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Nepal Earthquake: Part 2 — The Next 24 Hours

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Posted By: Wanderlusty April 27, 2015

in four parts:

since i tried to live tweet my weekend, i’m going to expand on those and fill in some of the blanks. my heart goes out to the country of Nepal and its people — this tragedy affected them in ways i cannot even imagine. i’m one of the fortunate ones.

i made it back to the hotel only to find it was closed with the staff (and many guests) just sitting outside, waiting. they were afraid to reenter the hotel and spend extended periods of time indoors. i had overheard someone say that a hotel not far away had collapsed, killing all 40-50 people inside. there was no power anywhere.

in any case, i assumed the worst — that the hotel would stay closed until evening, by which time some sort of building inspector would have come by and cleared it for occupancy, and the power would have been restored. i could deal with that. it was maybe 2:30 in the afternoon at this point, a couple more hours wouldn’t hurt.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

we were told to go to the parking lot behind the hotel as it was safer there. a variety of people were standing, sitting, milling about — locals who lived or worked in the nearby buildings, a lot of young visitors from the hostel across the way, and us guests of the hotel.

i noticed that i was getting a wifi signal from some of the nearby businesses. i asked a random British girl if she knew of a password for one of them. i think she was staying at the hostel as she knew the password for that. the signal was ok but you had to stand really close to the building. (a bigger version of this picture is here)

around this time, a reporter from CNN India contacted me via whatsapp to send some vlogs about what was going on, so i made four videos and managed to send her three, which her team edited to this: (note i still haven’t watched it, heh — i’m camera shy but needed something to do something to fill the time).

a sandy, dusty dirt parking lot is not a comfortable place to stand or sit. if you sit, everything gets dirty. if you stand, your feet and legs get tired quickly. an SUV with India plates pulled in and the people inside pulled out a small quadcopter drone. i assumed they were a news team but who knows — they sent the drone up but it didn’t go anywhere other than up; they soon brought it down. i don’t know if they intended to get footage of the collapsed hotel or what, but either way they were unsuccessful and soon left.

i saw people leave and come back with water and some junk food so i headed out to find an open store. i walked in front of the hotel where the staff were about to head back to the parking lot to hand out some bottles of water and instant noodles that people could eat dry. i wasn’t hungry so just took a bottle of water. i sipped from it gingerly, mostly because i didn’t know if it was going to be easy to find water and because i wasn’t sure what bathroom facilities would be available.

there was no power and no working cell data service here. there are two providers in Nepal, and i had both of their local SIMs. Nepal Telecom seemed to have a 3G connection but i couldn’t seem to get internet on it. Ncell just plain didn’t work — No Service. i was at the mercy of the hostel’s wifi, which was at the mercy of a battery backup i think.

after continuing to mill about for a bit in the parking lot i went back to the hotel to see if there was any word on it reopening. they were letting people inside to get their stuff but not really allowing them to stay inside for long. i sat across the street on a step, just sitting. there was a young lady in a really pretty dress i saw earlier who stood up and said “LET’S GET SOME TEA. WHY ARE WE SITTING AROUND LIKE BEGGARS.” (well, frankly, at this point, we were LOL.)

she talked to some people who turned out to be her entourage and i said, “are you getting some tea? i’ll come with!” inviting myself along. we started walking, me, her, an Australian guy named Miro, and a group of four or five guys she was with (all of us waiting for the hotel to reopen). i asked if she knew where she was going (as i knew she wasn’t a local because of her [very posh] Indian-English accent) and she said yes — we walked about a block and down an alleyway to a closed door with a Bacardi sign on top.

eh?

one of her entourage banged on the door. “SURESH! SURESH!” he continued banging until someone opened the door and we entered a nightclub.

O_o

i didn’t know who she was, but she managed to find us a place to sit with comfortable seats, and later, food. the building probably wasn’t the safest to be in; it looked like something had fallen through the roof. but you know, at that point i didn’t care. this was infinitely more comfortable than sitting on a concrete step which was infinitely more comfortable than standing about in a dirt parking lot.

