Basketball at Midnight

I found solace on the top of the bus today.

It was four hours from Dumre to Kathmandu, where I am right now.  I feel like Cat Stevens.

To backtrack, I left Pokhara for Kathmandu yesterday, but an accident left traffic stopped on both sides.  Near the scene of the accident, I found some tea and a tree near an Israeli named Boris.  We talked for a little while, but after the bus had been stopped for two hours, I grabbed my bags and began walking.  People said it would be a few more hours before the full assessment was made and they would be allowed to clear the vehicle (and body) from the road.

About 2 km down the road, I got on a local bus, and after another change was headed for Dumre, the gate to Bandipur.  I decided I would stop off there for the night to avoid arriving at Kathmandu late.  When I had to switch buses, Boris shortly climbed up onto the roof (I have been continued to travel exclusively by roof).  Apparently he started walking shortly after I had, and although they told him the bus would go all they way to Dumre (he was headed for Bandipur to begin with), it didn’t.

Bandipur was beautiful and fantastic; it’s on a ridge 8 km above the main Pokhara-Kathmandu highway, giving you vistas of the Himalayas and the terraces rice fields of the foothills.  Even though I was only there for about 16 hours, it was worth it.

Then it was me on the rack of a minivan-bus from Dumre to Kathmandu today.  The ticket guy came up from time to time to join me, but I was mostly alone as we followed a river most of the way.  The road passed gorges and ridges that were simply magnificent.  I thought, at several points, that I could perhaps move to Nepal.  Between the climate, the scenery, and the culture, it was alright.  This might be the first place aside from Canada I really felt that comfortable in.

And then I arrived in Kathmandu, and I am already yearning to leave.  Hawkers, touts, annoying people asking me if I want a hotel room when I don’t even have my backpack….  I feel like I’m in India again.  So a correction – I could live in Nepal as long as I don’t have to be in the tourist areas of Kathmandu.

I am probably going to get on a terribly long (24 hour) bus for the East India tomorrow.  Nicky has decided to stay in Pokhara; she said that she wanted more time in Nepal, since it was her first visit, and that it would be easier to travel back than to travel onward.  That’s what she says, at least (though… it’s technically true).