This is essentially a book-length travel memoir which I’ll be feeding out over the course of the next year (sign up for email updates when a new chapter is posted). Working title is “In Praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness” but it’ll probably change. Everything in here is true. A few minor details may be changed in order to accommodate the fallibility of memory, protect identities, or improve narrative flow, but that’s all. It’s a pretty good story with a solid emotional core. I hope you get something out of it.
In Praise of Character in the Bleak Inhuman Loneliness
journeys in Nepal
This is one of those stories with no clear beginning, and no clean end. But it begins, best I can tell it, in a hotel room in Hong Kong. 3:30 A.M.
Two young Americans sit atop a hotel bed. One is male, 23, the other female, 25. They sit close together, but they do not touch. The sheets are still tucked in. The TV is on, but silent. BBC World News shows context-less images of strife in far-flung places. A plane crash in Nepal. A trash strike in Lebanon. The two figures are not paying their surroundings much mind.
The woman crochets, furiously. A near-finished hat lies in her hands. It is maroon, warm and fluffy. The man stares into space, occasionally glancing at his phone, which is laid in plain view, on the nightstand. There is a thick tension between the pair: it reverberates off the walls and is absorbed into the silence between them.
The woman turns to the man, gives him a plaintive look, and asks: “What do you want?”
His posture slumps, he looks to the phone, then back to the woman, and says: “I want to go home.”
Hope sparks between them. She lights up. “Do it!” she says, excitedly. “There are still tickets!” The man reaches for the phone, stares blankly, taps a few times, then says: “It’s out of data.”
“What?” she asks, not comprehending. He hands the phone over without making eye contact or speaking a word.
The elation becomes anxiety.
“Your SIM is out too, right?” He asks. She nods. “And there’s no Internet here.” She nods again.
He looks left, then right, as if searching for some hitherto unseen answer. After a few seconds, he turns and looks at her, pleading.
“My taxi’s going to be here any minute, we need to go,” she says. “Come on, you can buy a ticket at the counter!” And with that, they’re out into the abandoned pre-dawn streets of Hong Kong.
The taxi zips through the abandoned highways, fast, faster, but not fast enough.
When they get to the airport, the flight is closed. Tickets can’t be purchased, online or at the counter. The woman returns from the check-in counter and stands in front of the man. They don’t say much. He is slumped under the weight of a heavy load, and her eyes are sunken and sad.
“I need to go,” she says. He nods, silently. They hug, and whisper the words that lovers should. She hands him a hat. Warm, hand-made, and in his favorite color. A memento. They separate, and she walks away towards passport control. He watches her every step, until she disappears from view. Then he walks over to a nearby chair, looks at the hat, and collapses.
This is where I found myself, before I found myself in Nepal.
***
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thisisyouth 
I’ve seen a lot of travel writing but this and your about page is different and I really like it. It’s fueling my passion to start traveling except I want to travel on a more people based than location based(of course I want to experience that too) reason, if that makes sense, I guess that’s why I like this one and I’ll be sure to go through the next ones 😀
(This may have double posted, I’m not sure but oh well)
Got here from Nepal 77, now I’m sure I’m going to read it all. Man, you’ve got some serious talent :).
Much appreciated man, I hope you enjoy it!
Open to suggestions? Start with your ending line. That one grabs attention. Take out half the words…chop, chop, chop. Make the POV first person without the narrative. Make sure the goal is clear. If you start with your last sentence, you will intrigue your reader and make them want to know about how and why you ended up in Nepal. The rest is peripheral and only a setting, not the point. Just a thought from a struggling author who is learning, learning still at my age. Thanks for checking out my blog. I wish you well!
Interesting stuff…we’ve all been left somewhere….I’m not in love with the title, though
Nor am I, my friend. But I figured actually writing the thing was more worthwhile than delaying it forever while I figured out the perfect title 😋
that’s the right idea! Get it down, change things later. A guy I follow has a blog title…”Ain’t found a good blog title yet”
I’m hooked. Waiting for the next instalment.
There are a good 50+ installments now! Hover over “Nepal” in the Navbar and click the “Table of Contents” pop up 😊
This is such great insight into the realities of travel; the intimate details people are always trying to get a better grasp on but are hard to visualize. Thank you, thank you!
Thank you!! That was the goal here. Hope you read the rest!
just another tallented writer. its feel like a dream with mix feeling. hard to define the truth and reality. kuddos!
I can’t wait to read the rest! As soon as I have more time I’ll be back haha 🙂 Beautifully written.
I began with Nepal 40, and have gone back to the beginning.. Loving how you’re writing this story… If, you’re interested I’ve began a short story of mine, with my own illustrations to follow along.. Please have a look and take care, from Laura
https://bluebird4udaily.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/the-weary-traveler-by-laura-scott-part-one-every-friday/
Thank you! I will check it out 🙂
Thanking you kindly for checking out my short story.. I’m on Nepal 12 at the moment.. I must say this is a page turner… are you a published author? And, if not you should be my new friend.. Take care, Laura
I like your posts’ clarity & neatness and good English because I create a mess of tenses because I’ve lately been reading messy English.
English is my third language so I’m not a good judge but it’s so easy to follow you and it tastes good to read your English.
Thank you for letting me discover you.
Why do you say people are more interested in places than your boring romance stories? I don’t understand.
I, for one, am always more interested in the Blogger than what their Blog subject is! 🙂
And since you say that your boring romance story(s) is true, it will be my target and I’ll throw the rest of the blogs I follow in my Wait folder.
I’m a wicked, evil man because I’m interested in people’s private lives, am I not?
There could be a more elegant solution to this though, you’re right!
Is there no Table of Contents feature in WordPress. I don’t know where to go after this post.
There’s generally a button at near the bottom right which should take you to the next post. On a desktop computer, anyways. If you click the “Nepal” tab in the navbar, that’s a reverse-chronological listing of all the chapters. So just scroll down and you’ll find 2.