Photos from Kathmandu

Photos from Kathmandu

soon, someone (Suresh?) appeared with some tea. soon after, a masala omelet, and then some instant noodles.

Photos from Kathmandu

Photos from Kathmandu

i wasn’t really hungry but shared an omelet with Miro and scarfed down the noodles, not knowing when i’d eat again (ugh that sounds so dramatic, but it’s true! what restaurants were open?).

by now i’d found out that the lady in the dress was Pooja Misrra, an Indian mini-celeb (hey, she has her own Wiki page!). she was in Nepal to launch a calendar the following Monday, which clearly now would not happen. the club was one that she frequented during her stay in Kathmandu. i don’t know how she knew someone who knew someone who could pull strings, but i was so grateful. again, the power was all via generator (which i think most businesses in this area have because Nepal is prone to power cuts).

i’ve come to learn over the course of the weekend that there is intense and powerful comfort that comes in the form of a cup of tea. its warmth and taste have such calming effects. i cannot explain how nice it was, and i’m forever grateful to Pooja for this.

Pooja napped while Miro and i talked about his birthday Everest base camp trek and how he was hoping he could get out that night on his scheduled flight. we had heard that the airport was closed, then that it was open — who knew what the truth was? even if it were open, would his inbound flight make it?

i’d been needing to go to the bathroom so went to the club’s — it had a squat toilet and despite the fact that i needed to do #2, i didn’t need it that much. #1 it was.

her entourage smoked a hookah while making phone calls (remember, no cell data service) and updating us on what’s going on. Miro and i stepped out to go to the hostel to see if we could bum off the wifi again, but when we got there we discovered it didn’t work. we returned to the club and i let him use my phone (with the working voice-only Nepal Telecom SIM card — i had quite a bit of money left on it since i barely used it for data, preferring Ncell) to call his family, who was worried sick. it felt so nice to do that one small favor to help someone out. totally minor, but to save him and his family from the intense worry they were feeling? it’s these small things that turn out to be big things that ended up meaning so much to me. by the way, the second SIM card was in my backpack at the hotel; luckily they were letting people inside to fetch stuff they needed.

whoa, i just looked at the website for the club we were in. the gallery, showing the club in full swing, is such a change from how we saw it.

we soon headed back outside, back to the parking lot. Pooja and i managed to get a spot on a dusty tarp someone laid out and sat there for a while, but it was, frankly, miserable. how fortunate was i to have been able to escape that for a brief couple hours? the ground was hard and the temperature started dropping and a wind was blowing. i had to pee, and like most others, went to this one dark corner and pissed on a wall. (avoid the corner closest to the hostel, y’all!)

unable to sit any longer, we moved back to the front of the hotel where we sat on the steps across the street. Miro and the hotel staff managed to flag down a cab and he headed off to the airport, thinking it was best to get there sooner rather than later. i found out his flight did make it out; i hope he managed to get on it.

we went into our hotel’s lobby for a point where Pooja and her team had some hard drinks by candlelight (i guess from the hotel’s liquor store) but we couldn’t stay in there long, again due to fear of aftershocks.

soon we had heard that we could go and sit in a grassy area in front of a nearby hotel. there were lots of people sitting there as well, afraid to be inside the buildings. it was nearly 8 PM at this point (8 hours after the earthquake hit) and there were continual aftershocks, so i don’t think i could blame them. most sat on the ground leaving the patio furniture open for us.

man it was starting to get cold. i was in jeans and a t-shirt and a waterproof windbreaker and Sperrys. i probably should have gotten a change of clothes from my luggage when i went in to the hotel to grab that Nepal Telecom SIM card — i don’t know why i didn’t; for some reason my brain just didn’t click. i guess i was too focused on immediate needs?

we went inside to the hotel where Pooja asked for the wifi password. after i managed to get back online, i saw the US Embassy wanted citizens to get in touch with them; i called one of the numbers and left a message (and sent them a tweet). i assumed that was enough. (is it?)

