square yesterday, the driver asked me which one I wanted to see. Huh? As I mentioned before, Durbar Square is a fairly generic term and there are 3 Durbar Squares in the Kathmandu area. Bhaktapur is probably the furthest one away, but it is more than just the one square. The old section of town is on UNESCO’s list of places you really have to see before they are completely destroyed (The new section of town is a place you wish you could avoid if you head east out of town but can’t).

The UNESCO list is a wonderful thing for local governments because it is effectively a global permission slip to charge lots of money for entrance. Most of the amazing temples in the Kathmandu valley have very low costs for tourists to see. But Bhaktapur is about 10 dollars per person which is close to a months income for some Nepalis. This must rake in a fortune during heavy tourist times and hopefully it really does go to helping preserve this amazing location and helping its residents.

One of the issues with these attractions is that the entrances are filled with hopeful tour guides. Times are tougher now with fewer tourists, so they have the added tool in their belt of playing the guilt card into hiring them. I had taken the tour of Bhaktapur 15 years ago and just wanted to enjoy myself this time. The thing with tour guides for me is that just a few hours after the tour is finished, I have forgotten most of what they told me. So I try to brush them off as much as possible. We were quite successful with this for the most of the entrance area but then we met two boys who surprised us.

On our way through the main entrance, a small boy named Sushan tagged along with my sister. She tried to get rid of him, but then he plainly stated his goals. He had no interest in being a tour guide. Sure, he could point us in the right direction, but he was much more interested in practicing his English with us. So he tagged along with us. And he turned out to be an excellent guide making the stay in Bhaktapur far more enjoyable than I would have thought possible.

Later, his cousin (Sushan, I am sorry, I have forgotten your cousin’s name) joined us as we wandered around. There is much to see in Bhaktapur and I had a great time, but one of the highlights was seeing the Thanka (pronounced something like Tonka as in Tonka Toys) painting school that Sushan goes to. We were able to tour the facility, and watch several paintings being made. The thankas can take upwards of several months to complete and look like back-breaking work. At the top of the school there is a room where they sell thankas to tourist visitors like us. In the back of the room was a very large thanka that took 7 masters a few years to complete. It was amazing. But they aren’t cheap. I had bought a thanka of obviously lower quality at a much more affordable price in Thamel a few days ago so I was thanka’d out, but Sarah bought a cheaper, student-made thanka that she liked.

On the way back to our taxi ride home, we stopped in Sushan’s school supply store. Sarah was very surprised that the only thing Sushan said he wanted in the store was a English Nepali dictionary that was out of his price range. Sarah bought it for him as thanks for the wonderful tour. At the end of our stay in Bhaktapur she even inscribed the cover with a thoughtful message about how important it was to stay in school. Sarah and I really do hope he sticks with it and we fully expect him to do well.

From there we headed to Pashupatinath. It was already a long day and we were pretty tired. This heat will kill your enthusiasm very quickly. So we made it a very short stay. Just long enough to see the funeral pyres, and to watch the monkeys jumping in to the river to cool off and play.

Tomorrow is our drive to Jiri and its going to be a long trip, better to rest now….

Day 5 – Tuesday June 23 – Durbar Square, Swayambhunath, and Patan Zoo

The Admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:24:00 GMT

Yesterday I saw Durbar Square with Sarah but it was midday, really hot, and swarmed with people. I wanted to see it in a different light so I got up early and left the hotel at 6:30. I was a bit disappointed that it was so bright at that time, since I wanted to see it with a bit more of a warmer light. By the time I got there it was morning, really hot, and swarmed with people. But it was a different kind of crowd. This time it was filled with people visiting the temples as part of their religious practice, and vendors selling fruits and vegetables on the street. It was fascinating to see people doing things as part of their normal routine.

I managed to do a panorama with the new gear from Really Right Stuff. I’ll let you know when I have completed some of the stitching of the pics. That will probably happen when I get home. But setting up the equipment is quite an event for most of the locals. First I extend the legs of the tripod, then attach the panning clamp and level it. From there I attach the arm to moves the lens’ nodal point back. I attach the camera’s l-bracket and mount the camera to the arm. I rotate it a few times to make sure I have it all set up right and then take the pictures. The entire process takes about 20 minutes and reminds me of the care I took when taking photos with a 4x5 camera on hikes around the Olympic Peninsula near Seattle. I could take the same care with every photo, but I don’t. When I do take the extra time, the ratio of fantastic to crap photos goes way up.

