Oh dear...

When I was younger I was always fascinated by the stories of people who should have been on the Titanic but switched their tickets at the last moment, or those who should have been on such and such a flight but slept through their alarm, cursing their bad luck when they finally awoke to realize they were never going to make it in time; learning hours later that their plane had crashed.

Well, in preparation for our upcoming departure from Nepal I've been bugging Hamid about going into Kathmandu's China Town to buy another suitcase. We were going to go today but inhereted a rain-inspired laze and decided to stay home instead. Turns out that laziness was more to our advantage after all.

We've just received an email from the United States Embassy here in Kathmandu letting us know that four bombs went off in different parts of the city today. And one of the explosions was right in the area we would have been shopping at. It's all something to do with the upcoming elections and I'm happy to know we'll be leaving just in time, considering, and won't be here for the aftermath of what is likely to be one of Nepal's most violent political seasons in years.

Now this isn't nearly as dramatic as fortuitously missing the sinking of the Titanic, but it's a close call nonetheless.