When we woke up this morning, we found it hard to believe that it would take all day to travel overland the 120 kms to Katmandu. Especially with a 2+ hour time change working for us, we figured we would have at least a half a day to wander around and shop. Little did we know!

We gathered in the lobby at 9:30 and loaded up our 8 bikes, 8 bags, and 8 people into the van for a 9:45 departure. The border opened at 10 and was a few kilometers down the hill. But picture this--a cliffside town serviced by one narrow two lane road with just barely enough room for two vehicles to pass each other between the buildings on opposite sides of the street. Add pedestrians. Now add a kilometers long line of trucks taking up one lane, parked waiting to cross the border. Can you see chaos? It was unbelievable! It took us over an hour to drive a stretch that we could have walked in 15 minutes.

At the border we all got out and looked at the Friendship Bridge joining Nepal and Tibet at the very bottom of this magnificent gorge while the van parked. As soon as it stopped it was mobbed by a crowd of potential porters. When I say mobbed I mean 4-5 people deep lined up at each of the doors. We looked on in horror as we imagined all our bags disappearing into the chaos when the van doors were opened. What to do? We sent our big guys over to carry out our bags over their heads to a safe point which the rest of us guarded. What a mess!

Chinese customs (to leave the country, mind you) took forever. They hand searched every bag. Jean Pierre took a photo of the bridge and was stopped right away and forced to erase it. We finally walked across the bridge and through Nepalese customs by noon, gaining two hours of time change. We loaded up our bus on the other side and started our drive.

But the road on this side of the gorge was even worse! Same crazy truck situation (we were told that trucks can wait as long as two months to cross the border!) only the road on this side is often unpaved and always treacherous. We passed one site where a bus rolled down the cliff into the river just last week, killing all 37 aboard. A short while later we passed a bus which had rolled off the rode into a ditch on the uphill side of the gorge just minutes before. 40 or so people were all standing around wandering what to do next.

The drive was beautiful, passionate, interesting, and sobering. The gorge was lush and tropical, the river wild and full, and the scenes of suffering humanity unending. We drove on both sides of the gorge, up and down, on horrible roads, all day long. It was almost 5 pm when we got to our hotel in Katmandu--over 9 hours to cover 120 kms! An incredible journey!

I ended up in the same hotel room I had left a few weeks ago. It felt like home, and like I had been away for a very long time. We did get out for an hour or so of wandering around before dinner. Then it was early to bed for an early morning departure for home.

Pictures below, left column: The cliffside town. Packing up. Happy campers heading home, left to right--Jean Pierre, Jamyangzo (our guide), Dider, Jocelyn, Annie, me, Laurent, Dawa (our cook), Stan, Dargyal (our driver), and Tanja. Right column: The crazy road to the border. I spent the day glued to the window. The lush scenery on the way to Katmandu.