near disaster

Since it will be spending too much time already on the computer writing about my trek, for this post I am mainly just going to paste in an email I wrote to my mom and brother describing the events of the 13th.


Well I am still stuck in Kathmandu. lots of flights went out this
morning, and I got confirmed on a 2pm one, but the weather had rolled
in by then. Really wish I had been able to go bc afterwards I had a
nearly huge disaster that just turned into a small one, but that is
still upsetting. I was out in the taxi parking area with 2 big bags
(my backpack and the bag that has all the dangerous things for the
airplane that has to be in a separate bag like crampons, plastic
boots, ice ax, fuel canisters) and my little made to move athletic bag
that is my travel life and has all my important and breakable things
in it (biking sunglasses, passport, 160 dollars cash, UV purifier,
camera, memory cards, extra batteries, charger, journal, adapters,
climbing permit). I put the little bag down on a luggage trolley as I
waited for my guide to find a taxi. He came back with a bunch of
drivers bugging him, so we quickly moved on. At the same time I was
watching some spaniards in quite an argument with some other taxi
drivers, so I wasnt focused when we made a quick move, and I left the
little bag. I realized it about 20 minutes into the taxi ride. We
quickly turned around, but of course it was gone by the time we got
there. The police didn’t have it and neither did any of the drivers
right there. Of course I was completely panicked and beside myself.
Finally my guide found a driver that had seen which driver had taken
it. I was quite relieved. We met him in Thamel, and he had the bag
with everything in it! I was going to give both the driver and the
guy who had it significant gifts (30-40usd each) for their help and
not stealing it. I personally thought this was quite generous
considering the average nepali makes at the most 5-10 dollars a day and
also considering of course what is right and what should have been
done would be to give the bag to the police or airport security at the
airport as opposed to taking it. I mean when I was a bus driver for
Beaver Creek and people left purses or very expensive goggles or ipods
on the bus, I just kept them on the bus for the rest of my route and
never expected any money for saving them, and at the end if the owner
hadn’t come back, I just handed them to lost and found. Well the guys
demanded over 200 dollars (besides the cash in the bag, the rest was
hardly worth anything as the other main thing of value, the camera, is
old and shows a lot of use, so its not like I had been saved tons of
money). I wasn’t sure what to do bc here I was quite relieved to have
it back. It would be terrible to lose my camera the day
before flying into the Himalayas and of course losing the passport and
permit would be problematic, so I would have paid a lot to get them
back, but I also don’t really agree with paying off people that steal
things. Plus, my guide, who I really liked and was going to have my
life in his hands the next couple of weeks, was watching (he later
told me I should have given them 75 dollars together). I ended up
giving them the 160 that was in the bag and acting like I had nothing
else. They made me mad bc they acted all hurt by it, but 160 dollars
is a huge amount, even to Americans, and for like a couple hours of
work (and theft at that). So that hurt quite a bit to put out 160
bucks for something stupid like that, a lot my own stupidity for
leaving it. I mean you scrimp so hard on things only to lost 160 just
like that. In hindsight I maybe should have had the police involved when dealing with the cab drivers later, but then again, I was just very relieved to have all that stuff back.