1 Bag, 2 hours and 720 Rupees Later

Today I went to Kathmandu's Cargo Storage building to pick up a bag that I sent over.

We (I went with a Nepali man from school named Bukta) arrived at 10:30am and were quickly surrounded by a group of men. One man asked for my documents and a copy of my passport. Unfortunately, I hadn't brought a copy of my passport so he brought us to a building to make a copy = 5 rupees (7 cents).

We were then told that the building wouldn't open til 11am so we stood around the front of the building while others arrived. It was interesting to watch the Nepali men interacting with each other, smoking, spitting and shooting snot our of their noses. Gross.

At 11:15am the building opened. The man with my documents was already inside and told Bukta and I to wait on some seats. We waited. 1/2 hour later, we were still waiting. Bukta finally went over to a desk to see what was going on. He called me over, and after waiting a little longer, I signed a piece of paper and the man with my documents then led us to another room on the opposite side of the warehouse = 55 rupees (80 cents).

I then went to about 3 other desks and signed my name numerous times before my suitcase was brought out. I then placed my bag in the middle of the warehouse and opened it while a group of men stood around looking to see what was inside. The inspector man (and a few others) shuffled through my stuff before deciding it was ok for me to take = 40 rupees (58 cents)

*note to self - pack sanitary items more discreetly so that Nepali men don't hold them up for all to see and ask each other what they are

The man with my documents then ran around for another 15 minutes doing something, before coming back to us to say it was ok for us to go = 400 rupees for his efforts ($5.84)

While we were in the van, we were stopped one last time on the way out of the complex by the security guys at the gates = 120 rupees ($1.75)

Was an insightful morning and a reminder that what may seem like chaos to me, may somehow have some kind of order to others.

Looking forward to the adventures ahead!