Sitting in a cafe in Kathmandu, I can hear children chanting outside, I think it is either something to do with Holi, the festival of colour, or the political riots that went on here a few weeks ago, my new french family tells me.
To get here i decided to go by land, it was much cheaper and after buying a fantastic, if not slightly pricey blanket from the street markets back in Dehli it was probably a better idea. Some friends i made in Dehli, Hush and Lea, a indian and romanian couple who i had spent the last few days with showed me which train to get from New Dehli Station, and pointed out i was in sleeper class, the cheapest of them all. It's more exciting that way anyway, i met far more interesting people than i would have sitting next to 200 businessmen, and you get plenty of time, the journey took about 14 hours and with me getting about 2 hours sleep, conversation was necessary. A french family who live in the south of india were across from me, they were going to Kathmandu to take a holiday/renew their visas, so we teamed up to escape from india.
The train journey in the morning was beautiful, a complete contrast of the rush of Dehli. We could have been travelling through a scene from Jungle Book, with stretches of green fields that disappeared into the mist, and run down villages right next to the tracks. Had a rather strange, but much needed breakfast, then departed the train at Gorakhpur and found someone to take me and my new friends to the Nepalese border. The drive there was fantastic, leaning out of the window listening to dylan while our driver overtook everything in sight like a hormonal adolescent male with a fresh drivers license.
The drive once we had passed the border was even more spectacular, huge scaling mountains covered in greenery surrounded us while we meandered along skinny roads alongside a huge raging river. In the dark there was a bit of truck traffic, but it was rather fun watching everyone try to over take everyone who in turn was trying to overtake everyone else.
From what i have seen so far here, which is not much, i feel much more at home. I don't get so many funny looks, no-one is trying to sell me anything i don't want, and the weather is much cooler. But i have barely seen any of Kathmandu, so i'll leave it at that, as i have already written far too much.
Love, Tom.
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2 comments:
Glad to see you managed to survive the notorious Indian traffic (though I guess you are now in Nepal?) they do have someting of a reputation, along with the Indian driving test, of not being the best in the world!
Looking forward to hearing your account of Kathmandu. How long will you spend there?
All the best Mike and Sarah
Tom a religious holiday and a political riot are likely to be two very different things. It scares me that you think either one could be the other.
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