Travelling tales...

Gorakhpur, Sonauli and Kathmandu!!

05:00AM... Decide a shared taxi will be more comfy and faster than a bus and at only R60 it's worth a try. Oh, how I laugh at my naivité! There were 16 people in our land cruiser that has seats for about 7/8. Then we get a rear blowout at 80km/h. Drier is on the ball though and controls the slide. So much for fast & comfy.... 09:30AM... In Nepal! Hurrah! From Sonauli, just need to arrange a bus to Kathmandu and I'm home. The local money changer is only too happy to sell me a ticket and at R250 I'm only too happy to accept.

11:00AM... The bus journey is long and arduous.To the tune of 12 hours! The scenery is amazing though. This is a mountain pass after all. The only thing that would make this more authentic is if there were some pigs/chickens in cages next to me. Maybe at the next stop....

There are times when there is only 1ft of mud between us living and dying by falling down the sheer drop into the river below. Time and again our bus driver would get upto an amazing speed then brake suddenly due to possibility of sudden death. This would have got me upset but as the whole bus didn't even blink the whole time there was a air of calm (or resignation I'm not sure!).

Nice chap called Nitin offered to put me up for the night with his family as we arrived into Kathmandu very late. I declined as I really needed to collapse. Found the Hotel Excelsior in Thamel, the backpackers area in KAT. After a 30hr journey I decided to sleep.... Posted by cmelikian at October 28, 2003 09:36 AM