Leaving Nepal I: Why I Had to Go

It all happened so fast.  In 72 hours, to be exact.  Nepal was descending into a crisis, and if I wanted to leave before being stuck there indefinitely, I had to get out within 3 days.

So I did.

This is the account of my experience needing to uproot my life at a moment's notice and travel from the village in Nepal to my home in the USA, all during an acutely severe pandemic.

Reading time: 10 minutes

Within one week, Nepal announced partial lockdown, then full lockdown, then flight ban.  For domestic flights they gave one day notice, for international flights they gave three.  It was upon receiving notice of the flight ban that I booked my flight for three days later, for the last day before international flights were banned indefinitely.

So many things had to align for me to successfully make it out of Nepal.

1. Booking and securing a flight ticket out of Kathmandu (KTM)

2. Finding and securing a car/driver to take us to KTM

3. Getting to KTM while the country is in lockdown and police are everywhere enforcing a no-drive rule

4. Being able to get a PCR Covid test the day before my flight, in KTM

5. Getting the test results before my flight

6. The test results being negative

7. Making it to the airport on time

8. The flight not being banned by the destination country before we arrived there

9. The plane making it out of the airport before midnight, with me on it

It truly almost feels like a miracle, typing this by the poolside under gorgeous blue sky and palm trees at my quarantine paradise in Los Angeles.  The events I'm writing about now happened between 10 and 7 days ago, but I feel like it was all just yesterday.  What a stressful, strange, and beautiful experience it has all been.

And now, I will do my best to share it with you.  You can enjoy looking back on these experiences with me from the comfort of knowing that it ended well and I made it to LA safely (still so, so grateful).  Let's dive in!

May 3, 2021

"Due to the existing pandemic situation relating to the new variant of COVID19 in the world... all flights have been suspended from 06 May midnight to 14 May midnight."

The Nepali news outlets announced the coming flight ban first.  Some said it would be from that day, some said from the 5th, some said from the 7th, it was not consistent.  That's how it often goes there; government meetings are held, reporters spread what they think they heard, and then about 6-24 hours later the government will release an official announcement with the correct information.

The news sent me into a panic, of course.  Since December I had planned to leave Nepal at the end of May.  My visa was going to expire then anyway, and it felt like a good time to go.  Then, in March, things in India exploded, and Nepal began to follow suit.  The rumors of impending lockdown began in April.  It wasn't until the end of April that partial lockdown was imposed.  It all happened so quickly after that.  Full lockdown orders came just a few days later.  My boyfriend Sanam and I realized that things were progressing way faster than we had expected, and we decided I should try to go a couple weeks earlier, on May 13 (funny that I'm writing this on the day I had planned to fly out).  That was already hard news; we had expected to celebrate my 25th birthday together, coming May 17, and there were just some things we had expected to have time for that couldn't happen.  We didn't realize that we would have even less time than that.

My wonderful guy was my rock during this time.  And always is.

It was May 3rd when we heard of the flight ban, which was only set to be one week (May 7 to May 14), but we knew better.  Last year the lockdowns and flight bans would always be set for one or two weeks, and then extended so many times.  The 2020 flight ban lasted five months.  And the pandemic is WAY worse in Nepal now than it was then.  I had a feeling in my gut that if I wanted to leave in May, this was my last chance.  I took it.

Due to the fact that airlines require a negative PCR Covid test within 48 hours before your flight, and that these tests usually take about 8 hours to get a result (if you're lucky), it's not possible to drive directly to Kathmandu (KTM) and hop on a plane.  You have to go to KTM and stay there for at least one night, and pray that that is enough time to get your test done and get your results back.  This was a particularly packed time for the testing centers, as every person who wanted to leave the country before the flight ban was squeezed into the only 5 testing centers that hadn't been shut down for fraud.  All of these factors together meant that I had exactly enough time to get out on May 6, if I booked a flight right away and left the village the next day.

Here's where we begin to tick off the barriers to me leaving Nepal.  Step 1...

1. Booking and securing a flight ticket out of Kathmandu (KTM)

I booked my flight for May 6 in the afternoon.  The price went up from $600 to $1,000 during the minutes while I was booking.  My card wouldn't work because it needed "additional verification" for a thousand-dollar purchase in Dubai, and of course the customer service wouldn't be open until reasonable hours for America, beginning in the evening in Nepal.  Fortunately, the ticket booking service held my spot for 24 hours, so at least I had a provisional ticket.  Later, in the evening, I worked it out with my bank and I confirmed my flight ticket.

✔1. Booking and securing a flight ticket out of Kathmandu (KTM)

Spending precious time with the family the night before my departure.  Left photo: Sanam's nephew; Right photo: Sanam's little brother, cousin, and aunt.

