Nepal Tour Part 8: Bye Bye Kathmandu, Enter New Delhi

Continued from Part 7, Click here to read

Day 6 – the last day at Kathmandu, we all set out early in the morning just to have one more stroll around the town in small groups, before we leave to Delhi in the afternoon.

Just see the excitement of “Theekolz” and “Booda-admi” in the above picture.

Found out some road side vendors, who sells clothes and other stuff, which we liked the most since the cost were on an affordable side. They also reduced their price based on our bargaining which gave us a sense of achievement even though we were still taken for a ride by these vendors. Collected some memorabilia to mark this visit before we rushed back to the hotel for packing our bags.

The check out process was smooth. No payments were involved as the hotel bill will be paid by our tour organiser’s office in Delhi.

It was late in the afternoon when we were again back in the bus which took us to Kathmandu, but this time around we were feeling as if the bus is not so good because of our experience with the Mercedes bus which took us around Kathmandu.

Nevertheless, the fun started again, even though most of us were tired due to the lack of sleep yesterday. The town check post of Kathmandu was again in sight and the same ordeal happened again. This time, since we were experienced, went to meet the officer before he came inside and disturbed our luggage. The officer though was in a mood to bargain and his point of argument was that we might have done a lot of shopping in Kathmandu and has to pay duty to them. Wonder what is the sort of duty to be paid for taking things out of the town. After all we were carrying some low cost clothes and bags. Still we had to shelve out an amount for them to let us go. This ordeal delayed our journey further and it was already dawn when we were back in those winding roads from Kathmandu.

If the upward journey through the ghats was silent owing to the excitement in enjoying the scenery around, the return journey was noisier, since we had nothing to see outside as it was pitch dark.

The silky smooth roads with adequate banking ensured that the swift and sway action associated with such winding roads are absent.

Lots of jokes were being aired most of them being Poor Jokes (PJ). “Pazhuthar Singh” was at his level best. The most famous one being the “indicator for suicide” PJ, which he cracked on seeing a bus, who’s left indicator was blinking, while we were travelling over a road with a cliff on the left side. Some imaginative horror stories were being aired and people were seen discussing on what to do if we are stranded in between these hill ranges.

The noise subsided soon as the tired souls engaged themselves into the sleeping gear. But the sleep did not last longer as we reached the Nepal Check post.

The money spilling exercise continued and we were set free to move on, only to stop near the Indian check post. Again we were heavily bargaining with the officer there who kept on insisting that we need to pay them for celebrating Diwali which was around the corner. We were really worried at the state of affairs in the check post where the only thing mattered was money.

Once we were back in India, we could really feel what it means to be on our country rather than being in a foreign one. Even though roads there were good and the facilities seemed to be much better in our neighbouring country, nothing is great when compared with our mother nation. There may not be a good system here, water might be scarce at places, people may not seem friendly, roads might be full of potholes, officials might be corrupt, poverty still exists and their might be lot of other negatives, but our homeland is special and that special feeling suddenly rushed through our body and mind which culminated in the form of a high decibel scream. It needed a trip outside our country to let us know how much we love our mother nation.

Slowly but steadily we were progressing towards the capital of Mother India. New Delhi was still in deep sleep when we entered the neatly laid out roads and meticulously planned road ways. All the roads seemed to be completely deserted and most of us were thrilled because it was our first visit to the national capital. We came to a halt near the railway station early in the morning.

Once we stepped out of the bus, we were shivering because of the cold climate. Bid adieu to the wonderful crew of the bus, who ensured a great trip for the last 3 days and each one of us were treated with respect by the crew.

It was Day 7 of the tour and the most interesting part of the journey – the Kathmandu trip – was over. But the tour is far from over, since we have two more days here at New Delhi before starting our trip back to our college.

Now we are waiting in front of the railway station for the bus which is supposed to take us to International Youth Hostel where our stay is arranged.

The bus arrived soon and there were no episodes like Gorakhpur. Daylight was slowly making its presence felt when we reached the International Youth Hostel which was housed in a sprawling campus.

A dormitory was arranged for us and it felt good to share this hall were the whole team will be together. We have no time to rest as we had scheduled a Delhi sight seeing tour for the day and the bus for guided tour will arrive soon.

Everyone was busy getting ready for the next phase of our trip.

Continued in Part 9: Exploring Delhi - A Guided Tour

The story so far: (Click to read)

Part 1 - The plan
Part 2 - The Approvals
Part 3 - The Journey begins - Palghat - Jhansi
Part 4 - Another side of Life - Jhansi - Gorakhpur
Part 5 - The Himalayan Cruise: Gorakhpur - Kathmandu Bus Trip
Part 6 - First Night at Kathmandu 
Part 7 - Exploring Kathmandu - A guided Tour
Part 8 - Bye bye Kathmandu - Enter New Delhi 
Part 9 - Exploring Delhi - A guided Tour
Part 10 - Experiencing Symbol of Love, Then Symbol of Humility

Part 11 - The return Trip via Konkan
Part 12 - Then and now !!!!!!!!