After my second visit to Durbar Square, I went back to the hotel and met Sarah for breakfast. Since there were a few more things I wanted to see during my stay and they happened to be things she wouldn’t mind seeing again, we decided to arrange for a tour. For today we decided it would be Swayambhunath and the Zoo at Patan. I think this was the first time anyone had asked to go to the Zoo at Patan because she had to ask us if thats where we really wanted to go a few times. Eventually a price was agreed on and we were to meet down in the lobby around 12:45. At 12:45 we were there but she was on her lunch break and would return in 10 minutes. 25 minutes later we were still waiting. When she finally arrived it seemed that she just started to arrange the tour that we book several hours ago. Ugh. Well then the driver showed up and it turned out to be the same guy as this morning. And off we went.

Swayambhunath is one of the typical sites that every Kathmandu tourist visits. At the top of one of the hills inside the Kathmandu valley, it is one of the most important religious sites in the city. There are two ways to visit this place. First there is the very energetic way which is what I did 15 years ago. If you are coming here in a taxi or private car, you can go the lazy route which lets you off very close to the top. You still get to see may of the monkeys that swarm this place, you just don’t get quite as stinking hot as you would if you climbed all those steps from the bottom. And despite what others will tell you, its not all that more gratifying to do the whole thing.

We then had a short climb to the top where you are greeted with an incredible view of the city. Time for a pano. We spent an hour or two here wandering around the temple at the top and having a lunch of chow mein. Then we met up with the driver and moved on to Patan. Apparently most tourists who go to Patan see the Durbar Square there. But we saw the zoo. Its not a very big zoo, but what they have is very impressive. In fact, for certain animals I think this may be one of the best zoos in the world. Seriously!!! I used to have a membership to Miami’s MetroZoo and have visited the zoos in Seattle, DC, Sydney, and SF often. I love zoos. But I have never been able to have such a good viewing of tigers, rhinos, hippos, or leopards as I had here in Patan. In fact I was no more than 5 feet away from the leopard. Incredible.

And then we headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow we have a visit to Bhakatapur and Pashupatinath planned…goodnight.

Day 4 – Monday June 22 – Durbar Square and Thamel

The Admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:44:00 GMT

Well, these late mornings are great, but I may need to take better advantage of my time here. By midday we finally got out of the hotel and went out to Durbar Square in Kathmandu. Durbar Square is apparently a generic name referring to the square opposite the old royal palace. There are three Durbar Squares, one in Kathmandu, another in Patan, and a final one in Bhaktapur. Today was just the KTM one.

As with any tourist location in Nepal, a westerner is instantly swarmed with people selling their wares (usually a bunch of crap) or their skills as a tour guide. Read up beforehand and just soak up the wonderful space like I did. Some of the tourguides are very persistent, and may end up insulting you to try to get you to hire them. I am not sure if that works with others, but it just turned me off.

Unfortunately, the skies were not good for me for this entire trip so far: cloudy, not a hint of blue skies, and very bright. So my pictures aren’t quite as good as I could imagine. But I am still pretty happy with it all.

After a few hours in the square, we went over to a little rooftop restaurant. This one’s claim to fame was that it was a rotating restaurant, kind of like what you find at the top of the Seattle Space Needle. Except the motor in this one was broken. Add to that some horrible momos, and a TV with terrible reception at an ear-shredding volume, and the end result wasn’t what we were hoping for. At least they had a good view over the square and of the surrounding rooftops.

Nearby the square on the New Road (although I see it listed in Google as Sukra Path) is a little market my sister loves to visit for glass beads. We sat for a while and found a few items we couldn’t live without. Well, I think I would have had more success at living without them than Sarah would. We finished up our shopping and headed back to the hotel for a short rest.

Dinner tonight was at one of Sarah’s favorite spots: Kilroy’s. I guess the quality of the food is subjective. It helps if you had been in KTM for a while. At that point, any European food is starting to look and taste really wonderful. In fact I seem to remember Kilroy’s being incredible last time around. This time, it was OK.

