Trip from Kathmandu to Hetauda

Hetauda is a regional city just south of Kathmandu. The trip (via Bhimphedi) is about 77km (along a road that Google Maps thinks is closed). Google thinks it’ll take 3 hours to drive. I left Kathmandu at 7:50 and got into Hetauda at 12:30 but we’d stopped in Bhimphedi for about an hour on the way, so 4 hours and 40 mins minus the hour is 3 hours 40 to travel 77kms, which is an average speed of 20.9 km per hour which is 13miles per hour. Yep. You read that right. 😊 Some of the road is nicely paved, much is dirt road. The roads keep washing away due to landslides and monsoon rain, and then get patched / rebuilt, or not. If you look at the route on Google Maps you’ll see the wiggles. Lots of winding roads because of the hills. Lots of Nepali flat (ie: ups and downs).

My taxi driver from my hostel took me to the Balku Jeep Stop in Kathmandu. Well, he took me somewhere near that. It seems that there are a series of jeep and mini van operators who all hang around in the area going to various places. I told him Hetauda and he slowed down at a junction where about 4 guys tried to jump into the front seat of the taxi, the one that was successful pointed to a spot just round the corner. EV vans to Hetauda. I asked the price. They told me (just under what I was expecting so that seems good to me). Between the taxi driver and this new guy they got my rucksack and sleeping mat out of the boot of the taxi and threw them onto the roof of the minivan. I was told I had the front seat (lucky me). I handed over my money, they gave me a receipt and I got comfortable. We didn’t have to wait for long for it to fill up. Once they have a full van they head off. But I didn’t actually see any ticket counters of any description, nor any jeeps for that matter. Sometimes, you just have to go with the flow – I could have tried to get to the exact ticket counter others had told me about and get a jeep, but why bother, as long as I was getting to Hetauda for about the right price I was happy to put myself at the mercy of the people around me. And it all worked beautifully.

A lot of travelling is managing the balance between my inherent risk aversion and control freakery and just going with whatever happens around me. It is challenging, fun, rewarding, frustrating, hilarious, baffling, etc – all at once. But one of the things I do truly love about this type of travel.

I had taken travel sickness tablets before I left the hostel in the morning. I took these in Mexico too and either they worked or I didn’t need them. But I was a bit worried about Nepali roads since the last time I was here I got a bus from Pokhara to Lumbini and spent 3 of the 5 hours vomiting. I didn’t really want a repeat (though I had a zip loc bag, wet wipes, breath mints, water handy just in case (control freakery)). Again, either the tablets worked or I didn’t need them, but no ill effects! 😊

At one stage, when we were going down a dirt road section there was a car coming up the hill towards us. Except it wasn’t really. The driver was accelerating, the wheels were spinning, but it had no traction on the dirt. So it was fishtailing a little and just not really going anywhere. There were a few vehicles behind it, one in front of us and several behind us. We couldn’t get passed (though several motorbikes did go past in both directions). Some of the guys from the vehicle in front and the one immediately behind the stricken vehicle got out to help (putting large stones under the wheels to stop the bystander vehicle from slipping). The passengers all got out and walked up the hill. About 5 men chocked the back wheels of the car that was struggling (to stop it regressing) and then pushed as the driver accelerated. With their help it was able to go forward and get some traction and continue on its way. They removed the large stones from the middle of the road (and from the wheels of the other vehicle) and we all continued on our way.

I was listening to lots of lovely Hadley Fraser on this trip and it was just a delight to have him in my ears and the Nepali scenery around me! This really is the life!

We stopped for an hour at Bhimphedi for a rest break / snack stop / tea stop. And so that the van could recharge a bit. It seems there are several fleets of electric vans that do this route and this tea stop with its two chargers does a roaring trade. 😊

I got to Hetauda and was dumped at the side of the road. Thank goodness for Google Maps. I worked out where I was so I threw my bag on my back and wandered off for the 15ish minute walk to my hotel.

All in all, a truly enjoyable journey. And such a spectacular country!