the connection was so poor on FaceTime Audio there was a long delay and she could barely hear me, but at least i was able to let her know i was ok. i sent out an email earlier in the day to my family and coworkers letting them know i was fine, as well as posted on Facebook, but i wanted to give my mom a call since i know she would be worried if i didn’t. plus, the network could go down at any minute (either the ISP or electricity), so i had to make as much of it as i could.

we went inside and sat down at one of the tables in the hotel’s restaurant:

i felt really bad for eating at a hotel we weren’t guests at (i was told we didn’t need to pay for the food we ate at the club, and we didn’t pay for this food either), but at that point, you do what you need to do.

we went back to sit outside wondering where we were going to sleep. did i mention it was starting to get cold? many people pulled out heavy blankets and even mattresses from the hotel; people who were on treks slept in their trekking sleeping bags. we had nothing. why our hotel didn’t get supplies for us, who knows.

Pooja and i went back inside to charge our phones and get some sleep on sofas in their hotel’s lobby. there were some people up in their rooms, but many were in the lobby in case they needed to make a quick exit. thank goodness the hotel kept their generator going most of the night so we could charge our phones. oh, and yes, they had a functioning Western toilet, which i took liberal advantage of. at that point i definitely would have settled for a squat toilet, but hey, if it’s a step up, i’ll take it!

i fell asleep, and while it was indeed chilly, i have to remember that i was indeed one of the lucky ones because i at least had a roof over my head.

i couldn’t go back to sleep after the aftershock woke me up, but the four hours of uncomfortable shut-eye i did get were nice. around 6:30 or so the hotel started to serve breakfast: coffee or tea and hard boiled eggs. we had finished their bread last night (which i have to say, was quite delish — slightly sweet, almost like Hawaiian bread), so no toast. at some point in the morning their internet stopped working. the router was up but i guess the ISP was down. back to communications blackout.

Photos from Kathmandu

this was the outside garden area in the morning. it had started raining at some point in the night so many dispersed, but you can imagine it full of people sleeping on the grass. i don’t know how they managed to keep the generator running through most of the night, but they did. i wonder if they ever managed to refill the fuel in it…

Photos from Kathmandu

Pooja’s entourage was nowhere to be found; we discovered they spent the night crammed in their car. they had been trying to make travel arrangements to get out of the country — we’d heard the airport was indeed open.

we hung out at the hotel for another hour or so; Pooja had breakfast, i had a comforting cup of tea. (i probably should have had another hard boiled egg, but i don’t like them and had to force myself to eat the one i got earlier.)

she was going to head out to the airport soon as some in her party had a noon flight (which i discovered likely didn’t happen until later in the day). we managed to get into her hotel room (i still had never officially checked in, so i didn’t have one) where i changed into fresh clothes and had a nice hot shower. i don’t know how the hot water eventually started working (solar?) but it did and i was grateful. after brushing our teeth we headed off to the airport in separate cabs (her bags filled the trunk of hers; no room for my stuff!).

we managed to make it through the night — again, so lucky we had shelter and food — but the airport was another story.

[continue reading]

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2 Comments on "Nepal Earthquake: Part 2 — The Next 24 Hours"

  1. Cassie | April 29, 2015 at 12:36 pm | Reply

    God, it’s so hard to read this and try to put myself in your shoes as a traveler. You handled yourself so well considering the tremendous shock (you did so well in the interview sharing your experience with the world!)– I’m glad you are ok!

    • Wanderlusty | April 29, 2015 at 12:39 pm | Reply

      thanks!

      you know, i think if i were looking from the outside in, i’d think the same thing as you and others (that i don’t think i could handle it), but you’d be surprised as to how much you can keep calm and collected just because you have to. luckily i wasn’t in a worse situation like many others there, though, but yeah, the magnitude (no pun intended) of the whole thing did come barreling in after the fact (see part 4).

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