Perhaps one of the more entertaining aspects of the night was watching the movements of the older gentleman sitting next to us. After his dessert, he walked downstairs and talked with one of the workers. And then out of nowhere he started screaming about the noise created by some band that was playing nearby. It seemed very out of place and, although my description was very quick, you’ll have to believe me when I tell you that he came across as a real ass. After our dinner was finished, we wandered through the restaurant looking at the photos on the wall. We then saw our screamer in some of the pictures: co-owner of Kilroys. Thats too bad, perhaps it was just a bad night for him.

Well, thats another day over here in “Mystical Kathmandu”…

Day Three – Sunday June 21 – Changes Again

The Admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:06:00 GMT

Ahhh, finally a sleep in. A 9AM breakfast and lazy morning is much more like it. After that I went to my room to clean up some more photos while Sarah met with colleagues in the lobby. After she was done, new changes to the plan were announced. We would be going to Jiri after all. If the worst does happen and we get stuck, we will have a helicopter take us back to KTM. Although it is a terrifying 9 hour drive, its a 35-45 minute helicopter ride. And it can be a terrifying and sick-making flight. We will be out there for about 6 nights and then return to KTM for our last few days.

She also let me know that we would head out to the monkey colony today. While the road out to Jiri is pretty scary, it is a relatively good road. Not too wide at certain points, but you aren’t likely to slam your head against the window several times per minute. Thats a pretty accurate description of some of the road to this other location a couple hours out of KTM. The first 3/4 is actually fairly smooth. And it goes through quite a few small villages with locals doing what locals do.

There were men working on the road, women tending the fields, kids running around, chickens and cows and goats roaming anywhere they pleased. And then the paved part ended and it was a good hour of the worst road I have ever been on. A roller coaster this bad would be illegal in most countries. I tried as hard as I could to keep my head from snapping off at the neck. Sarah and Pravesh commented on how much the road had improved over the years. This was an improvement?

Finally we reached the destination but I cannot go into that here. Toward the end of our stay we had a wonderful lunch with rice, peas, and a wonderful mixture of mushrooms, tomatoes, and beans. Quite spicy and oh so tasty. I keep meaning to take pictures of these meals. Arrgghh.

For the return journey, the road had not improved at all, though I think I was able to handle it a bit better. Then again, I had just eaten a very spicy and acidic meal, so there was just a little churning going on as well. On both the way out and the return I was very happy with my new camera. The benefit this time was the automatically changing ISO speed, 1/8000 sec shutter, 8 fps, and good fast lenses. On the paved roads, I was sometimes able to use the zoom with great success. On the more rocky roads, the 50/1.4 really helped to keep the ISO down for less noisy shots. The fast shutter speed allowed for some good sharp pictures even though I couldn’t hold the camera very still. Sure, it would have been better to stop, but we didn’t have all day, and I managed to take about 1000 pictures on this one day alone.

One thing I noticed in this type of shooting was that the 80-200/2.8 that I have owned for about 15 years is still surprisingly fast at finding the correct focus. The 50/1.4G is very quiet, but much slower at focusing. Its a pretty demanding scenario since we were sometimes moving around very quickly and I don’t see it being an important question in the purchasing decision of any future lenses. But the weight is really tough on my arms. The D700 is hefty on its own. The battery pack adds a little, but the 80-200 is just as heavy as the body, perhaps more so.

By the time we got back to the hotel we were very shaken. On the elevator up to the bar, we all noted that it felt like we were still moving a bit. Much the same feeling as getting off a boat after being on high seas for a few hours. After resting for an hour or so with a soothing beer, we ventured down the street to a wonderful little Chinese place, and then an early night to bed…

Day Two – Saturday June 20 - Arrival into Kathmandu

The Admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:40:00 GMT

It was another early morning today. Well, not quite as early as yesterday, but considering the late night after my sister’s arrival, I didn’t get the beauty sleep I normally require. Sarah raves about the breakfast at the Novotel at the airport, though apparently all that is needed for a quality morning meal for her is a bowl of miso soup and some lychees. That sounded a bit on the revolting side for me, but I was willing to give it a shot. Its not quite as weird as I expected, but I won’t be having it again. I thought that overall it looked like any standard nice hotel breakfast buffet. Certainly not as good as the Hilton Sentral Kuala Lumpur, but good enough.

