BootsnAll Travel Network



Archive for the 'Nepal' Category

« Home

Nepal: Balance

Thursday, April 26th, 2007

We stepped from the airport; a red-brick, two-story building set in a dusty field. A group of locals sitting at a card table under the verandah ushered us over. The sign at the table said something like “official taxis”. That was good enough for us. A a quick discussion about where we were headed, a young lad grabbed our bags and beckoned us to follow, and we were led to the taxi. It was an old, beat-up red minivan.

Our bags were thrown in the back, and we squeezed onto the dusty old bench seat. The sliding door was caught on its rollers, and took four attempts to close. I reached for a seat belt out of habit. Nup, no seatbelts.

The driver took off down the bumpy road. The drive into town was crazy in that “oh-my-god-I’m-going-to-die-but-hey-this-is-kinda-cool-and-look-there’s-a-cow-in-the-middle-of-the-road” kinda way. The road was barely wide enough to fit two cars, let alone the cars, vans, motorbikes, tuk-tuks and cows that seemed to be heading in every direction.

Bec and I were (well, we still are, actually) in Kathmandu. Capital of Nepal.

Damn, it felt good to be on the road again.

[read on]