Worlds most dangerous road

22nd of October

What happen? I'd been woken up when the guy next to me heavily bumped in to my side. The bus had slowed down to a full stop, and people around me were cackling in an elevated way while waving wildly in the driving direction. It looked like something very interesting was happening ahead of us, maybe a football game? Only thing missing was matching colors and beer. I was on a bus as it seemed. Always hard to get a grip on reality just when waking up.

So, where was I? On a bus as it seemed, but the bus should be going somewhere. The guy next to me seemed familiar. I don't think I like him for some reason. That's right, I remember now. He had been sitting almost on top of me all the way from Kathmandu and consistently jamming his elbow in my side. The only reason I'm leaving Kathmandu is to get back to Pochara. That makes sense.

Why did we stop then? The conductor had jumped out while the bus slowed down and was now missing. Actually, a more correct term for his profession would be "the guy who tells you 'give me money?' and slaps the side of the bus when to accelerate", but he was missing nonetheless. Must be a narrow part of the road with switching one-way traffic. It happens all the time, even on the nepali equivalence to a highway, and the broken vehicles along the road doesn't really help the already tight route. Still, this doesn't explain why the passenger are being so loud.

Now the driver shut of the engine and left as well. If there was a football game ahead then someone scored a goal about now, because the passengers in the bus increased the flapping of the arms and turned the cackling to a more high pitched twitter. They were growing restless, and it was about two hours since the last stop if I were to believe my phone. I rarely did, but this could be a good time for a lunch stop.

The problem was, as I looked out through my window, that we still were on the road with not a house in sight. The passenger still decided that now was the time to leave the bus. Where we sinking? They didn't seem to bring much stuff. Nope, still not sinking by the looks through the opposite window, but the road was filling up with people.

Where were we exactly? And what had happen? Should I stay in the bus maybe? No point, I was the only one left in here. My stuff on the other hand would not be left behind. If the bus for real was sinking, well, then I needed my passport. And my cookies. Especially the cookies.

On the road was everyone walking concerned towards the start of the queue. It must be something interesting, everyone had that determined wander, not stressed, but the wander were you don't look at your steps or the surrounding view, just where you're heading. I followed for a while before realizing that I had no idea what my bus looked like. The water bottle sounded empty. I headed back.

Sitting in the shadow of what hopefully was the right bus and just waiting for people to return I spotted the conductor strolling this way. I tried to ask him what happen, because this really concerned me by now, and the answer was something like "Ha ha, do you know Marley? Bob Marley?" His friend had caught up with him now and they strolled on together while rolling a cigarette with some special ingredient. I didn't want to know what it was, or if the other guy was the driver or not.

It took me about three, four hours before understanding that a bridge had collapsed somewhere ahead, and an other hour before we were rolling again.