Early start from Kathmandu, 29 seater bus picked us all up from Guestmandu (Hotel), Volunteer Managers, Medics, Comms and Logistics.
Quickly got used to the crazy National Highway, the sights and sounds assaulting your senses and the almost constant near misses keeping your senses pricked.
Stopped at a road side rest spot for coffee with beautiful views out into the countryside and nice break from the built up, noisy mess of Kathmandu.
Lunch at 10.30am, learnt some more Nepalese although I think I shocked the lovely lady cooking and serving the food. Apparently, according to my Nepalese friend Radhey, it can either mean that you are telling someone they are beautiful or that the food is beautiful, so the context is everything!
'Didi, Kana Metu Sah!'
'Big Sister, the food was beautiful'
One of the new sayings when travelling relates to the condition of the roads relates to eating. Starting on an off road section and the going gets tough, they refer to 'Starters' and 'Main Course'.
We were about to get fed very well, again...…..
After Lunch we went to the supplier in Benighat to pick up cement and other items for the training in the community.
At this point we headed into the Mountains and life got significantly more interesting. Turning off the rough concrete road we immediately went off road in the same bus we'd driven in from Kathmandu! Steep incline, with immediate drop off the edge into the valley, we hit the mud hard and the bus slide violently sideways towards the edge. Even as I type this, reliving the horror of that moment my hands are sweaty and my heart rate has increased. My elevated heart rate then resulted in my hands going numb with the amount of CO2 my body was trying to rid itself of. Effectively we had Main course before the Starter! The issue is that the road then got rougher, the drops got higher, at times more narrow, and steep uphill...….in a fcuking bus.
All credit to the drivers skills though but not an experience I really want to have again......only got to do it another 6 times to get in an out of the Communities, hopefully with the roads drying it will get less extreme.
Arriving at Community and allocated a local house to stay in, Radhey and I have a small outhouse to live in together, simple block walls and wriggly tin roof and a pet lizard as company.
Quickly got used to the crazy National Highway, the sights and sounds assaulting your senses and the almost constant near misses keeping your senses pricked.
Stopped at a road side rest spot for coffee with beautiful views out into the countryside and nice break from the built up, noisy mess of Kathmandu.
Lunch at 10.30am, learnt some more Nepalese although I think I shocked the lovely lady cooking and serving the food. Apparently, according to my Nepalese friend Radhey, it can either mean that you are telling someone they are beautiful or that the food is beautiful, so the context is everything!
'Didi, Kana Metu Sah!'
'Big Sister, the food was beautiful'
One of the new sayings when travelling relates to the condition of the roads relates to eating. Starting on an off road section and the going gets tough, they refer to 'Starters' and 'Main Course'.
We were about to get fed very well, again...…..
After Lunch we went to the supplier in Benighat to pick up cement and other items for the training in the community.
At this point we headed into the Mountains and life got significantly more interesting. Turning off the rough concrete road we immediately went off road in the same bus we'd driven in from Kathmandu! Steep incline, with immediate drop off the edge into the valley, we hit the mud hard and the bus slide violently sideways towards the edge. Even as I type this, reliving the horror of that moment my hands are sweaty and my heart rate has increased. My elevated heart rate then resulted in my hands going numb with the amount of CO2 my body was trying to rid itself of. Effectively we had Main course before the Starter! The issue is that the road then got rougher, the drops got higher, at times more narrow, and steep uphill...….in a fcuking bus.
All credit to the drivers skills though but not an experience I really want to have again......only got to do it another 6 times to get in an out of the Communities, hopefully with the roads drying it will get less extreme.
Arriving at Community and allocated a local house to stay in, Radhey and I have a small outhouse to live in together, simple block walls and wriggly tin roof and a pet lizard as company.
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