Perhaps the more interesting part of the breakfast was the argument we had with the waitress about the cost. We thought it was included in the room, she thought it was not. The manager of the restaurant came over, and he stood by his employee. Someone from the front desk came over and agreed with the manager. All this over a 10 dollar dispute. We left the desk without paying, but the desk attendant made it clear that he would be charging our cards the extra amount. It turns out that for this trip I am a little more prepared than usual. Not only do I have a copy of my entire itinerary, including confirmation numbers, stuck inside my notebook, I also have all emails from hotels printed out. The email from Novotel clearly stated that breakfast was included. We showed that to the desk as we checked out a few minutes later and, while a bit confused over the whole affair, they apologized to us for the mix up and removed the charges from our bill.

Apparently one of the benefits of the Novotel is that it is walking distance to the hotel. This may be true under a few very special circumstances. First, you have to be dressed in very light clothing. Second, you have to have no baggage with you to sap your energy (I didn’t notice any sherpas up front). And third, you have to be willing to stink up your entire airplane cabin from the smell of sweat that has dried into your clothes from the steaming hot walk you just completed across several football fields to get there. Since we were not willing or able to comply with those three requirements, we took the free hotel shuttle. The first stop was ours.

Thai Business Class. Ahh, yes, this is a better way to travel. I sometimes get to fly business on United because I use my miles to upgrade. The only time I ever paid for business was when Piedmont Airlines would occasionally ask for only 10 dollars extra to upgrade. Once, due to a travel approval snafu, Captaris had to pay for a business class flight on KLM to somewhere (the customer had already paid for me to be there, plus it got me one of those cool KLM houses, my only one). But the flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu is so ridiculously cheap that the business fare is really quite affordable.

The benefits of the upper class were pretty good. First there was the massive check-in area for the 16 or so people in that cabin. Then came the attendant who ran off with your airport tax money and returned with the receipt while we lounged on some little stools. Then the dedicated immigration officer who reviewed our passports and visas. One escalator below we relaxed in the lovely Thai Business lounge. OK, not sure how much relaxing we could do in 20 minutes, but this was a benefit and dammit we are going to take advantage of it. I wandered around a bit with my camera to take a few shots of the building, but then it was time to move on to the flight.

We boarded and waited for the flight to start moving. It gave me a chance to pull out my laptop, transfer photos from my camera, and see what I got. I much prefer this over the routine from the last trip to Nepal. I took one after another roll of film and waited 3 weeks until I returned home to Manhattan to see if I had anything good. That was with 25 rolls, multiplied times 36 exposures, that gave me about 900 pictures, total. This time I have a 12 MP camera. An 8GB CF card lets me take about 550 pictures, and I have 4 of those cards, plus some older 4, 2, and 1 GB cards as an extra backup. I can offload all of those to my computer and 2 backup drives, enabling me to have three copies of each picture just in case any drive fails. A little Powershell script takes the pictures off my cards as soon as I attach the reader, and Robocopy easily synchronizes all of the disks. I have no realistic limit to the number of pics I can take, though if I really push it, I guess I am stuck with less than 41 thousand. Whew, I think it will be a good thing if I can manage to take up to 8 – 10 thousand images. Though I expect many of those to be components of HDR and Panoramic photos. You are already starting to see the results of some of the 5-exposure HDR (High Dynamic Range) compilations on my flickr account.

The pictures from the airport looked pretty good. I am especially excited by one of the handheld HDRs of the airport architecture. The handheld HDR is something I often tried but rarely had good luck with. First on the D70, it only auto-bracketed 3 exposures. Then the motor drive could only handle 3 frames per second or so. The D700 could do brackets of up to 9 exposures, though I am sticking with 5 so far. Plus, the drive is 8 frames per second. That extra half second makes a world of difference when it comes to keeping the camera still enough to get this effect.

A movie later (something with Renne Zelleweger about her moving to Minnesota from Miami, pretty good), and we were approaching Nepali airspace. Unfortunately we were on the left side of the plane and the Himalayas are on the right. Usually this is not a problem since you cannot see anything anyway, but today, Everest was peeking out. I grabbed my gear and got a few shots off. None are all that good since it was so far off and the airplane window obscures quite a bit at that distance. But the image in my head is wonderful.

I headed back to my seat for approach and landing. Coming in is pretty amazing. These are foothills, yet the plane is flying below their peaks for the last few minutes. And we are down. Like in Doha, we all walked down the steps from the plane onto the tarmac and into the terminal. Just like Bangkok, there was a medical team waiting for us to take temperatures and assess us. I passed! Whew!! We waited in line for the immigration official to stamp our passports. Since Sarah comes through this airport so many times, I followed her, but I had to ask why we were standing in the diplomats line. I figured she had some special clearance due to her clinic. For some reason right about then we moved to the regular tourist line, while she quietly giggled.

