In case we don’t survive our local bus to Kathmandu and someone finds this diary, please let our children know we love them.
After
a sound sleep and a substantial breakfast we boarded the local bus with a
zillion locals. The bus took off, people jumping on as we left Dhunche, parcels
being thrown aboard as we moved along. Half an hour later the road was blocked
by a broken down jeep and we had no idea how this problem could be resolved.
Mithu and Rob got off the bus, I had no idea what was happening! Okay, calm
down I thought, and finally we started moving again. The poor tourists on the
jeep, it looked bad.
Many
hours later we had a stop at Trisuli for a delicious dal baht and a glass of
sweet hot tea. It seemed to take forever to drive down and down and down to
Trisuli, and the same driving up the other side. The road was steep, narrow and
winding. Once on tarseal the driver went faster so it seemed even scarier than the
bumpy gravel road crossing slips.
In
Kakami we got stuck in a big queue of buses and trucks at roadworks. The bus trip was fascinating and a great way to see a slice of
real Nepali life – old women, young mothers, girls, boys, young men. Everyone
just piles on the bus, room or not – with big bags and sacks and all sorts of
stuff. Younger lads climb up the sides on to the roof. Rob had a little boy
sitting on his knee for about an hour. It’s much cheaper to travel by bus than
jeep, but much slower and more dangerous. However, we made good time to the
city, arriving early afternoon to instant culture shock at being thrust back into a big bustling,
smelly, grubby city.
Mithu found us another bus to take us near Kopan where we
jumped in a taxi and were soon at Doug and Kate’s garden gate, setting all the
dogs to barking. It was lovely to be back safe and sound - and feeling healthy, but it was really quite
sad to see Mithu and Aite go, they were wonderful to us, and we had become very fond of them both. I felt I would really miss them.
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