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Published: July 24th 2009
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Local bus
driver's cab Because there is virtually no rail network in Nepal, buses are extremely popular and busy. It takes 3 men to run a bus - a driver, a fare collector and an "usher" who jumps off at every stop and tries to round up custom, shouting out the destination and touting any people who look as though they might be wanting a bus. When everybody is on, he bangs on the side or whistles to tell the driver to move off. Eventually, when he can be bothered, the fare collector goes around asking for money, holding a big wad of bank notes in his hand. There are no tickets. Local buses are pretty basic - typically about 16-18 seats but they try and squeeze on everybody who wants to travel. The first one I caught was already overflowing when it stopped by me but there were 7 or 8 people in front of me in the queue. The usher got us all on, and another 2 or 3 at each of the next 6 stops, nobody having got off. The last few pasengers were hanging off the doorway. As the typical Nepali citizen is somewhat smaller in stature than me, I cannot
Longer distance bus
seating room upstairs stand up straight in a local bus. I have bumped my head quite a few times, much to the amusement of the locals. In Kathmandu, many local buses are 3-wheelers and look very dangerous.
Next step up are the longer distance private buses. They are very brightly coloured and it is common to see people travelling on the roof rack. They charge a little bit more and are often advertised as"DVD" buses as they have a TV screen on board. Even in the local buses the driver often puts on a music cassette. Private buses have slightly more comfortable seats and I can stand up in them! I caught one yesterday by mistake and about 10 minutes after leaving Pokhara, it pulled into someone's drive and spent half an hour loading her whole house hold (furniture, everything) onto the roof.
Then there are the long distance tourist buses. The drivers of these are usually a bit more careful and they are supposed to be for tourists only but the one I caught from Kathmandu to Pokhara had quite a few locals on as well. There may also be other classes of bus I have yet to discover.
Tourist bus
Kathmandu to Pokhara In Kathmandu 3-wheel cycle rickshaws are very common and throughout Nepal taxis are plentiful, usually very small 4-seater Suzukis. Heavy goods vehicles are always brightly decorated with Hindu designs and almost always have slogans like "SPEED CONTROL" on the front. On the back they usually say "HORN PLEASE" or "WAIT FOR SIGNAL", neither of which are necessary since everybody sounds their horns all the time and hardly anybody signals!
In Pokhara a very common smaller goods vehicle consists of a 2-wheeled small tractor engine with exterior belt drive, hooked up to a 2-wheel trailer. They remind me of dragsters, especially when I see one trying to pass another.
Apparently there are still mule trains etc in Nepal but I have not sen any yet, in fact I have not seen any animals being used as beasts of burden. However, there are many human load carriers. Some men earn their livelihood by carrying gods around in towns. They possess a length of rope with a forehead protector. The rope is tied around a load, put on the guy's back with the rope around his head. I have seen men carrying incredibly heavy loads in this way, for example 5
Cycle rickshaw
very pushy touts or 6 new TVs in boxes. In the countryside most farmers and their wives carry their produce in this way, also building materials etc. It is also common to see women carrying enormous loads of grass from the fields to put on their own garden haystacks to feed their cows. It is illegal to butcher a cow in Nepal but cows and buffaloes wander the streets freely though they all do actually belong to someone. Hindus do not eat beef but they can eat buffalo so it is common to see "steak - buff" on the menu.
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Dorothy
non-member comment
local buses
The local buses sound a lot like tro-tros, apart from the usher and the fare collector is one person here who does both jobs! They often play music too and cram as many people on as they can! Interesting that tro mates also bang on the side of the bus or whistle for the dirver to go or stop. Those women load carriers look like walkign trees lol