23 July, Action-Man, Kathmandu, Nepal

I was pretty disappointed when we found that we couldn't go to Tibet and Lhasa, its capital. It was just too expensive and we didn't have enough time. Paul, Silas and Timothy tried to go to Bythnia and Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbid them and hindered their way. God wanted them to go on to Macedonia. I rest in those words of the Bible. The Lord closed the door to Tibet.

Still, it would have been fun. A Frenchman and his wife here in the airport told us about a new train that goes from Shanghai to Lhasa in 48 hours. The beautiful Yunnan province and other beauties of China's east coast, they said, pale in comparison to the scenery between Lhasa and Kathmandu. We would have seen all that, but we didn't know any better in Kathmandu.

Here we sit in Kathmandu's airport in the middle of the night waiting to board our plane to Shanghai. But the tardy airline is treating its patient passengers with a midnight snack. They just rolled out carts of boxed food and metal drink dispensers with milk tea. The passengers fell on the refreshments like pesky birds of prey. I just went to refill my glass and found a large puddle beneath the spigot and broken bits of bread scattered on the table. Oh well, like many African airlines, no one knows the day or the hour of Royal Nepal Airlines.

Sam