I thought that last night's canoe ride was interesting to say the least. Little did I know this morning that we would be using that same mode of transportation to get back to the roadside and so would our luggage. As ALL of our luggage is sent over ahead of us, including mine and Cait's computer, all we can think is please don't let it end up at the bottom of lake. Imagine watching your entire clothing, souvenirs and tolietries sent over on barely floating piece of wood with two porters, and a paddler. And then helplessly watch it being deposited on the other side of the dock while you stand on the opposite side of the lake -- hoping that no one steals it.
The guy meeting us to take us to the bus to Chitwan is there and it takes his car and a taxi to fit all of our luggage and us. The bus station is a large open field in town where young men are selling trays of homemade danishes and pastries and the busses have seen better days with some calling themselves 'Greyhound - Nepal." Our luggage is loaded on top of the bus and tied with a tarp just as I realize that my Dramamine is up there out of my reach. I explain that i need something up there for the ride or it will be a baaaaaad ride and they tell me to climb on top of the bus and he will undo the tarp. I find it -- thank god my toiletries where right on the top of my bag -- and take that special yellow pill.
There are only 9 of us on the bus and the tour guide bids us farewell, saying we should be able to stretch out for the trip -- which we have been told is about a five hour trip with one stop for breakfast and bathroom break. As I see all of these other buses pull out of the 'station', all are full and jammed with people. We finally leave after there is some debate with a guy at the entrance and I notice that one of the local Nepali guys on our bus is strangely riding at the doorway as if he is getting ready to call for more passengers. The only reason I notice this is that this was the way they ran the buses in Peru and I was extremely suspicious of how we were going to go to Chitwan on an almost empty bus. That is NOT the Nepali way -- every bus I have passed in the last few days is packed to the point that people ride on the top of these buses or hang from the backs of them.
So I am already on high alert and welll.... I'll have to continue the rest of the post later.
More to come on:
A four-hour delay on the road, stuck in a small roadside town, about an hour from our destination because some local people decided to protest the government....
Our heroes -- Rau Jan and his manager -- from the Jungle Safari Lodge in Chitwan....
A walking tour of Sauraha....and its small shacks and the Thura...
A sunburnt and cranky Liz calls it an early evening....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment