Touristbus

18th of October

The buses here doesn't work as they do at home. No surprise there when I come to think of it, that would make traveling here way to easy. Imagine what would happen if a foreigner actually could travel in this country with a relative ease.

Being on the road here got a much more social feeling then I'm used to, with constant contact with other drivers. Not that much physical contact as in contact by words, but not many seems to be upset about that. Actually, words is an overstatement, contact by word is much more accurate description of the way the drivers communicate with each other. Everyone on the road loves their horn and if not telling someone something specific at the moment then it's used just to state their current position.

Even if some of the trucks or buses got a happy jingle instead of horn, you can't really say they have more then a single sound to use. Only depending on context could this mean absolutely anything. Same thing goes for the other guy working on the bus. Beside his constant yelling, what I by now assume is the destination of the bus, he keeps slapping the side of the bus. Sometimes this makes the driver pull over, sometimes just slow down, sometimes it even makes him accelerate in what looks like a trustfully blindfolded way.

In the city most of their communication revolves around filling the bus with as many paying passengers as possible, but when getting out on the bigger road, they really aren't bigger these roads, it is more a matter of how to pass the guy in front. No European cellphone-talking driver would have a chance on these roads, because if you don't horn you'd get at least overrun all the time. Most trucks even paint in big letters on the back "Please Horn".

Even the ride it self gets more social, it's like one discussion, of whether aloud to pass a truck or not, creates conversations all along the bus. Since I still don't quite master the local tongue is most of my conversations based around one word as well. It doesn't really matter what I say, it's all about context. I had a lovely chat with the guy in front of me last bus ride, me yelling "AAAAAOOOOO" each time he bent my knees while trying to fold his seat backwards. It's more like a family, compared to my regular bus rides where touching someone else on the bus is as insulting as spitting on a long dead relatives grave.

Taking a touristbus back to Kathmandu from Pochara is an other story. It's more Europeen, maybe without the driver being on the phone. Possibly he's stoned instead, but what do I know.