Arrived.

Travel to Nepal successful. Doha Air is a dream. And from the air  Doha is the most beautiful city I ever saw. The earthworks in the harbor are most impressive. The airport is clean and well-operated. In a way it's the perfect counterpoint to both NYC and Nepal. NY Kennedy is the port of the Tower of Babel. Doha is the poster child for Sharia. If a city can be this beautiful, how bad can Shariah rule be...Anyway it's their people's karma. From the air, the city's architecture is the most stunning I've ever seen. And it's easy to see, at sunset at least, in relief against the sunset, on a flat epanse of desert sand next to the still Ariabian sea. If it sounds poetic, that's because it is. No wonder colonialists loved Arabia so much. There is a some degree of order and elegance in absolute patriarchy, especially when it combines with extreme wealth as it does here.

Kathmandu, I've yet to see it from the air by day. Arrived at 1:00 am last eve. The city is vast and sprawling, but surprisingly dark at night. The streets are improved over the last time I visited, 25 years ago. Boudha, the neighborhood where I'm staying, used to have some open spaces. Now it's just a maze of streets and alleyways, jam-packed with private homes, hotels, and small businesses. But regardless, it feels like home, at least to a Buddhist or Hindu. People here are free to practice and preach their religion, as long as it's "Hindu" (which includes Buddhists, as far as Hindus are concerned). Christians and Muslims are not so lucky, even if they are somewhat tolerated. Pogroms and assassinations are not unheard of, and proselytizing is technically illegal, even if the government can't control it as well as, say, the government of Qatar.