The Long Trip Home
We were nervous as we returned to the Kathmandu Airport, but at 1:00 pm, as promised, Ruby came to work with both our receipt and new ticket information. After a slight delay due to a hailstorm we were on our way, over the Himalaya Mountains once again. Our flight landed at 10 pm in Kunming, China, and did not depart until 7:40 am the following day for Shanghai. We were prepared to sleep in the airport but were pleased to discover that the airport, which is brand new and very nice, has a convenient and clean hotel. We paid $70.00 for our room that had 2 nice beds and a bathroom with shower. We had a good nights sleep and woke up to a knock on the door at 5 am.
The rest of the journey was very long and thankfully uneventful. Our flight to Shanghai was only 3 hours with a 2-hour lay over, which was plenty of time to make our way through immigration and to the international terminal where we had a nice lunch of fried noodles.
As the airplane wheels touched down at LAX Rene looked at me and said “We made it back home, safe and sound.” Reflecting back at the time of our arrival in Guangzhou, China on March 8, 2014, we heard the news about the Malaysian airplane that was lost and said a prayer of thanks for our safe flight. We were flying over China at the same time as this plane and knew that our friends at home would be wondering if somehow we were on that fated flight. Fortunely we were not. However, we knew that our travel had just begun and we were on our way to a country that is well known for dangerous travel conditions both on the road and in the air.
When we first came to Nepal, 4 years ago, we often looked at each other and said, “What were we thinking?” Now it is clear as our hearts have been touched by the people of Nepal and we cannot forget them. We have grown to love these wonderful people who by a stroke of fate were born into a forgotten land. We are constantly amazed by their will to survive given the daily struggles that the Nepali people face. Returning home to our comfortable lifestyle in Southern California often seems strange after a trip like this, but we know that we will return and hopefully we will be able to make a difference for even one person. Just like in the story of the starfish if we save even one life everything that we do is worth it.