Depiction: Bus running over pedestrians
November 13, 2008 The previous day I had been told that there had been some delays with transportation between Jiri and Kathmandu. A few days before a bus had struck and killed two Nepali pedestrians. In Nepal it is either a law or custom whereby the victims or family of an accident are compensated for their loss by those that caused the accident, in this case the bus driver. Since the bus driver had no money, the family's wanted the government to compensate them.
However, since the government had not responded, the families and supporters were blocking the road for several hours a day to all traffic. These kinds of protests are common in Nepal.
Today, because of the road block, the buses were not running. Some tourists who had just arrived in the early morning told us their bus was stopped for 10 hours before they were allowed to continue. The French man had a problem because he had a flight out of Kathmandu in 2 days. We were told many things, but it was possible the buses would not run for days or even weeks.
Depiction: Taxi
The lodge owner spent much of the morning looking for a ride for the desperate Frenchman. Late in the morning a taxi arrived from Kathmandu with a single tourist. The taxi driver was returning to Kathmandu and he wanted 6000 rupees for a taxi load. The Frenchman was interested as was I. We found another frenchman tourist who eventually agreed to be the third passenger. We negotiated the price down to 5000 rupees, half now and half payable when we reached Kathmandu. The driver also assured us the road block would allow us foreigners through since the blockade was only against other Nepalis.
The taxi took us much of the way to Kathmandu, but about 40 miles from the city we reached a line of buses, cars, and trucks stopped for the blockade. The driver stopped and did not attempt to go further. The 1st Frenchman asked him about his assurances that we foreigners were allowed through. The driver was speechless and just sat by the vehicle. After a couple of hours we decided to continue walking and see what happened.
Depiction: Road block
After a couple of miles we reached the blockade. There were many large rocks placed across the road and a 3 foot deep pile of gravel and dirt covered the middle of the road. Trees had also been felled across the road for good measure. On the other side of the road were another line of vehicles waiting to go the opposite direction we had come. We were told there could be another blockade several miles further, but the truth was not certain. So we kept walking toward Kathmandu as darkness came.
About 6 PM we stopped for a light dinner at a roadside cafe. Soon after a bus bound for Kathmandu stopped and let us on. We reached Kathmandu about 8:30 PM and found a hotel in the Thamel area.
Map of Jiri to Kathmandu trip