There are lots of forms that they review. Who knows if they actually make any use of them. But a few minutes later we were through. Either Thai recognizes me as a very special person or I just got lucky, but my bag was the second off the plane. My sister, who gives so much to this country in the form of free health care to many of its people towards its east had to wait a while. A long while. Last time I was here, John panicked when I told him in Portland that the gate agent at JFK could only check my bags to Tokyo. The agent was apparently supposed to be able to check them all the way to Kathmandu. I heard for much of the flight about how I would have to shop for clothes in Nepal since I would not be seeing my bag. At Narita, a small Japanese flight attendant scribbled some notes on the back of a napkin with a pencil and assured me the bag would make it. Just like this time, my bag was among the first off. John, the Nepal expert waited…till there was no one else left in the terminal. They left his bag in Tokyo. A few days later it arrived, but not before he had to pick up a few clothing items in Kathmandu.

Fortunately her bag did arrive. They do weigh your bags in Bangkok but apparently if you have only a suitcase or two, they have no problem with it. The reason for that was obvious looking at the baggage belt. Sony, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung. Box after box of electronics went round. Some boxes just held smaller radios, others were 42-inch TVs. Bangkok is much cheaper for these kinds of electronics and it is a popular quick trip for the locals.

At the airport, Pravesh picked us up and drove us to the hotel. We had just a few hours before a meeting she had with another colleague. So we walked to Thamel, stopping off at a money changer. This particular money changer on the right from the Radisson has some of the best rates in case you are looking. Sometime around then the “walk” turned into a quick taxi ride due to the heat. And there we were, in Thamel. This is a place filled with trekker shops, artist shops, and more. It seems a bit more touristy than last time. Pilgrims Bookstore is still there, filled with interesting books and crafts at a fixed price. Go there to figure out what the slightly expensive price is for something, then venture elsewhere to practice your haggling skills. Or just cave in on paying 50 cents too much and buy it there.

At another store I found some of those wonderful prayer flags that you so often see everywhere. Just over a Euro for 25 flags on a string. Sold! I may need some more later. Sarah had to make her usual stop at her favorite Thamel jeweler. She has been coming here every time for years and trusts the proprietor to not scam her. That said, there was plenty of haggling to bring the price down…sometimes below half the initial asking price. She has practiced this skill quite a bit. For my patience, I was given a beautiful crystal spire for my desk at home.

And then it was time for her meeting, so we headed back to the hotel. This gave me a chance to review the photos and again I am pretty pleased. Dinner was up at the top of the hotel. There aren’t many tall buildings in Kathmandu, and at 5 stories, the Radisson peaks out over most. The rooftop cafe was a wonderful place for the sunset, but I heard of some changes to our travel plans. Apparently the Maoist groups will occasionally call a bandh. When this happens nothing is allowed to move on the roads. These can last a day or a week. If we head out to Jiri, we could easily be stuck and miss our flights. We are thinking of heading out to the west instead for a few days (not to Chitwan since that is apparently very dangerous right now), and maybe a couple more at a monkey colony. That means I also have a bit more time in Kathmandu to see all I want to see. Unfortunately this also means that much of the trip becomes a personal trip rather than a business trip for my sister.

After dinner, I was able to get my packages from her. Before the trip I had a few items shipped to her in the US which she brought along to me here. So the final components of my photo bag are complete: A Really Right Stuff BH-25 QR ballhead, an L-plate for the D700, the PCL-1 panning clamp and the MPR-CL II nodal slide. This stuff is amazing. I hope to get some great pano’s with this and the ballhead is much lighter than the Gitzo head I have now. Plus, I can leave it on the tripod and it almost folds up completely.

Well, the day is over now, and its off to bed. 10PM and my eyes are drooping…goodnight.

