Basically, take my comments about Rules of the Road and increase everything exponentially. Throw in hundreds of buses, hundreds of trucks, motorcycles weaving in and out, add a terrible road surface and near gridlock traffic, drag that out over 9 hours, and that would pretty much summarize our day of travel. Keep in mind that Kathmandu and Pokhara are only 200 km apart.
There were many times that the bus advanced at a crawl. Many times stopped. For some reason I don't recall it being as bad last time we were here. Maybe it wasn't as bad. Maybe I've just forgotten. Still took 8 hours last time.
I really wasn't able to take pictures that did the whole experience justice. I have some video, but even that won't convey things properly.
The road isn't wide enough for the vehicles that are using it. There are no shoulders. Every time someone stops, or breaks down, you lose that lane. Tractors, people walking. Vehicles pulling out in front of you. Vehicles turning. Vehicles passing with oncoming traffic. BIG oncoming traffic. Motorcycles being squeezed to the very edge of the road.
One more piece of Nepali infrastructure that definitely isn't working. And nobody working to fix it.
Anyhow, we arrived at the bus station in Pokhara, got whisked to the Hotel Yeti and our room was waiting. Same room as 3 years ago.
This evening we will probably have a stroll down the main street, but since we will be back here twice before we're done, we don't need to go for the whole Pokhara experience today.
Tomorrow we will be picked up by a van or taxi or something and driven to Nayapul. That's about an hour away and is where we start our first trek.
No comments:
Post a Comment