Leg 7 / Etapa 7

7^th Leg: Benares (Varanasi) – Kathmandu

From Varanasi to the Nepal border we travelled by train. The speed, a bit slower than usual: approx. 30km/h. The train was escorted by a group of heavily armed soldiers. As they explained, it was necessary because of bandits who stop the train by placing elephants on the track and rob the passengers. Guns are tied to the soldiers’ body with chain, so, if a soldier is killed, it would be more difficult for bandits to take the gun. We were lucky. Our train was not attacked by bandits.

From Nepal-Indian border to Kathmandu, we travelled by bus. For the distance of approx. 200km we needed 12 hours. The road was one of the most dangerous that I know: It goes through mountains, mostly pretty high (approx. 2700m), narrow, winding, and mostly goes onto the edge of a few hundred meters high cliffs.

We spent 2 weeks in Kathmandu, in CAMP HOTEL. The hotel was cheap. Rooms were of questionable hygiene. We were sleeping in our sleeping bags, as usual. It was important that we had a roof above us, beds and, most important – showers. In the hotel restaurant, one American girl was offering “grass” (marijuana) every morning.

Kathmandu is full of people from all over the world. Living expenses are pretty low; approx. $3 a day. Since it is around 1400m above the sea level, the air is thin and one always feels sleepy.

The only new building at that time was hotel VILLAGE with very interesting bungalows.

We were visiting the area around Kathmandu, mostly by bicycle. We were told that some villages were deserted due to monkey invasion. It didn’t look surprising taking in consideration the fact that monkeys were everywhere.

We were thinking about going to Tibet, since it was close but, we abandoned the idea (don’t remember the reason).

7. etapa: Benares – Kathmandu

Od Benaresa do Nepalske granice smo isli vozom. Voz ide strasno sporo – oko 30km/h i prati ga naoruzana grupa vojnika. Kako su objasnili, to je da bi odbranili putnike od pljacke. Banditi cesto zaustavljaju vozove slonovima i pljackaju. Vojnicima su puske vezane lancima za telo da ih banditi ne bi uzeli ako ubiju vojnika. Na srecu, nas voz nije napadnut te nismo prisustvali takvom cinu.

Od Nepalske granice do Katmandua, isli smo autobusom. Put od otprilike 200km presli smo za 12 sati. Put je krivudav, uzan I cesto ide planinskim vencima na 2700m nadmorske visine.

U Katmandu smo proveli 2 nedelje. Spavali smo u CAMP HOTEL-u. Hotel je jeftin ali su zato sobe sumnjive higijene (spavali smo u nasim vrecama kao uostalom u vecini “hotela” gde smo nocevali. U prizemlju je restoran gde nam je jedna devojka (rekao bih Ameikanka) nudila svako jutro “grass” (marihuanu).

Inace, Kathmandu je pun stranaca iz svih krajeva sveta (najvise zapadnjaka). Zivot je jeftin (potrebno je otprilike $3 dnevno) i zivi se usporenim tempom sto je verovatno zbog visine I razredjenog vazduha. Covek se uvek oseca uspavano.

Jedini novi objekat u to vreme bio je hotel VILLAGE sa vrlo interesantnim bungalovima.

Obilazili smo dosta i okolinu Katmandua, uglavnom (rentiranim) biciklima. Receno nam je da je dosta sela napusteno. Ustvari, napadali su ih majmuni i zauzeli sela. To uopste ne iznenadjuje imajuci u vidu da su majmuni svugde oko nas.

Mislili smo da odemo do Tibeta obzirom da je blizu ali smo od tog plana odustali (ne secam se razloga).