Have you ever wondered what travel day can look like on the world race? If anybody thinks our life is glamorous, you’ll probably think again after reading about our transition from India to Nepal. I wouldn’t say this experience is typical, because this was our longest and probably worst travel day as a squad.
Q squad and airports – BFFs
Transition to Nepal began, for most of us, on Thursday; the first group left our debrief location around 10 in the morning, my group left at 5pm and the last 7 people remaining left for the airport around 3am. We had a two hour flight from Hyderabad to New Dehli. Being in the first two groups meant we had to spend the night in baggage claims, where we made ourselves feel right at home.
Q squad set up for the night in the airport
are we there yet?
After the whole squad was in New Dehli, we boarded the bus for what we thought was going to be a 13-17 hour ride. First announcement Ryan made on the bus was that there had been some sort of lost-in-translation moment (not so uncommon:) and the ride was actually going to take about 31 hours. Somehow 31 hours ended up being 45 hours, but that is definitely not the end of our travel story.
Q squad sleeping and living life on a bus
shattered glass and flying bags
Around midnight / 1am Saturday morning, our bs was rear-ended by a large, goods-carrier, truck. I had been laying on top of the bags in the last seat when all of a sudden we braked really fast, then there was the impact of the hit and glass was shattering on top of me. I had no idea what was going on, at first. A few of our bags had flown into the road from under the bus, but all was found and the back hatch was roped shut. No one was hurt, but we kept finding glass around our seats in the back, and we got even dirtier due to the dirt flying in through the missing rear window.
damage from the accident
like a lie
Finally, around 3:30 or 4 Saturday afternoon, we arrived in the border town, we had been led to believe we should have been there about 13 hours earlier. We unloaded our bus in India and moved into a new bus in Nepal. After getting visas and eating dinner we finished what we thought would be the last leg of our journey, the ride from the border to our hostel in Kathmandu. Little did we know the bus company would refuse to take us to our hostel, and instead stopped at the further away bus station. They wouldn’t drive us anywhere else, no matter if they were breaking contract or going to lose money. We had to wait for our contact to come with a large bust, unload the bus we were on, and stuff the other bus full of us and our bags. We made it to the hostel around 6:30 Saturday morning. Oh what a fun journey that was. On the up-side, what I’ve seen of Nepal so far is beautiful, the weather is cooler and I am excited for the month here.
from the balcony at the hostel in Kathmandu
Random occurrences during this journey:
used the great outdoors more than a western toilet or squatty
ate at 2 shady restaurants
saw the Taj Mahal (from a distance this time)
brushed my teeth multiple times out the bus window
charged my iPod at a restaurant
sewed the back curtains shut and to the window pole (trying to keep dust out)
much love!!
