JOURNEY HOME....stage 1..The 'BUCK'

We were to leave on the hospital 'buck,' so named for being part-truck/part bus, by 6 am Wednesday morning, June 6.  It leaves every Wed. for Kathmandu, taking people who need to go (for travel, visas, vacation, etc.) and anything, like mail, that the hospital needs to send.  Then it returns the next day, usually.....bringing back mail and supplies...and people who have come to work  or visit folks at the hospital.

Nothing really prepares you for your first 9 hour ride.   No air-conditioning, except for the open windows.....school-bus seats.....narrow winding roads thru the hills, sometimes close to the bottom of the canyon, sometimes high up.

Leaving the foothills, in which Tansen is situated, we come to the Terai, or flat lands bordering India.  It is hot and humid .  The  Buck stopped for a 'rest' stop, meaning you could take a walk into the trees and find your easement.  I decided to wait until we stopped for lunch.

A big, wide river appeared and the road followed it along the Terai for a long while.  Seemed to have more sand than water.

We stopped for a lunch of Dal-Baht about 5 hours into the trip.  One of the missionary wives said they had never gotten sick eating the food here, which was reassuring.  I had just had a week of 'discomfort' and didn't want to start it up again.
Thirty minutes and we were on the road again.

Now this is where I would have rather it ended.  My bottom was tired of the seat.  I was tired of the heat, and the 3 bottles of frozen water I'd brought had long been drunk, or turned warm.  Everyone started fading as we began to climb again up to the 4,000+foot altitude that Kathmandu sits at.

Traffic got thicker and slower the closer we got to the city.  As you can see, vehicles use ALL of the road, irregardless of curves ahead or cars coming.  IT seems to be understood that the 'other fellow' will move!  There are a fair number of motorcycles that weave in between the moving traffic always.
Emission controls are not known here.....so windows either close or you wash it out later.....or both!

Sure enough, it took 9hours until we were deposited near the street our guest house was on. We hailed a taxi to go less than a mile as we couldn't carry our 4 pieces of luggage and bags. The taxi driver asked if I was a Christian....after I told him 'yes,' I asked him and he said, "I a Christian." When Jon paid him he returned some of it, saying  it was too much.....unheard of!
Needless to say, we called him to take us to the airport today....and tomorrow morning.  Read on to see why we would go to the airport two days in a row.