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The tour

It has been a month-long gap. I have collected many many stories during my trip to the US and Canada. Travelling is said to be the best form of learning, and I found it to be true. Learning about the people, their daily lives and food and places - oa! It is nice. And sharing those stories is also nice.

Mahatton continues to fascinate me. This city stands farm and bright. It is vibrant and lively. For this trip, I booked Air B&B a little further in Queens. I found Air B&B was easy and comfortable. I kept on finding myself in the middle of the city whenever I had time. I had to, once again, learn to use buses and the metro to go around the mega city. The Grand Center was a puzzle. I continued to struggle to figure out, which route leads to which avenue/street. Since my mobile did not support local sim, I relied on offline maps and screenshots. Finding routes was a joy. Getting around without a specific plan was fun. Tasting food in random restaurants was what I wished.



As the training ended, I got back to my hobby - running. My colleague enrolled me in a 10-mile running course with other runners, who were preparing for the NY marathon in November. I could not find my group and I ended up joining a random group. I was welcomed. It was an amazing run with strangers in Manhattan. Seeing the city on foot showed me different facets.


The central park was truly a centre of attraction. The park was full of runners and cyclists. I dissolved myself in the flock. Later, I had a walk around the city, randomly. I scored the highest steps in a day - 30,000 steps.


The following week was special. I was picked by a friend. We drove to Massachusetts. I spent a week, visiting Boston, Springfield, Greenfield and many other places. Fishing in a park was the central attraction of the trip.




The city infrastructure is fascinating. I admire the planning of the highways, towns and shops. Every single town was well-designed. It made me think, about what went well during the nation-building. I stopped thinking about what went wrong in my country. 

Many things must have gone right to build a nation, contrary to Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson's famous title 'Why nations fail'. Technology has been so easily integrated into daily life to make life easier - the payment system, the transportation, the services and many more. Everything was impressive. There might be 100s of things to improve in the country but there are also thousands of things to appreciate.

Later, that week was Tihar. I attended the Deusi programme in a Bhutanese refugee community. In some ways, I connected with them due to my previous service in IOM . When the first flight of Bhutanese refugees left Nepal, we celebrated. It was a milestone. Later, 70 thousand refugees were resettled in the US. After 16 years, it was satisfying to see their life in the US and their good words for  Nepal.

From the US, we drove to Canada. It was another lovely journey to remember - the lakes, roads, parks and coffees in between. I have my brother and his family in Oshawa. Meeting them after a long time was another happy moment.

I was told that fall was not the best season to visit the country, but for me, visiting the family was more important. I saw my nephew growing faster than ever. I used every moment to tell him stories from Nepal and hear from him. We went to a Niagara fall together and captured photos and videos to show to my family back home. He is a lovely boy. I hope he would soon visit Nepal for some time and I shall connect him to his roots.

Now I am back home. These memories will be cherished forever. This is not the only story I have collected. Every sentence in this blog has a separate story. I shall have more stories on this in the coming days. I am lucky in many ways - to have friends around the world to show me around. I have a brother to share those stories.

More stories to follow.

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