A tourist describing Araniko highway. I was thinking why I always have vomit when I ride this bus but a tourist was also surprised.------
Nepal
The Vomit Express
Twice
I've traveled overland from India to Nepal - ten years apart, and I
think I recognized the bus. The second time around, Gary and I were
stuck at the back of the bus, both suffering from Delhi Belly, and Gary
in great pain from his back, injured years before in a hang-gliding
accident.
An old, toothless, Nepalese woman next to me spent most of the 11 hour journey throwing up out the
window. I
understand why eating betel nut while rumbling over vertebrae jarring
roads, sitting in the back of a rickety old bus that should long since
have been retired can cause indigestion, but most alarming was that no
sooner had she vomited out - and all over - the window, then she’d
reach into her little red cloth bag and continue eating the onion and
chilli laden concoction, the red blood-like betel juice dribbling out
the corner of her toothless mouth. I was grateful that I couldn’t eat
anything that morning or I would have been sharing the window with her.
"Kathmandu, I’ll soon be seeing you - and your strange, bewildering time, will hold me down. Chop me some broken wood, we’ll
start a fire, white warm light the dawn, and help me see - old Satan's tree."
- Cat Stevens "Kathmandu"
Kathmandu
There
are many cities in the world whose very name conjures up images of
ancient times and a thousand thoughts about the mysteries of the
world. Perhaps no other city in the world has had as strong an impact
on me as Kathmandu, truly one of the worlds greatest cities.
Whether
you’re sipping tea or smoking ganga or hashish in one of the many cake
shops around Durbar Square, Thammel,
or Freak Street, renting a mountain bike to explore the environs of
the monkey temple at Swayambhu, or visiting the funeral pyres along the
river, Kathmandu is a city where time stopped - or at least it seemed
that way in the Fall of 1979 - and I was surprised how little it had
changed when I returned ten years later.
http://www.traveltails.com/ttailsnepal.htm