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| Prayer flags are everywhere! |
We got up early to explore a bit of KTM before we tried to
find the bus station. We found a great coffee house where we could sit and
watch the street activity for a while before we headed back to pack up &
check out. We wandered around a bit checking out the butchers and trying
(unsuccessfully) to find a battery for my altimeter watch, before heading back
to the guesthouse to settle our bill.
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| We think it is a pig... |
We found the bus station with the help of the taxi driver
& assumed we would miss the buses to Besisahar. I left Wendy in the car
with the stuff so the taxi would not leave and put some of my street skills to
work. I found the back of the bus stage where there were ramshackle looking
ticket windows, all dotted with everything BUT English words. I bought tickets
from someone who said there was a bus about to leave. He then passed me of to
another dude who pointed & pushed me towards a totally empty bus that was
pulling away. I grabbed Wendy & the stuff and we loaded into the bus with
only a few other Nepalese and no other tourists. We had missed the last
(direct) tourist bus and gotten on the local bus that would stop & start
its way 7+ hours to Besisahar.
Along the way we stopped 20min for a great lunch of rice,
dhal, pickled something, and spiced potatoes. The bus conductors (the driver’s
assistants that climbed up and down the bus loading and unloading all sorts of
luggage, as well as collecting money from the passengers and negotiating fares)
washed some clothes in a stream, just above where the toilets flushed into the
same stream… but, the food was great!
At one point, we came upon an upside down car with people
just being pulled out of it. The bus pulled over and I jumped out along with
the conductors to try and help the few men that were running up to the scene.
Although the car was precariously balanced on the edge of a small cliff over
the river, some men started trying to spin the car around to access the other
front door. Luckily, someone else roughly pulled an older lady out of the
window and we all backed up from the car in case it decided to catch fire.
After ~5-7 minutes, it was apparent that there was no massive bleeding or
anything we could do and we got back on the bus, while some other passing
vehicles began to take the injured people who knows where.
We made one other stop for someone to load 10-15 GIANT sacks
of potatoes on top of the bus. The one conductor & a woman helped a man
hoist these 80+kg (170+lb) sacks of potatoes onto his back & head strap so
that he could climb the tiny ladder to the top of the bus! One conductor then
helped him as he climbed the ladder, by pulling a rope looped under the sack,
and then taking the load from his back & lashing it to the roof. We watched
this feat of strength in awe and also made sure that our backpacks didn’t get
lost or untied in the process.
We arrived in Besisahar at dusk and walked into the first guesthouse
that we found. After another quick & unsuccessful search for a watch
battery, we had a great dinner (of dhal bat & local beer) on the rooftop
overlooking the city. We slept fitfully on hard mattresses, trying to shut out
the noisy dogs barking, and dodging hungry mosquitoes all night...
Katmandu reminds me of
India, colorful and chaotic. We arrived late, had dinner and (several) mojitos
at a touristy joint around the corner from the hotel. The next morning,
cappuccinos, some time spent looking for a watch battery for Patrick’s fancy
survival watch and then on wards to the bus station.
We took a local bus to
Besisahar - about 7 hours. Stopped many times, but most notably for lunch
(which only we and the crew ate: lentils, curried veg, rice and pickles),
loading potatoes (involving one guy climbing a ladder with a sack on his back
strapped to his forehead and another guy on top of the truck hoisting the bag
at the same time) and one mechanical problem that involved driver and two
conductors getting out to look under the bus while small boy opened a hatch
over the engine inside the bus and made 2 or 3 adjustments with a set of
wrenches. Good to go.
First 24 hours in
Nepal, here are my impressions
a.
Hocking
lugies is not impolite and is in fact a very desirable feminine quality.
Morning soundtrack of Nepal is indelible – everyone waking up and hocking.
b.
We saw
a guy get beaten and nearly stoned to death by some others in the street in
Katmandu.
c.
We
arrived at the scene of a car crashing off the road nose-first nearly down a
ravine. The wheels were still spinning. The bus pulled over and we all jumped
out to help just as they were pulling 3 miraculously alive people out of the
teetering car.
d.
There
are dogs everywhere - big, fluffy, and not afraid of people. They sleep like
the dead in the middle of the sidewalk during the day.
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