Nepal and the joy of a non exsistant bus

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Again abit lengthy but stick with it - Your soon see why.

So as Dave left me to go back to Delhi to get flight to England i decided to head to Nepal, only a day bus ride away and by this point, 4 weeks into India, i need a change of country. So jumped on the bus at 7am to be greeted by 2 Koreans, and Japanese dude and a Finn, although i thought he was from Russia. Finnins dude is in his 50's quit his job and spent last few years travelling the world - Initially sounds like a cool guy but he was in fact bit odd First off he had a fasination abou war, no matter what country was mentioned in a conversation he would talk about who they attacked or who attacked them in great detail This lead him to ask me if i felt comfortable and at home in India, strange question i thought, so asked why he asked that? He said "because you guys used to rule the countryand you have Indians in your country so are used to seeing people wear sarees etc" I tried to explain we have not rule India for along time and that just becuasei have seen a lady wearing a saree, that does not make me feel at home in India He could not understandthis soi made my excuses and moved to another seat. He would later have an argument with a local and nearly get in a fight over a seat.

To get to Nepal capital, Kathmandu, have to spend night in boarder town Sonali. WOW What a pointless town, absolutely nothing there but the boarder crossing. The hostel is included in the ticket price and can see why so cheap. Chosea 4 person mixed dorm to crash in The beds were, (and i mean literally), 3 single beds pushed next to each other with the 4th pushed against the end of the other 3. No room to walk between had to climb over plus was the dirtiest place ever slept After 10 hours on a bus needed a shower but choose not to have one as shower was that dirty - Not that is bad!! Anyway, 6am on bus to Kathmandu fearing about my hostel because on i have booked is same price. Luckily hostel in Kathmandu or KTM as locals call it is AWESOME. Within 2 minutes of walking in meet a 23 year old candian called Chris who lives in japan teaching English - We decide to travel together for next few days. Will not go into massive detail but obviously went to Kathmandu, then town called Pokhara and finally to Lumbini before heading back to Kathmandu to get flight back to Delhi. Keeping it brief, anyone who enjoys outdoor or adventure sports go to Nepal. The main section of this sorry will now be focus on my bus trip back from Lumbini to Kathmandu.

Chris and i spent 2 nights in Kathmandu, then 2 nights in Pokhara before we went our seperate ways because he had more time to spend in Nepal thn me. From Pokhara i got a 5 hour bus ride to Lumbini, the driver was meant to tell me which stop i had to get off at so could get another bus to Lumbini andthen be picked up by hotel bus. Guess what, bus driver did not tell me where to get off and i was back in Sonali (the boarder town where i has crossed 4 days earlier) i found a local who said town i wanted was only 5/6 km away so get a taxi there - Sounds simple doesn't it ... WRONG!! All buses and public services wereon strike due to exceedingly high petrol costs and they are high for Nepal but not for England. Luckily for me, another English guy and 2 Dutch girls who were on the same bus as me are in exactley the same dilema. A guy comes upto us to say he has a taxi and will take all 4 of us to Lumbini, about 30km away. He has a big black jeep which we all fit in no problem. He says it is a taxi, i think it is his car a is trying to make a quick buck but if he gets me there i don't care. The English guy, never found out his name but will call him Dave for 2 reasons. 1) He is from Bristol and loves his side much like my friend Dave and 2). At uni there was another guy called Dave who we called old Dave because he was 26 and we were 18, but he looks scarily like hima nd even has similar sense of humour. So me, 'Dave' and the 2 Dutch girls pill in to this car to get to Lumbini ready to go, it takes 45 minutes before we start moving. Still not 100% sure why but because we were tourist (hate that word, not a tourist, i am a traveller/backpacker) and he is a 'taxi' a lot of official forms need fill out by him and a tax needs to be paid. We just sit in back of car shouting at locals and playing with the cars horn while making stupid jokes. Anywho we get to Lumbini, 'Dave' headsoff to local temple to see if can get a cheap nights kip with the monks and i head to my hotel with the Dutch girls - 2km away is hotel. Get there about 6am, hotel not expecting me because phones have been down all day so apparently guy who booked ticket through could not call to confirm reservation but as is off-season there is room and girls grab a room to. Tell hotel man need to be in town by 7am next morning to get bus back to Kathmandu. Inital plan was to get to Lumbini about 2/3pm, see sights that afternoon then head back to KTM next morning. Hotel man just laughs and says "no chance, bus on strike fornext few days" i start to panic little because flight from KTM is in 2 days. He kindly calls bus station to double check but confirms no buses going anywhere and only way out is back into India by train but that will mean wasted 65 pounds on a flight as is non-refundable - That did not seem issue at time because why would i have needed a refund or option 2, get a flight from Lumbinito KTM costing another 65 pounds "AAAAGH" i screamed into the night air. I grab a beer and chat to Dutch girls while decide which option to take, decide to get flight as want to go back to KTM for remaining day to do few things did not do before So hotel man books me the flight for 10am next morning. Fine, all is sorted, much more expensive than planned but atleast i can get out of this pointless town - Sights seem totally irrelivant now andis too late to see them. So basically my trip to Lumbini has been a total waste of time and has beenmore about getting out that seeing birth place of Buddha. So there i am, 8am at night kicking back with a beer chatting to Dutch girls when hotel man, comes upto me with big smile on his face saying buses are now back on, an agreement has been reached, i begin to laugh uncontrollably now and think bugger, needn't of spent that 65 pounds (keep writing pounds because no pound sign on keyboard), he says can cancel flight and book bus ticket but will have to pay 10% of light price, doing this option is cheaper than spent the 65 so do that. However bus leaves at 8am. Go to bed and read abit and wake up at 5am as hotal man says will takeme to see Buddha's birth place at 6am, this we do on back of his bike. At 6am on a wet morning i sit on back of his bike in t-shirt and shorts with no helmet having NEVER been on a bike before,luckily only 4km in total but is nerve wracking none the less (sorry mum). Birth place is servely underwhelming but can say i have seen it. Bus to KTM leaves from Sonali, 30km back to where i came from and local bus can take me, guess what, thats right, local bus dos not show up so have to get an expensive jeep taxi as nothing else is there to take me, just as pulls off, what shows up? the sodding fricking bus!! Taxi takes me to bus station where immediatley, i must stand out because local comes upto me to say bus are running to KTM but road is blocked 40km and no-one can get through (wish i was making this stuff up but no, all is 100% accurate). There is another route but are gong to wait 2 hours before going that way to see if other route clears. There is another option, to get a very expensive mini bus all the way which would leave in 30 mins and get there 'surpossedly' in half the time, my onlyoption it appears. Just before hand over the money (WOW Nepal is getting expensive) decide to wait 10 minutes to see if something is available - At last there is a god in the sky above, a bus back to Pokhara is leaving now, and i can get that to Muglin then get bus from Muglin to kathmandu, more expensive than direct bus but still cheaper than plane or mini bus. So this i do, at Muglin, bus to kathamdu leaves as we arrive so dive straight on and after 2 hours of traffic jam, 12 hours hours after i started an 8 hour bus ride i am back in Kathmandu exhausted!!

Two days later realise my sandles have been nicked in Lumbini just to round off an excellant couple of days.

By the by, Nepal is a cool country and would definatley go back without an hesitation.

Marky

PS - Cheers Chris for cool few days!!
PPS - Asusual have not reread this so hope it makes sense

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