Mount Annapurna Guest House

Exiting Nepal during a brief opening in the quarantine window was as dramatic as it was necessary. My host and friend, Mr. Parjol Giri of Hotel Green Tara in Lakeside, Pokhara arranged for my 3 night stay in Kathmandu in preparation for my flight back home to NYC. I needed to travel from Pokhara to Kathmandu ahead of time allowing for the mandated Covid test and results before boarding the flight to JFK so all I needed was a modest degree of comfort and the possible assistance of a competent and willing local should I need any with one or more of the unexpected twists and turns that often accompany international travel, especially in a place so far away from home where almost everything is strange, different and new. Those adjectives describe good things, in fact, they are the reasons I travel but they also include challenges which require an added measure of resourcefulness and assistance should they occur as they did almost the instant the taxi-driver dropped me off in front of the Mount Annapurna Guest House in Thamel.  The driver mistakenly drove off with my laptop which I also overlooked while he was unpacking my luggage before speeding off to his next stop. Wunderbar. Having surrendered my mobile phone in Pokhara I now had to rely on Mr. Raj Kumar Bhujelm, the host of the guest house to come to my aid. In an instant, as soon as he understood what happened he got on it, phoned the driver who refused to come back and return my property unless I agreed to pay him an additional 2,000 rupees, or I could meet him at his next stop, a good 25 minutes away by motorbike where he said he would wait (if I got there quickly enough). Nice. Mr. Bhujelm wasn't able to drive me himself because of the even/odd license plate restrictions that day so he had to quickly come up with an acceptable alternative, asking the proprietor of the sandwich shop next door to take me on his motorbike which I would tip him for. Together we chased down the taxi through the impossible dusty, alleys and uncertain bridges of Thamel and retrieved my lap top from the splendidly wonderful taxi driver. Aside from possibly a few more gray hairs, no harm done. My point is, Mr. Bhujelm wasted not a moment, nor was he deterred by any obstacle, from language to a stubborn taxi-driver to legal and technical logistics to solve the problems and solve them right away. He went instantly into 'solution mode' and as they arose, found the solutions and implemented them successfully. No pause, no stutter, no shoulder-shrug, no apologies, ultimatums or excuses. He just got it done.  Thankfully, the rest of my stay was less eventful but not less dramatic, from getting the test results in writing on time to finding just the right requested entree' for me to enjoy along with the house's fantastic cooking, maybe the best I had during my five months stay under lockdown in Nepal, definitely in Kathmandu, he put all his effort and experience into making my stay as comfortable, relaxed and pleasant as possible. In a word: impressive. Would I stay there again? Put it this way, next time I'm in town, I intend to. Danyaban Mr. Raj. Fere va' tola.