Thursday, 21 November 2019

Nepal

We took a late season trip to Nepal. This is very diverse country in terms of geography and culture. First impressions were flying for the last 40 minutes or so below the mountain peaks, which rise to around 25,0000 ft. The Airbus A333 normally cruises only a little higher at 33,000ft.

Most of Nepal is gently rural.


 The cities are very busy, but not chaotic. Driving and parking standards are good.


The road users are real mix of 4x4s, rickshaws, pushbikes, motorbikes, people and animals.


Not sure about the data and telephone wiring. How do they fix a fault?


Did come across quite a few Indian made Royal Enfield bikes, well looked after.


The locals would think nothing of riding a motorbike across the many suspension bridges. They were very narrow so you would not want to meet another bike coming the other way. 


The tour bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu took 8 hours to cover 125 miles with two 1/2 hour stops. The road is two way and has no real straight sections. It's crowded with trucks, buses, cars and motorbikes going about 15-20 mph. Overtaking is a 'just do it' event, if you come face to face with another vehicle, you stop wait for the road to clear, pull back to your side of the road and try again later. For us westerners it was a bit hair-raising. 


But we survived.  

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