After his first summer in Japan, Nim returned to Nepal. He came back with a different kind of confidence.
Experience from working abroad.
New skills.
A broader perspective.
And for the first time, he had earned good money overseas — something he took pride in. There was a sense of independence in that. Of possibility.
He had new gear too — equipment not easily found in Nepal at the time — and a growing sense that his path in the river world was beginning to take shape.
Nim was staying in, Thamel, Kathmandu – the famous backpackers area of the Capital. He was preparing to lead a trip for an international group, led by Phil Arnold of Adventure Whitewater in the UK — a company he had worked with before. The trip itself had been arranged through David Allardice of Ultimate Rivers — another well-known name in the whitewater world. Phil had specifically requested Nim to be his trip leader.
Everything was moving forward.
At the same time, something entirely separate was unfolding nearby.
Kelly Leinweber, a young Canadian woman, had recently arrived in Kathmandu to work with a program called Volunteers Abroad, run by the Canadian Federation of Students. She and a group of volunteers were temporarily staying at the Northfield Hotel in Thamel, while waiting for a new orientation center to be completed. Meals were provided at the attached Northfield Café — a place that still exists today.
It was Dashain. The biggest festival of the year.
And while most businesses remained open, many staff had little time to celebrate with their families. Kelly noticed this. She worked with the café owner to allow as many staff as possible to take time off — even just a few hours — to receive tika and be with their loved ones.
To make it possible, Kelly and the volunteers stepped in to help run the café.
Washing dishes.
Making coffee.
Serving tables.
Kelly took on waitressing.
And then Nim walked in.
Kelly remembers turning to one of the volunteers and saying: “Keep me away from the cute raft guide at table 13.” She served him a chicken burrito and two Everest beers.
Nim remembers being curious about this foreign woman serving tables in a café in Kathmandu. He wanted to get to know her.
He had received a detailed email from Phil with logistics for the upcoming trip — and asked Kelly if she could help read and translate it.
A simple question.
A way to start a conversation.
Kelly often jokes that she has been helping Nim with emails ever since.
At the time, Kelly’s work was meant to take her to multiple countries. Nepal was just one stop. But she remembers saying during her interview: “Be careful sending me to Nepal — I may never leave.”
She didn’t.
More than twenty years later, they are still here.
Married in 2008.
Raising a family.
Continuing to build a life connected to rivers, community, and place. At the time, there was no sense of what lay ahead. No thought yet of Paddle Nepal —or the small hotel in Pokhara that would come years later.
Just a moment.
A café in Thamel.
A festival day.
Trying to make space for others to be with their families.
The kind of moment that doesn’t seem like much at the time.
Looking back, this chapter wasn’t about rivers or competitions. It wasn’t part of a plan. Just a meeting. And yet, it would become one of the most important turning points in the story.
(To be continued…)
Over the next weeks, we’ll share more about how these early connections — personal and professional — continued to unfold, gradually shaping a life, a family, and something more in Nepal.
This reflection is part of Paddle Nepal’s 20-year journey on Nepal’s rivers.