Technorati Tags: Nepal,Travel

Day One – To Doha and on to Bangkok

The Admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:18:00 GMT

Whew, I almost started today in a very bad way. Last night I had to get a few last minute items at the Mall of the Emirates. It took quite a bit longer than I expected and I finally got back to the hotel around 11:30. I went against my usual way of doing things and packed before going to bed. I usually wait until the morning that I leave. I set my Blackberry alarm to wake me up at 4 and as a backup had the hotel call me at 4:15. It had been a very busy day so it took a while to finally doze off, but when I did I was completely out. So far out that I have no idea if my phone alarm worked. Thankfully at 4:15 someone said something on the phone that got me out of bed. When you are that tired, it doesn’t matter what the person says because I had to use my entire brain to remember how to say: OK, I am up.

My flight was at 7 and Dubai airport is not a place to arrive at the last minute. To make things worse, Qatar is an airline I have never flown, so I have ZERO status. From then on until check-in, everything was going according to plan. Well, maybe I started second guessing a little bit earlier. In the taxi I noticed that Qatar allows a single bag that is 7kg or less. Thankfully I left the bag with the Cisco router and my work laptop at our Dubai office, but I still had my other bag with me. Let me tell you, this ain’t light. With the D700, battery pack, extra battery for the battery pack, 3 extra batteries for the body, 20/2.8, 50/1.4, 80-200/2.8, SB400, binoculars, Zune, IXUS880, Gitzo 1541t, Gitzo 1780QR, Asus eeePC 1000HE, Flip MinoHD, 2 external hard drives, and lots of other little things like wires, battery chargers, pens, and more, I am surprised my arm is still attached to my shoulder.

As soon as I actually reached the airport I realised that this wasn’t going to be like my usual trip to the airport. When you first get into the terminal, there is usually a long queue to go through the metal detectors before the check in counters. Today there were 3 people in front of me. When I got to the Qatar check-in counter there were only 2 or 3 in front there too. I noticed there was only one check-in agent who was weighing every carry on bag and when he waved over to me to step forward, I started to panic. I wondered if I could somehow hide the bag somewhere.

He weighed my checked bag and I noticed it was just a little over weight. Crap! Then he asked if I had any carry ons. Ummm…one. Somehow my throat managed to get all clogged up right at that time. Ahem…one. Put it on the belt so I can have it weighed, he told me. Crap! As I lifted it onto the belt, he reached down to attach an Approved Carry On Item tag. I don’t think he ever looked at the scale’s display before I quickly removed it. He probably just saw the ThinkTank Urban Disguise bag and thought it was a standard laptop bag. He handed me my tickets and let me go. Whew, I made it.

Around the corner, I was very disappointed to see no lines at the second security line. I only like to see those lines when I have a shortcut through and in Dubai its the eGate card. This is a program which involves some sort of minimal background check, biometric scan, and the exchange of a few Dirhams. With the card, its a quick swipe and then a thumbprint scan and you are through. But again, this is most satisfying when there is a huge line for the regular folks, which wasn’t there this morning.

At the Qatar gate, I noticed there were plenty of others with very oversized bags, so I needn’t have worried too much. On the plane, there were probably more empty seats than full ones. Often even in those cases, I manage to get the one person in a middle seat right next to me. But not this time. I did get one fellow passenger on the aisle of my seat block. And he turned out to be one of the most interesting people I have sat next to for a very long time. He was on his way from Dubai to go home to Virginia. What made it so interesting was that he was Iraqi, and served on the CPA in Iraq from 2004 to 2007. In fact he was just back there a few weeks ago. It was fascinating to hear his views on the current state of the country as well as how different it is compared to when he was growing up there.

I mentioned that the closest I had ever been to Baghdad was in the skies above on a KLM flight from Dubai to Amsterdam. On one of those flights, the entire plane became very nervous as the plane made a 360 degree turn right above the war-torn city. The captain came on to assure us that we were just in a small holding pattern due to traffic over Europe. I thought he could have chosen a place for that where the natives might not cut our heads off if we survive a crash landing.

My flight companion had a similar story of 360s above Baghdad, though a bit more nerve-racking. When he first started his job in Iraq in 2004, they flew to Kuwait on a scheduled airline flight. From there they flew a military transport plane to Baghdad. He was shocked at how maneuverable this massive contraption was. Normally when a plane comes in for a landing, it gradually descends in a straight line. But when US military planes fly into places like the Green Zone, they come down in a very tight spiral until they land. That way they are relatively protected from most of the surface to air missiles used by the less friendly types. In fact, he had to ask a friend why there were fireworks being set off at night in the city. Apparently when some types of aircraft come in, they set off enormous fireballs to confuse the heat-seeking guidance systems in some of the more advanced missiles.

