Rocky Road to Ramechhap - Chapter 1
On Sunday November 9, Lib and I left Kathmandu to visit the Ramechhap
district. In particular we were trying to get to a town called Manthali. I
think the distance by road is about 200 km. It's supposed to take about eight
hours to get there.
Our purpose in going was to visit the village that will be the recipient of your generous donations so that they can have a water system built. It's name is Salleni, contains maybe 20 families, and is in the Ramechhap district, which if you get your atlases out, you should find about an inch east of Kathmandu. Unfortunately, we never made it there. As this story unfolds, you will see why.
I will begin with the trip out. We left Kathmandu about 7:30 in a toyota 4x4, and after leaving the city, (a major feat) we were met with a "banda" about two hours later on the road to Charikot. A banda is a strike. The locals block the road and there is nothing to do but stop and wait. It can happen at any time at any place for darn near any reason. This one was because the local farmers had asked for fertilizer, and the local officials and ministry ignored their pleas. There were some other complaints about illegal shipping of sandalwood along their road but I never was clear about that. A lot gets lost in translation.
As it happens this was the second banda with this demand, the first one lasting four hours. Suresh (he is our contact in Nepal for TSS, of which I will explain later) and I went to the head of the very long line of vehicles and listened to a spokesman state in no uncertain terms, the problem. He said this strike is indefinite.
Suresh said we could wait, or we could try a different way that is actually shorter but the road ends and we would have to walk for about an hour, cross two rivers, and hope that a local vehicle would meet us on the other side of the second river.
Naturally we turned around and tried option number two.
At about 10:45 the pavement ended. So, for the rest of the day we were in four wheel drive, over real roads and not so real roads, bouncing around like pin balls.
Our driver Gyan at times asked locals whether the track we were following continued. At a positive response we continued on, the truck getting a real workout.
We had a flat tire, were almost stopped by an irrigation ditch, had to wait for a local bus that had stopped in a village for lunch, and followed tracks that had precipitous dropoffs.
Finally we could go no further. There was no more track of any sort, so out we got.
Now we walk.
After traversing a rice paddy we crossed the Sunkosi river on a very long suspension bridge. (They are all over Nepal for the locals to get from place to place) We followed a path high above the river for about an hour and stopped at a local house that fed us boiled egg and black tea. We were now at the second suspension bridge that crosses the Tamikosi river.
We now had to wait for the local truck to come along on the other side of the river. After about half an hour it arrived. The local truck was a jeep like thing with two seats in the cab and a truck bed in the back with two wood bench seats. Luckily, Lib got to ride in the cab.
Now, you would think that if the local truck was summoned for us, (cell phones are everywhere ) it would come empty, so there would be room for us. Not so. This is Nepal, and things are done differently here. So by the time the 16 who came out for the drive, plus us three, there were 19 people on this little truck.
Along the track we went, hundreds of feet above the river, bouncing along with two in the cab, 12 in the truck bed, including yours truly, and the rest hanging on the sides and back and roof of the cab.To say it was a bit squished and uncomfortable doesn't begin to describe it.
About an hour later, we arrived in Manthali, after dropping down to cross another river. No, not by bridge, I mean in the river.
It was 4 p.m. The fun was only beginning.
Stay tuned for Chapter Two.