Nov. 16 to Dec. 14 by Joan

After the Annapurna, we spent a few more days lazing around Pokhara, and then around Kathmandu. We spent most of the time eating and studying French. I had started teaching Eric French during our last days on the Annapurna and he liked it so much that we started studying in earnest for five hours a day, every day, for the next two weeks.

On Dec. 1, we rode to the airport for our flight to Paris. On the way out, the baggage handler asked us for a US$20 bribe, in return for not mentioning that we were 20 kilos overweight. He told Eric that the overweight fee would be $20 per kilo. Eric was ready to pay the bribe, but since our luggage had already been checked, I figured the baggage handler was just bluffing.

Eric had told the handler that he didn't have enough money, so the guy was trying to get Eric to walk with him to the airport's bank. He was literally herding Eric towards the ATM when I dragged us away. It worked out in the end. The handler didn't hurt our bikes. One of the flashers got broken during the flight, but that can happen anyway.

We had a strange stop-over in Abu Dhabi. The airport looked mosqu-ish, with lots of green tile. It was shaped like the inside of a donut--all rounded edges with a strange kind of rounded tower in the middle. Women walked around wearing black cloaks that covered their entire bodies, and black, helmet-like head-dresses, with little slit openings only for the eyes. Then we got on another plane and landed in Paris.

We spent the next two weeks eating and relaxing. We stayed with Eric's exchange sister, Nathalie, who had lived with Eric's family 22 years ago, as part of an exchange program. Then we took the train to the town of Tours, and stayed there for four days. Then we went back to Paris and caught a flight to the U.S., to see our friends and family for the first time in 18 months.

next: US holiday.

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