Arrived in Kathmandu
Location: Kathmandu, Nepal
Local Time: Monday, Oct 17, 2005 - 8:00am
Well, to cover it quickly, I'm here in Kathmandu in Nepal. As it turns out, they will give you a 60 day visa at the border, so I wasted 3 days in Delhi. However, no big deal. As it turns out, I met 5 people on the train from Delhi to Gorakhpur who were also going to Kathmandu and we shared taxis and buses so it was good.
I left Delhi Saturday night and rode the train through the night. I got a second class sleeper ticket which gets me a padded platform to sleep on for the night, no blanket or pillow. However, all those years of sleeping on the floor with a brick to hold my head up paid off and I slept better than I have since I arrived in India.
I spent a couple hours in the morning staring out the window at the fields before we arrived at Gorakhpur. The six of us shared a taxi from there to Sunauli where we walked across the border and found a bus going to Kathmandu. We rode the bus over night. It was a 14 hour bus ride, and shared a seat in the very front, right next to the engine. At about 6:30am we made it to Kathmandu, took a taxi into the center of the city and relaxed with some chai tea and bread from a bakery. Mmm, bread.
Those are the basic details of the journey that lasted from Saturday evening to Monday morning. Hard to describe all the impressions, it will take me a while to sort it out.
The taxi we negotiated for in Sunauli, we paid 100Rs each (the six of us) after negotiating that it would only be us. Normally the driver gets 500 to take a load of people. Well, the driver went half a block and rounded up 4 more people to stuff in the taxi for the 3 hour ride to Sunauli. The driver was so crowded in the front seat that he tied his door closed so it wouldn't pop open. As he was doing that, Seth commented, 'Safety first' provoking much laughter.
For the bus ride from Sunauli, Serina, an Israeli woman in our group, was very specific in her questions to the bus driver, she wanted to see the bus we were taking, the seats we would be in, when exactly it was leaving, when exactly it would arrive. After we boarded the bus, I saw why. Despite all her questions and precautions (which I thought excessive) I ended up sharing a seat with another guy for 14 hours. So, I was hanging over the edge, trying to sleep, no place to put my feet for 14 hours. Another few trips like that and I will be able sleep sitting straight up and down. Currently I have to nod my head forward before I can sleep.
5 hours into the bus ride, we stopped to eat, and a couple of guys climbed up on the roof, rearranged the luggage, and layed up there to sleep for the rest of the trip.
Well, at least I didn't have to stand for 14 hours. That would have been difficult.
Local Time: Monday, Oct 17, 2005 - 8:00am
Well, to cover it quickly, I'm here in Kathmandu in Nepal. As it turns out, they will give you a 60 day visa at the border, so I wasted 3 days in Delhi. However, no big deal. As it turns out, I met 5 people on the train from Delhi to Gorakhpur who were also going to Kathmandu and we shared taxis and buses so it was good.
I left Delhi Saturday night and rode the train through the night. I got a second class sleeper ticket which gets me a padded platform to sleep on for the night, no blanket or pillow. However, all those years of sleeping on the floor with a brick to hold my head up paid off and I slept better than I have since I arrived in India.
I spent a couple hours in the morning staring out the window at the fields before we arrived at Gorakhpur. The six of us shared a taxi from there to Sunauli where we walked across the border and found a bus going to Kathmandu. We rode the bus over night. It was a 14 hour bus ride, and shared a seat in the very front, right next to the engine. At about 6:30am we made it to Kathmandu, took a taxi into the center of the city and relaxed with some chai tea and bread from a bakery. Mmm, bread.
Those are the basic details of the journey that lasted from Saturday evening to Monday morning. Hard to describe all the impressions, it will take me a while to sort it out.
The taxi we negotiated for in Sunauli, we paid 100Rs each (the six of us) after negotiating that it would only be us. Normally the driver gets 500 to take a load of people. Well, the driver went half a block and rounded up 4 more people to stuff in the taxi for the 3 hour ride to Sunauli. The driver was so crowded in the front seat that he tied his door closed so it wouldn't pop open. As he was doing that, Seth commented, 'Safety first' provoking much laughter.
For the bus ride from Sunauli, Serina, an Israeli woman in our group, was very specific in her questions to the bus driver, she wanted to see the bus we were taking, the seats we would be in, when exactly it was leaving, when exactly it would arrive. After we boarded the bus, I saw why. Despite all her questions and precautions (which I thought excessive) I ended up sharing a seat with another guy for 14 hours. So, I was hanging over the edge, trying to sleep, no place to put my feet for 14 hours. Another few trips like that and I will be able sleep sitting straight up and down. Currently I have to nod my head forward before I can sleep.
5 hours into the bus ride, we stopped to eat, and a couple of guys climbed up on the roof, rearranged the luggage, and layed up there to sleep for the rest of the trip.
Well, at least I didn't have to stand for 14 hours. That would have been difficult.
posted by Jaye | 7:27 AM
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