Next up:

2. Finding and securing a car/driver to take us to KTM

My boyfriend, Sanam, is entirely to thank for this crucial step being accomplished.  I absolutely would still be there now (a place in complete health, political, and humanitarian crisis) if it weren't for his persistence and determination to get us that car.  He found us a car on May 3rd... but not the car that ended up taking us to KTM.  That will have to wait for later in our story.

The night of May 3rd was my last night in the village.  I treasured every moment with the family.  I had spent 6 months with them over the course of my 18 months in Nepal, including the last 4 months prior to my departure.  We had many sweet moments, and I took so many pictures.  I took note that I was crying an average of once per hour over an 8 hour period.  It was a time of many emotions.

We enjoyed a special dinner of many of my favorites: fern, loofah, egg, khotar (rice from the edge of the pot), and chang (rice wine).

I miss these humans SO much.  We've been through a ton together.  These boys truly feel like my brothers, and this aunt literally calls me her older daughter.  I treasure them all.

 May 4

On May 4, we had to take care of many things before our hoped evening departure.  The city was only open for 2 hours from 6 to 8 AM due to lockdown.  We went there to find any shopowner with a printer who could print my flight ticket, which we would have to show at every police checkpoint between the village and Kathmandu (a 12 hour drive away).  We were so lucky to find one shopowner sweeping the street, his shop was shuttered closed but he helped us anyway.  I got three copies of my flight ticket and my scanned passport - one for me, one for Sanam, and one for our driver - for when police needed to see why we were traveling during full lockdown.

Driving to the city, our last motorcycle stroll for some time.

I spent a lot of this day (and the prior day, actually) packing, playing cards with Sanam's nephews, sharing snacks and savoring the little things.  This was all of course interwoven with moments of anxiety, sadness, and fear.  Any time anyone asked me about the trip, I would feel sick.  My stomach took the brunt of the anxiety of that week.  I reached a point where I asked for please no more questions from anyone about what time we were leaving, when my flight would be, how I would get my Covid test, etc. because my physical and mental health couldn't handle it.

Saying goodbye for now to my sweet buffalo babies.  They are family too.  I miss you, Khaira, Tiger, and (not pictured) Khokti, Samsundari, Sani, Golu, Dhela, Lallu, and Sweetie!

Dad showered and put on his best clothes to take this photo with me!  Honored.

I took out my lockdown stash/hoard and shared the snacks with the family.  Many of the snacks were foreign snacks from other cities, most of which they had never tried.  The crowd favorite was peanut butter!

Missing my Nepali family.  Left to right: Sanam, cousin, older sister, aunt, and kids (not pictured).

Part of the reason I was still having so much anxiety was that barriers 2 through 9 still had not been overcome, and especially barrier 2 was causing a LOT of worry.  Remember this one?:

2. Finding and securing a car/driver to take us to KTM

Well, the driver and car we had found and secured cancelled on us in the early afternoon.  He had wanted to bring a friend to split the drive with him, but the rule was that there could be exactly three people in our car (one driver, the person flying, one accompanying acquaintance).  He also heard of how scary it was in KTM and he didn't feel safe to go there.  At this point, Sanam started calling everyone.  I think he must have made dozens of phone calls.  Five times, we found a driver and car who confirmed, and then cancelled.  People were hearing horror stories of KTM, and the drivers' families were convincing them not to take us there for fear of them getting stuck.  I completely understand why they felt this way, but it was so scary to not have a confirmed driver up until one hour before we wanted to depart.

By some miracle, Sanam got a call from a distant acquaintance from the neighboring village, saying he needed to go to KTM to pick up people who had called him, and that he could take us that night.  We left together an hour later, at 7PM, for KTM.

✔ 2. Finding and securing a car/driver to take us to KTM

To all of our shock, our prayers were answered.  The car really came.

From the moment the car came until now, I couldn't help but feel like I was dreaming.  It felt so unlikely that when it started to happen, I didn't know how to process it.  I was really happy, but also I didn't want to let myself get my hopes up that I would really make it.  And then there was the part of me that didn't want to make it.  I of course was in deep pain at the thought of not being together in person with my love and my Nepali family for an indefinite amount of time.  It was all a lot, and I am sure I'll be processing this for awhile.

This brings us to the night of May 4, when we drove to KTM.  It rained and stormed almost the entire night.  There were a couple of police checkpoints, but after showing them my flight ticket, we were waved through.

Just after we left, so happy and grateful and sad and dazed.

---

Stay tuned for part 2 to find out if we make it to Kathmandu and beyond!

Remaining barriers to overcome:

3. Getting to KTM while the country is in lockdown and police are everywhere enforcing a no-drive rule

4. Being able to get a PCR Covid test the day before my flight, in KTM

5. Getting the test results before my flight

6. The test results being negative

7. Making it to the airport on time

8. The flight not being banned by the destination country before we arrived there

9. The plane making it out of the airport before midnight, with me on it

See you Thursday, hopefully in Kathmandu...

🚙