I’m back in Kathmandu! I had a great time in Bangladesh, but its good to be home. I will post more about my trip as soon as I can go through the 1000 pictures I took.

For now, I wanted to share my trip back. To begin, I found out that I was flying with one of the most dangerous airlines in the world. The US embassy in Bangladesh won’t even allow its employees to fly on the airline. I made it back safe, but won’t be flying with them again. Going to Bangladesh, the flight was delayed 4 or 5 hours. We flew on a DC 10 (a rather large plane) but there were only 30 of us on the flight. In the airport, they would ask me what airline I was taking, and they would reply with an “oh” and look at me like I was crazy, like I was the only white guy to fly that airline. Coming back, we flew on a Fokker F28, which is a smaller plane, yet there were twice as many people flying this time. It was so hot in the plane that sweat was literally dripping off of me. It was pathetic to say the least.

It was fun when I returned to Kathmandu, though. The taxi drivers saw me coming, thought I was still wet behind the ears, and offered me a ride home for $10. TEN DOLLARS? I told him he was crazy. I ended up getting a ride home for less than $4. I hope nobody has ever fallen for the ploy and paid $10 for a taxi ride.

The funniest story, however, was in Zia airport in Dhaka. I was exploring the airport when I saw a TV playing SportsCenter. I strolled over to the TV and it immediately switched to wrestling. Good ‘ole American style fake wrestling. A Nepali man was watching and he asked me, “Is this real?”

I laughed, “No, its not real. Its fake. They practice and train. Its like dancing.”

“What city is this in?”

“Well, its everywhere. They perform in cities all over the US.”

His last question was the best, however, “And people pay to watch this?”

I laughed again, more as an attempt to hide the shame I felt for my fellow countrymen who are wrestling fans. “Yes, people pay to watch this.”