before we touch any patient, be it dental or medical, we have to go through an interview of sorts with the local medical council. they're supposed to test our competency, making sure we're not killing the locals with fun and glee, and henceforth ruining our diabolical plan. damn. we weren't sure what the meeting entailed, some friends who went through it before said it would just be a social event with coffee, tea and biscuits served by bikini clad women. others claimed there would be a quiz of sorts, failing which would buy us a first class ticket to jail and be forever condemned to a life of watching richard simmons videos.

we entered the boardroom and it struck me immediately that there was not a bikini clad woman in sight, instead we had a meek little lady in a sari ordering us to take our seats. and we waited. and waited. and waited. finally a posse of suits came in and took their seats. it went alright. they asked general questions about our intentions and threw in a few touristy tips for us. thanks, that was very nice of them. after sipping the imaginary coffee/tea served by imaginary bikini clad women, we all shook hands, much in the manner of opposing football teams shaking hands prior to kick off, and off we went.

we were approved, guaranteed, chopped, stamped and ready to take on the nepali masses that awaits. yay, fun for the whole family, finger licking good.

sept 20th 2009

if you look really really hard, and squint like hell, perhaps you can make out the peaks of mount everest at the top left corner of the picture. it was taken en route via the thai airways flight to kathmandu. the captain was nice enough to alert us to it. surprisingly, marketplace mentality didn't prevail and there wasn't a mad rush to snap photos through the pathetically small aircraft windows. i guess the majority of the passengers have been there and done that. took my time to experiment with the lousy contraption i call my camera and failed rather miserably. this photo was taken by my more photographically inclined friend and i must say it isn't too bad, given the fact that my camera was bought in the early years of this decade when bob the builder was the in thing.

amazing isn't it. commercial planes hover around 30-35 thousand feet (i think), and this natural monstrosity is a mere 29 thousand feet or so. i can so imagine some dude waving at us from the peak. plane watching must be quite interesting at the top, sitting at the peak with a cuppa, some sandwiches, or a popiah and watch planes pass by. oh, and don't forget the oxygen.

19th sept 2009

after a mere 2 hours and 4o minutes flight from bangkok, we arrive at tribhuvan airport, kathmandu. the airport is named after king tribhuvan, the father of the nation, so called not because he created each and every nepali citizen and changed their diapers, but because of his active role in the fall of the evil rana oligarchy. apparently there's a university named after him too, and maybe an ice cream shop as well. who knows. it just dawned upon me that it's rather sad that our own klia is not named after someone important, but then again, cynics may argue that no one worthy has emerged from our history. hmmm! anyway, i like tribhuvan airport, we disembark on the tarmac and take a nice slow walk towards the terminal. i'm constantly reminded by the irritating airport security that taking pictures are prohibited, obviously i didn't give a shit, as evidenced by the photos, albeit low quality.

the spectre of swine flu looms. it's amusing how the authorities keep adding to the canvas, first by filling in the boxes and then plastering printed labels all over the damn place. actually, i don't see mexico nor the usa amongst the clutter, so maybe i'm wrong, so i don't know what the fuck that is. boo hoo.

19 sept 2009