Series
I left Bodhgaya, heading once more to Varanasi; this time to meet my friend Angus. He is an ex-colleague of mine who left Radical Entertainment to travel the world a few weeks before I did, and who incidentally also documents his trip on the web. He is traveling westbound, while I am headed East; we are meeting in Varanasi to go visit Nepal together. At the same time, we are we are sharing travel stories: me about India and Dubai where Angus is headed next, him about South-East Asia where he just spent the past four months.
All the while, we are walking the streets of Varanasi... Not all that different from when I was there just three weeks ago, but it's much warmer... Angus' first comment about the city was: It's like walking on the ranch... Of course, he was referring to all the cow shit on the streets of the old town. In his first day in town, he was charged by two cows; more than me in the previous two months. No wonder he doesn't like them... I was very surprised to see a large dorsal fin surface in the Ganges, and then again: the rare Gangetic Dolphin. It's one of the few fresh-water species of dolphin, and it must be hard-pressed to survive in the polluted water of the Ganges. But it does find plenty of food...
We spent two days in Varanasi. On the evening of Valentine's Day I was sick with diarrhea and fever; so the next day was not particularly indicated for a serious bus ride. On that same night, tragically, a boat overturned on the river and 14 people went missing. It caused quite a commotion in the old town.
Finally, we boarded the bus heading to the Nepali border, only 250km North of Varanasi. It was the ride from hell: 12 hours to cover the distance. At one point the bus hit a jeep overtaking us without using its horn, but after a short and intense round of yelling at the jeep driver — which a lot of the passengers participated in — we were moving again. The important thing in these never-ending bus rides is to keep moving toward the goal.
Finally, we showed up in Sunauli at the Indo-Nepali border, just before midnight. The Indian immigration officials were sound asleep, but were friendly enough even after we woke them up. The fact that I had lost some sort of registration card I was apparently given upon entry gave them an opportunity for a small bribe (which, I learned later, was unecessary). A few steps ahead, after waking up the Nepali immigration officials we were issued a visa on the spot, and walked into the quiet main street of Sunauli. All the hotels were apparently fully booked, but after some searching we luckily managed to find one that could put us up for the night.
Nepal, finally! A quick beer to celebrate our entry into this friendly little country. Advanced our watches by 15 minutes, for Nepali time is GMT+5h45... Go figure!
The following morning the interesting part of the journey started: busing from Sunauli to Pokhara through the foothills of the Himalayas. Going from 100m above sea level, to 800m. Finding the right bus at the right price turned out to be a battle worthy of India: touts everywhere competing for the opportunity to rip us off. Eventually though we were on our way to cover the last 100km in approximately 9 hours...
A few observations about Nepal, things that stuck out coming from India... First I was surprised by how much people smile. Indians are friendly, but the Nepali are a much warmer people. They are physically much closer to the Chinese than to Indians. It also seems that they are less used to tourists than people in India, at least on the bus we were traveled on, for they were eager to find out more about us. Nepal is much cleaner than India: no garbage on the streets, no cow shit all over the sidewalks. Things are not so much in a state of disrepair. Stuff just works here. The Nepali women are out and about: they run stores, they gossip on a street corner, they play sports in a field, ... They have a visible place in society. Of course, while I felt very good about being in Nepal, it's not all easy...
The country is in a state of civil war: Maoist rebels are fighting government forces. They want a communist revolution in Nepal. The government, headed by King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah is having a hard time containing them. But the Maoist have issued a public statement that they are not fighting tourists, and there seems to be no reported problems. The royal house itself is in a bit of disarray: on June 1st 2001 royal heir Dipendra shot most of the royal family. He killed 7 people, including his parents and his brother before he turned the gun on himself. Apparently the motive for his act was his parent's disagreement over his choice of a bride. Dipendra did initially survive his suicide attempt, and was proclaimed King of Nepal for three days, until he succumbed to his wounds without ever regaining consciousness. His uncle Gyanendra who was not in the palace at the time of the tragedy is now the holder of the Nepali crown. He does not seem to be liked very much by his subjects...
As I am reflecting on the current political situation of the country, looking at the setting sun over the mountains, I saw from the corner of my eye my bag fall-off the roof of the bus in a turn. I yelled for the driver to stop and some people scrambled off after the bag while I hoped it hadn't fallen down one of the numerous cliffs we'd driven by. Eventually I was told the bag was recovered, and we set off again. I was curious about the state of the bag and its contents, but could not get to the roof of the bus — or off my seat for that matter — due to the many cases of mandarin oranges stored in the central aisle. It turned out in the end that there was no damage to the bag or its contents; in fact it may even not be my bag that fell-off...
India and the Kingdom of Nepal (gallery) (next entry =>) Nepal Friends Travel First impressions People Society