As debrief came to an end, teams began leaving at separate times for the airport heading back to Delhi where we would be catching our bus to Nepal. As you can imagine, we have a budget for our travel days, so we usually journey at obscure times and have lengthy layovers. As teams began to arrive at the Delhi airport, we joined the others in an isolated part of the airport, which would be our home until the next morning when the last team arrived and we were ready to board our bus. Fighting off mosquitos throughout the night and convincing the security guard to let us outside to get food, morning eventually came.
Delhi Airport
As we piled into the bus, dirty and tired, we thought that we had a “short� 12-hour bus ride to Kathmandu, the capitol city of Nepal. Ryan, one of our logistics leaders, was soon informed otherwise and as the news was broken to the entire squad that our ride would actually be about 44 hours, everyone laughed, embracing this lifestyle that has become normal to us.
So our bus ride begins, full of… lot’s of traffic (so slow that we were able to get on top of the bus to look at the stars), many random stops including a stop at the Taj Mahal, numerous bathroom breaks in bizarre places, authentic food on the side of the highway, and a bus accident!
No Joke, we swerved to miss a trailer in front of us and were rear ended by another trailer, leaving several of our bags sprawled out across the highway (everyone is ok!)
Even though our bus had a broken rear window and smashed in rear fender, our driver was willing to keep going…so we slowly, but finally made it to the Nepal border where we were able to get on a new bus taking us to meet one of our contacts in Kathmandu.
After a quick nights rest, travel to our new ministry continued. Tricia and I planned to join two of the other teams in the western part of Nepal so once again we headed to the bus station. This part of the story could literally be a blog in itself, but here’s the short version: Waiting for our bus on the side of a busy road, we quickly got bored. However, we’ve learned to entertain ourselves in such situations so Cassie and I started playing one guitar, together (she played chords, while I strummed). Quickly, our group began singing, dancing, and using my hat to ask locals for money to send us on our way. For all we know, this could have been some of the best entertainment they’ve seen in years…and hey, we made 50 Nepali Rupees out of it (by the way, this went on for about 1.5 hours)!
Nepal has been amazing so far!
So we boarded our bus, 3 hours late, to find out that every seat on the bus was full, however before we could figure out the seating arrangements, the bus began to move. Apparently the bus was oversold and havoc seemed to break out, in another language as people tried to find a place to sit…several people sitting on straw chairs in the aisle. After 15 uncomfortable hours and bruised knees from bumping against the chairs in front of us, we finally arrived in Banke, Nepal, which was still not our final destination.
However, right after getting off the bus, Cassie (our amazing Canadian on the squad), realizes that she is missing her passport and wallet….so causing a scene, we began asking passengers about the missing passport and scrutinizing the bus, to no avail.
Realizing that a missing passport is kind of a big deal (since we still have two more countries to go to), Tricia and I started figuring out a game plan. After talking with the Canadian Embassy, we soon realized that we needed to get to the embassy as quickly as possible, which was all the way back in Kathmandu. So literally, 6:00AM the next morning, the three of us were on a bus headed back to the place we had just come from….welcome to THE WORLD RACE!!!!!
THE Q
