Today was a loooong day. I’m leaving for Bangladesh tomorrow to visit a friend, Shawn. I’ve been wanting to go for a few weeks, but this is still a last minute trip. I didn’t get my plane ticket or visa until today. I was hoping to do it yesterday, but well, just see my previous post.

I left home around 10 to take care of everything. First things first, however. I needed to run to the ATM to get out money for the ticket. Six, that’s right, SIX ATM’s later, I finally found one that had money in it. Then I went to the travel agency to get the ticket. They “strongly recommended” I get my visa before I leave. This was at 11:30. The Bangladesh embassy closed at 12:30. The embassy was a 40 minute motorcycle ride on the other side of town. I had to come back home to get more money, and I quickly rode up north to the embassy. Once there, I started to fill out the necessary form and realized I forgot the contact info to where I am staying. For now, let’s just say I worked things out. I submitted the documents and they told me to come back at 4 to pick up the visa. So I rushed home, in the rain!, got soaked and I headed off to a meeting with a few friends. Then I rode my bike back up to the embassy (30 minutes on my bike), in the rain!, to pick up my visa. Stopped in Thamel to pick a few things up, and then I rode all the way back to the travel agency to finally pay for my ticket and pick it up. It might not seem like a lot, but riding through Kathmandu twice in one day is a chore. Especially when its raining. I was covered in little drops of mud and wet and sweat by the time I was finished and returned home.

It would have been so much easier if I could have done this yesterday. Especially since it didn’t rain yesterday. But burning tires normally keeps you off the streets.
In the end, I have my ticket, I have my visa, and I’m ready to go. It should be a great trip. I hope to help Shawn with cyclone relief (from Cyclone Aila a few weeks ago). But if not, we’ll just hang out in Dhaka. They have air conditioning and a Pizza Hut. I think I’ll manage.