Driving Down To Kathmandu

As you descend from the Tibetan plateau to the border town of Zhangmu the vegetation turns lusher around every bend of an incredible deep canyon. Zhangmu is a one road town, only this road barely clings to a very steep hillside and has many hairpin turns. The road is clogged with Tata trucks bringing hand-made goods to China and picking up electronics in return. What is a luxurious paved ribbon on the northern side of the Peace bridge is a dirt road on the Nepali side. The border town of Kodari is complete mayhem with three cars and a donkey cart abreast where only one bicycle should fit. We enter a visa office which we easily could have missed and bored officials look up from their computer game of solitaire to grace our passports with an entry. Frequently hobbling over recent landslides we continue on with a friendly Nepali. At one point the road is disrupted by an overturned truck and we have to switch vehicles. The temperature rises and the traffic maddens as we reach Kathmandu within 4 or 5 hours.

Zhangmu_kodari

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.