Cross-Country Bus Ride

Dealing with the sub-standard infrastructure that exists in developing countries is either a novelty or an inconvenience, depending on how you look at it. I really didn't mind riding on the roof-top of a Nepali bus the other day, that was more of a novelty. When it takes nine hours to travel fifty miles though, that's what I call an inconvenience.

I left the Island Jungle Resort on a row-boat at 7:30 this morning. After crossing the river, riding for an hour on the back of a motor-bike to get to the nearest city, then waiting another hour for a bus to Kathmandu, I only had six more hours ahead of me before my trip would be complete. I passed the time by completing my first ever Sudoku puzzle. The puzzle was a little tough, but the real challenge was dealing with a ride bumpy enough to put Lagoon to shame and more car exhaust than Al Gore can write a book about. I also found time to wear out another twenty songs on my iPod. After a journey long enough to fly from New York to London, the bus finally pulled up next to a lazy cow lying in a heap of garbage in the middle of chaotic Kathmandu.

I have a new favorite hotel in Kathmandu. My criteria for a decent place isn't very demanding. It has to have electricity at least most of the time, it has to have luke-warm water or better, my room has to be clean enough to bear it for a night, and anything over fifteen dollars is out of my price range. The Northfield Hotel in Kathmandu's tourist-ghetto of Thamel fits all the criteria and more. After running the shower for about ten minutes, the water actually heats up enough to fog up the mirror! I let the hot water stream over me for a half-hour this afternoon until I was satisfied that the scum that accumulated on me during the bus ride had finally washed away.

Later tonight I dropped by Thamel's "Roadhouse Cafe" for a tasty meal. For the cost of a Little Caesar's "Hot-and-Ready" back home, I got the greatest thin-crust Hawaiian pizza I've ever eaten. I think I can take back everything I said about Nepali people not knowing how to fix Western food; the pizza tonight easily beat out the best stuff I've had in the US. Burning an entire day riding in a rickety Nepali bus is unfortunate, but the hot shower and tasty pizza tonight just about made up for it.