It was fascinating for me. Iraq is definitely a place I would love to visit some day. Its going to be a long time before it will be safe enough to go, but there is much to see. In fact, there is so much in the whole region I am very eager to see. Places like Afghanistan, Iran, and Syria all have locations that are somewhere on my list. Again, those trips are a long way off and my seat mate agreed.

Doha Airport is a pretty basic place. I thought it was very small considering how many big planes were waiting on the tarmac. There was another security line to get into the main airport which felt like it took forever. My connection was just over one hour so I began to get a bit nervous, but after the initial squeeze into the lines, it seemed to move pretty quickly. On the plane I was very disappointed. This was a flight I would be on for 6 and a half hours. I have never been on a plane with such a small seat. The seat in front of me was fully upright and my knees pushed it ever further forward because there was just no room. I thought this was going to really suck. But when they closed the doors, most of the seats were empty so I managed to find a row to myself. Wonderful. Service is good, food is OK. Entertainment system is a bit ancient, but better than some airlines. Not sure where they get the “5-Star” rating from. I guess on that scale, United and some of the other US carriers must be 6- and 7-star carriers. How many stars does a perfect airline get?

The flight felt very short. I had the entire row to myself but I didn’t use it to stretch out. Watched a movie, 12 Rounds, tried a second, Watchmen, but gave up since it was a bit boring. Guess I needed to read the comic book first. And before I knew it we were getting ready to land in Bangkok. Those who know me will probably be surprised that I get worried over little things so much. I had something new to worry about. The flight attendants informed us that Bangkok is using thermal scanners to single out potential swine flu victims to quarantine. Considering the fact that I spent much of this week talking and teaching a class, my throat is a bit raw and a flight aggravates that a bit and makes me cough. Add to that the way that everyone on the planet, especially the far east, seems to be completely overreacting to this minor issue. How many people have died from this? 200? A thousand even? In the entire world??? In a few months?? This is crazy. More people die in the US in that time from the common flu or from crossing the street. So when I made it through the line unscathed, I was very relieved. I think I owe it again to the attendant not paying attention to his duties.

Anyway, I make it through security, customs, and pick up my bag. And then I have to figure out how to get to the Airport Novotel Shuttle. I see a sign that says Level 2 Gate 4. There are no signs saying what floor I am on now so I am a little confused. The escalator seems to point to level 2 being up a level, so I take it up. But at the top, I am now at level 3. Dammit, I was on Level 2. So I try to go right down, but the other escalator is also going up. I walk down about 100 meters and find the next escalator going down, but you have to have some airport pass to get down there. And there are guys with guns preventing me from ignoring the sign. So I walk further to an elevator…an elevator that does not stop at 2. Another 100 meters finally gets me to an escalator down but now there is another one of those signs between me and gate 4. Crap! I explain to the guard my situation (I don’t think he understood anything but Novotel) and he let me through. And that was it. Its 8PM now and I am sitting in my room. Nice place, very comfortable room, beautiful lobby. Now I have 4 hours to rest before my sister arrives from San Antonio. Hmmm…nap time? I think I will ask for a wake up call just to be safe…

Final Checklists are Almost Complete

The Admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:21:00 GMT

Well, I think I have purchased everything I need for this trip. Actually, “need” isn’t quite the right word. “Want” is probably a more appropriate word. Last time I went to Nepal, I bought two Nikon lenses: a 20mm/2.8 and a 80-200/2.8. That was nearly 15 years ago and they are still my two primary lenses. This time around, I bought a bit more, but its been quite a while since my last photographic purchase. This time the list included a D700, the newer 50mm/1.4, a Gitzo 1541T tripod, and a Think Tank Urban Disguise 60, along with a few required smaller accessories. Like last time, I expect this equipment to last a good long while, but also just like last time, I won’t be buying any more gadgets for a long time to come.

Nikon D700

The first thing to arrive was the D700. I picked this up from Kamera Express because they had it in stock, and I could take it home right away. I am still discovering the great features of the camera (having a Dutch manual doesn’t help), but there are a few that stand out. First is the fact that bracketing supports more than just the three exposures that my D70 supported. I can get up to 9 shots in a bracketed burst, though I will probably use 5 most of the time. To help aid the taking of bracketed shots for handheld HDR pics, the motor can go up to 8 frames per second. Well, it can with the MBD10 which I picked up as well.

