mini bus drivers....

Ok, so today’s excitements involved trying to get to work unsuccessfully due to (yes you guessed it) a protest… apparently a Maoist killed a mini bus driver (mini bus is a major form of transport here), and so most of the mini bus drivers in Kathmandu decided to protect about this by parking all their mini busses in front of the Maoist headquarters, which unfortunately happen to be next to a bridge which is a major entry point into Kathmandu… and my route to work. We tried to divert down backstreets but everyone else was doing that, including the school busses. I may have mentioned the narrow-ness of streets here. They are too narrow for cars really, let alone school buses. So we sat in some very big jams whilst cars, motorbikes and school buses tried to cram themselves along the narrow streets. In the end I gave up, came home, and got out the bike, which meant I could cycle past all the protesting mini bus drivers… squeezing through gaps between mini busses. What fun. Pictures attached below.

The only downside was that although I live less than 4miles from work, and morning traffic isn’t too bad, coming home at 5 or 6pm on a bike significantly decreases your life expectancy (in my opinion). I think there are 3 death scenarios:

1. Although not an instant death, lung cancer caused by inhaling the filthy air can’t be fun…
2. Death by moving vehicle. There are a range of options including, bus, truck, car, taxi or motorbike. There are also a range of death scenarios… head on collision (people like to drive on the wrong side of the road), squished between 2 converging moving vehicles, knocked off into the path of another moving vehicle etc etc and we must not forget the Nepali law which means if you run someone over you pay for either their medical expenses, or funeral expenses if they’re dead. Funerals are cheaper and so most people go back and finish the job off – just to make sure they don’t get lumbered with a huge bill!
3. Death by a Nepali lynch mob when you run over a pedestrian/slow cyclist who isn’t looking where they’re going or is toodling along in the middle of the road.

Fortunately I avoided all of these possible events and came home safely.