Power shortages, that are common in Nepal, seem normality now even for me that I haven't experienced the pre-earthquake country, I have met a Nepal that is not what it usually is and I am amazed to discover every day the curiosities and the odds of this country, that has the only non-quadrilateral national flag in the world! (did you know??)
Nepal that is debating from one side with India for the birthplace of Buddha and on the other sharing an incredible character and charisma with neighbour Tibet, and possibly nothing at all (at least for now!!) with China!!
Today I did something that I enjoy doing often when I am more than a limited time in a city, I jump on a random bus that goes somewhere and I see what happens...
The young assistant of the driver didn't even care where I wanted to go as long as he had a extra person to squeeze in his bus, though neither I did; I got off in Banepa that is the part of the country that has experienced an important number of the hundreas tiny aftershocks and in a part of the country that I was actually interested in visiting before coming and before my plans were reset..
After lunch, at 3pm, I made up to go by bus to the next village and from there hike till another one, that according to the three people I had asked was 45, 30 and 180 minutes walking time!!! I trusted the two out of three law of right and wrong!!
While a stray cow sits in the middle of the main road and four five stray dog start to bully her, three goats (not stray), are tied to a shutter trying to chew whatever the wind blows around them!!
A men on a motorbike just honks even if he is just standing still and has no car around and has not yet started his engine!!... but I guess you cannot ask an italian not to gesticulate, it's an habit, it's rooted in the culture..as well as spitting in Nepal...
I naively ventured on the packed bus heading up the hills, the bus stopped in a village for half an hour and then went back the same and only road dropping me off in the town I had initially asked to be dropped off and that we had passed on the way up and that was just one km away!!...mysteries of Nepal, I experienced the same yesterday, but I blame their lack of english and their poor foreigners handling!
My hike started at 16:28 as I was told by a bunch of local villagers in Nala that with a good walking speed I could get to Nagarkot, the town I had decided to reach and from where I could have got on a bus back to Kathmandu, in 2 hours!
They also promised that villagers on the way would have pointed out my way..
My compass was the sun that was already on his way down behind the hills on my left on side!
After only 30 minutes I come across a tiny village surrounded by cornfields on one side and layers of empty rice fields on the other..
It was tea time in Tukucha Nala and I decided to take a break as my walking was fairly fast..
A quarter of the village, maybe 8 people were sitting there and staring at me coming out of nowhere...few houses heavily damaged, a kid peeing on the side of the road down the ravine, a couple of chickens here and there while the other half of the village slowly flocked there at the tea house slash restaurant slash grocery store..
The comunication was in nepali language, so one side only with me smiling and namasteing when the crowd stopped talking!!
I managed to realise that from there it could have taken me 2 hours to my destination so I wondered if there was a vehicle that I could have jumped on to facilitate my goal before dusk...
A motorbike will take me to Nagarkot, 30 minutes of the bumpiest and most uncomfortable ride through few other villages, 3/4 crossroads with no people or houses around, few streams of water and a cool thick forest..obviously by walking it would have been impossible to make it in two hours by myself without getting lost...even the guy driving me was not sure at a certain point on which direction go!!the total distance is 13 km!!
I arrived in Nagarkot just on time to hear from a young boy that there were not buses leaving the village at that time as it was too late, so the only option was a taxi or the big truck that was happening to pass by..
A windy road on the back of a sturdy white truck carrying big plastic water tanks broken by the earthquake..volume super high of traditional nepali music, the assistant kept slapping on the side of the door to communicate with other vehicles on the road and on the dashboard to communicate with his own driver that kept honking no matter what...
I arrived in Kathmandu well past sunset time but slapped by a great unexpected serendipity day...
Nepal that is debating from one side with India for the birthplace of Buddha and on the other sharing an incredible character and charisma with neighbour Tibet, and possibly nothing at all (at least for now!!) with China!!
Today I did something that I enjoy doing often when I am more than a limited time in a city, I jump on a random bus that goes somewhere and I see what happens...
The young assistant of the driver didn't even care where I wanted to go as long as he had a extra person to squeeze in his bus, though neither I did; I got off in Banepa that is the part of the country that has experienced an important number of the hundreas tiny aftershocks and in a part of the country that I was actually interested in visiting before coming and before my plans were reset..
After lunch, at 3pm, I made up to go by bus to the next village and from there hike till another one, that according to the three people I had asked was 45, 30 and 180 minutes walking time!!! I trusted the two out of three law of right and wrong!!
While a stray cow sits in the middle of the main road and four five stray dog start to bully her, three goats (not stray), are tied to a shutter trying to chew whatever the wind blows around them!!
A men on a motorbike just honks even if he is just standing still and has no car around and has not yet started his engine!!... but I guess you cannot ask an italian not to gesticulate, it's an habit, it's rooted in the culture..as well as spitting in Nepal...
I naively ventured on the packed bus heading up the hills, the bus stopped in a village for half an hour and then went back the same and only road dropping me off in the town I had initially asked to be dropped off and that we had passed on the way up and that was just one km away!!...mysteries of Nepal, I experienced the same yesterday, but I blame their lack of english and their poor foreigners handling!
My hike started at 16:28 as I was told by a bunch of local villagers in Nala that with a good walking speed I could get to Nagarkot, the town I had decided to reach and from where I could have got on a bus back to Kathmandu, in 2 hours!
They also promised that villagers on the way would have pointed out my way..
My compass was the sun that was already on his way down behind the hills on my left on side!
After only 30 minutes I come across a tiny village surrounded by cornfields on one side and layers of empty rice fields on the other..
It was tea time in Tukucha Nala and I decided to take a break as my walking was fairly fast..
A quarter of the village, maybe 8 people were sitting there and staring at me coming out of nowhere...few houses heavily damaged, a kid peeing on the side of the road down the ravine, a couple of chickens here and there while the other half of the village slowly flocked there at the tea house slash restaurant slash grocery store..
The comunication was in nepali language, so one side only with me smiling and namasteing when the crowd stopped talking!!
I managed to realise that from there it could have taken me 2 hours to my destination so I wondered if there was a vehicle that I could have jumped on to facilitate my goal before dusk...
A motorbike will take me to Nagarkot, 30 minutes of the bumpiest and most uncomfortable ride through few other villages, 3/4 crossroads with no people or houses around, few streams of water and a cool thick forest..obviously by walking it would have been impossible to make it in two hours by myself without getting lost...even the guy driving me was not sure at a certain point on which direction go!!the total distance is 13 km!!
I arrived in Nagarkot just on time to hear from a young boy that there were not buses leaving the village at that time as it was too late, so the only option was a taxi or the big truck that was happening to pass by..
A windy road on the back of a sturdy white truck carrying big plastic water tanks broken by the earthquake..volume super high of traditional nepali music, the assistant kept slapping on the side of the door to communicate with other vehicles on the road and on the dashboard to communicate with his own driver that kept honking no matter what...
I arrived in Kathmandu well past sunset time but slapped by a great unexpected serendipity day...
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