The display on the back of the camera is gorgeous, especially when compared to the one on the back of the D70. And the quick access to my favorite menu options certainly makes it easier to tweak the settings on a per image basis. Of course I have to also mention that this is a full FX frame camera, so my 20mm lens is really a 20mm lens, not a 30mm lens like it is with the D70 (or would have been with the D300 which I was considering).

There are plenty of other things to love, but those are my favorite so far. I have only had the thing for about a week or two…

Nikon 50mm/1.4

On the same day I received the 50mm lens in the mail. Since the camera is now an FX frame, this is really a 50 normal lens. And with a maximum aperture of f1.4, it is amazingly bright. And since the camera does a great job at ISO 6400, night time shots look incredible. But the lack of depth of field at that f-stop will take a while to get use to.

Gitzo 1541T

This past weekend, I went to FotoKonijnenberg to pick up a Gitzo 1541T. Again, I wanted to see it before I bought it just to confirm how strong this thing is. OMG, its light, but it supports a fantastic amount of weight. In a light breeze it will topple, so the hook at the bottom of the center pole will be very useful to hold a bag to keep it a bit more steady. I had planned to pick up a Markins Q3Traveler to go on top of this, but unfortunately it didn’t quite work out. Since I will be leaving in just a few days, I picked up a Gitzo 1780QR as a small alternative.

Before this, my tripod was a Bogen (Manfrotto in most parts of the world). I think the model was the 3020. Its heavy but it still works great. In fact if you looked at it, you might not realize I bought it well over 20 years when I was in junior high school in Miami. I often keep it in my car in case I need it, but I would never take it with me on a trip. The Gitzo will go in my carryon bags and is almost as stiff.

ThinkTank Urban Disguise 60

Also this weekend I picked up the Urban Disguise 60. I was a bit concerned at first that this wouldn’t be big enough. Thats why I ordered it from a store close enough to quickly drive to, and since I live in the Netherlands, everything is close enough. The store is CameraNu in a town with the wierd name of Urk. Both KameraExpress and FotoKonijnenberg seem to be big businesses. Although there is a good selection, I got the feeling that they are in business to make a big profit. Nothing wrong with that. But I felt that the guys at CameraNu really enjoyed working there. And they did something especially cool just today, but I will go over that a bit later.

The Urban Disguise is a bag that will hold both a camera system and a laptop. And it does it very well. Although I was worried at first that it was a bit small, I think I’ll be fine. Today it became my main work bag (I am too scared to leave my camera at home now, plus I might miss a great shot), holding the D700 with MBD-10 plus 50/1.4, 80-200/2.8, 20/2.8, 24/2.8, Lenovo T61 laptop, Asus eeePC 1000HE laptop, two external harddrives, external speakers for demos, pens, usb sticks, Canon IXUS870, and a Flip UltraHD. And there was room for more. Today was more of a test, and it was just a little too heavy. I am teaching a class in Dubai next week, but I’ll be leaving the T61 and some of the accessories in Dubai while I go off to Nepal and Thailand, picking it up on the way back.

So what did CameraNu do that was so cool? Well, today I ordered the Gitzo 1780QR ball head from their site. My Dutch language sucks, so I guessed at the options available at check out. There were a few shipping options so I just picked the more expensive option thinking that must be the quickest and most guaranteed way. I also wrote a note in the special instructions box saying that I needed this very quickly. Within 4 or 5 minutes of clicking submit, I got a call from CameraNu. The woman on the line said that she saw my order and the need for a quick delivery, but that rather than choosing the quickest option, I chose the slowest. She was going to refund my money for the extra amount and send it overnight. This was amazing. I was notified quickly about the problem, they fixed it, and they gave me some money back. I don’t know if you have ever bought anything here, but that behavior is definitely not typical for Dutch stores. They have just won a very loyal customer.

Why was the more expensive option also the slowest?? Well, the 6.50 option was for TNT Post overnight. The 20 Euro option was for having their guy with a van drive it over to you along with all the other orders he has to deliver. This makes sense for large plasma displays they sell, but for a tiny ball head that they stuck in an envelope, its a bit too much.

After all of that, I think I am ready for Nepal. Hopefully the pictures will start coming to my Flickr account soon enough. And when they come I will be sure to mention it on here…