Auust 1, 2007: Kathmandu

Well, I have been in Nepal now 3 weeks and I have been fairly busy. I went out to Bhoudinath for a week, but came back because of construction noise at the Monastery across the street from the Guest House I was staying in. I did get a chance to spend an afternoon with Shireen from Delhi and she seemed in good spirits. We spent some time together in Delhi going to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the FRRO for Exit Visa permission. In my case, it was a situation where the Visa Officer in Pondicherry decided to give me wrong or inaccurate advice and so I had to spend a week and a lot of money in Delhi getting the leave permit. The Indian Visa Officer chose to not check with Pondicherry to see if I was telling the truth. For Shireen, the story is much more complicated and she had still not been given the X-Visa: 5 Years for Foreigner married to Indian National. What she also got was the Exit permit on an overstay of Visa. I guess the best thing to do is go and register on any Visa over 6 months and don't ask any questions. because you will not get a straight story.

Now, I am in Kathmandu and going to stay here for awhile; after this is Thailand and SE Asia. First, I would like to settle down here, but not very easy because Nepalese only like Westerners who are tourists, they don't like Westerners who are people who are living here. I have a number of friends who are also doing this; and. on one level or another, having perception problems about Nepal.

There is August, September October and then the cold. I do not like the cold, so I guess I will have to come back in March to do the settling in. Maybe I will try and get a Residence Visa then to.

I have also spent quite a lot of time with some unfinished Peace Corps business on the last application that I made. Because of difficulties with the Washington Desk Officer and a very expensive medical clearance, I dropped my application. I submitted a statement to the Advocacy Committee about it. So, that business is finished and I definitely recomment that medical clearance be modified for only the essentials.

So, these are the outstanding thoughts for today.