4 days, 3 dirty hostels, and 55 hours on a bus later equals Nepal Fail.

Long story short...what was supposed to be a 8 then 6 hour bus ride to Kathmandu ended up being a 2 day 22 hour journey. Then when we got to Kathmandu No'rbu realized "Oh yea, my family doesn't live by here anymore" OOPS! Basically he never goes home because it's too expensive for his family and he was so excited to see his family he forgot to remember exactly where in Nepal they were.
Soo...then we took an expensive, short 14 hour bud ride to Nepal Gunj a city where we were supposed to be in from the beginning because it supposedly has flights to Humla, No'rbu's village. This train was maybe the most prolonged uncomfort my back has ever experienced. My lower back and knees literally have bruises from the all the bumps and potholes. It was like riding the Timber Wolf for 14 hours straight without eating or bathroom. (Because we didn't want to leave our luggage in case it got stolen so we couldn't leave the bus, and we didn't want to take it with us because then we would lose our seats and have to sit on the floor with people farting on us and throwing there slobbery peanut shells on the floor next to us... like the day before.)

Also can I please mention the fact that this bus had a TV where they insisted on playing these terribly cliche-ridiculous Nepali music videos of women in clinging wet sarees dancing in waterfalls crying. Then with using the 'dissolve effect' on PowerPoint it would cut to dancing around a fire while a guy wearing a sideways baseball cap sings to her. One of the videos the girl who was like 16 was in love with a 40+ year old man and they had some fun times running the the beach and dancing on a boat. But then the plot thickened when she dramatically runs to a Christian cross and started praying symbolizing that she was Christian and couldn't be with him because he was a Hindu. Then the old man started drinking in a cave burning photographs of her while crying and singing. Then they were on a beach again singing to each other through a silky sheet. BTW can I mention that I should win a prize for holding back my laughter because there were several people singing along next to me...I felt like I was in a mixture between a SNL Digital short and a Baked Alaska music video.

Because the flight to Humla was canceled and no scheduled flights for the next 2 weeks we decided to take the 15 hour bus ride back home so we could at least be home at Alice for the Diwali (festival of lights.) We arrive in Varanasi at 3:30 am and after 3 cups of chai and potato curry I feel healthy and ready for the all night dancing, fireworks, and candle lighting.

The entire trip was equal to driving to Aspen 5 times in 3 1/2 days on the Timber Wolf. I'm going to Nepal again in a couple weeks during our 5 day trek through the Himalayas with Tobi. This time it will be near Darjeeling and I'm praying Nepal can redeem itself.
Little brother on the bus floor going to Kathmandu.

The best part of the trip was when we had the idea to take our luggage on top the bus and ride up there. The view on the lower rolling jungle version on the Himalayas was stunning from up there.

No'rbu holding up a 22, symbolizing how long we had been on the bus so far...little did we know 22 down 33 to go.

The leader of the bus rode on the top with us a part of the way, he offered us some "Indian cigarettes" which means marijuana, but was totally understanding when we declined.

To pass the time during a traffic jam I taught him about photography. Aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc. He took most of these pictures without me knowing. He is so smart and soaks up anything you teach him. At one time in a taxi his was on the phone with Sanjay from our school, and on another phone his parents from home and subsequently has to go back and forth from Nepali, Tomili, Hindi, and English. Too bad he couldn't have thrown in some Italian, Japanese or Tibetan because that might have been a world record.

Kathmandu near sunset on top of the bus.

Huge Buddha...bad picture.

Wearing with woolen socks because we thought we would be in freezing cold Humla later that day and he was been wearing the same clothes and socks for 3 days.

Typical and delicious

Lunchtime day 2

A pretty river flowing through the mountains. Photography was limited because safety and holding on the the bus came first.

too many Nepali 5 rupee notes

Really blurry picture of a horse drawn carriage, the Nepali version of an auto rickshaw.

the end