Public Transportation, Part 2

October 12, 2011

To continue my earlier post about getting around Nepal, I have now had a chance to experience a couple different kinds of long distance buses. I took a “tourist” bus to Chitwan, public long distance buses from Chitwan to Lumbini to Bardia (and Kathmandu to Manakamana) and an express night bus back to Kathmandu from Bardia.

The “tourist” buses in Nepal I think are supposed to give tourists an easy way to get about the country. They are marginally nicer than the regular buses but leave from a more convenient location (near the tourist district, rather than on the Ring Road) and do not stop constantly along the roads to pack the bus full of people. But the tourist buses are pretty useless because they barely go anywhere. You can take a tourist bus on the Kathmandu-Chitwan-Pokhara tourist triangle and that’s it. So, since I could take a tourist bus to Chitwan I decided to go ahead and try it out. Some things about it were nice. I liked not having to worry about whether my bag was going to make it there; I liked finally meeting some other tourists and getting a little English fix; I liked not stopping for an hour is Kalanki to fill the bus to the brim; I liked that I could buy a candy bar at the bus station. Interestingly, the bus had more Nepalis than tourists. I’ve discovered that the caste system is still really influential here, which I did not expect. There is a big divide between the highly education upper class and the lower class, and a lot of discrimination and prejudice. The public buses are apparently only readily utilized by lower classes. My boss will never take a public bus, he flies anywhere he can or hires a private car, and the same is true of my host family (they will take a public bus as a last resort, though never a night bus and they won’t eat the provided food). I’m not sure whether tourist buses are worth the extra money ($20 compared to $8ish for public buses), but I’ll only have one other opportunity to take them anyways.

The first adventure in long distance public transportation is always buying a ticket. I’ve had to navigate both the Kathmandu and Butwal bus parks, both times successfully. It’s a lot like Ratna Park, where I basically just have to start telling everyone where I am going and eventually I will land on the right counter, with the added challenge of limited English in Butwal and everyone assuming I was going to Pokhara in Kathmandu. Initially, I was actually kind of impressed with long distance bus travel. When you buy a ticket, they assign you a seat number and then mark the seat off their chart. And there was a fixed departure time, how exciting! So I got on the bus and tried to find my seat, but it turns out the seats are not really labeled and the conductor put me in a random seat. Then, miraculousl,y the bus pulled out of the bus park half full of passengers at the stated departure time… and then it sat outside the bus park for 30 minutes until it was more full… and then an hour in Kalanki (just outside the Ring Road on the main highway out of the valley) until no more people could fit on. So although I think Nepal has some idea how a transportation system should work, complete with tickets and scheduling and fixed stops, in reality long distance transportation is just the same as transportation around the valley. And ten hours of completely packed buses that will drop off or pick up passengers anywhere is a bit rough.

Long Distance Bus Park

Bus ticket, hooray!

Public transportation seems to be a great way to get a feel for the different areas in Nepal, though this feeling is not always a positive one. The bus to Manakamana was no problem, basically just like the regular in the valley buses. Chitwan to Lubmini was fine too (and there was actually a group of three Polish girls on that leg with me). But Lubmini to Bardia was unpleasant. It took three buses and 10 hours and was definitely the sketchiest experience I’ve had here. I was never in danger, exactly, it was mostly just incredibly uncomfortable. The Western Terai was pretty wrecked by the Maoist insurgency, so there are no tourists in this region and a lot of police checkpoints. I thought I was used to being stared at after a month in Kathmandu but it’s not even comparable to the Western Terai. And there, folks did not stop at starting. Teenage boys are the worst. I had a number of boys get on the bus and sit next to me and then grab my hair or take a picture with me with their cell phones. I think the fact that they were trying to be sneaky (holding the phone at arms length as if to find a signal for a call, then flipping it around and quickly snapping a picture) made it even more uncomfortable. And then of course they would switch seats with their buddies so that everyone could get a picture. I had very little idea where I was headed (my travel agent just gave me the name of the bridge where the hotel would meet me, though he turned out to be incorrect) and English was sparse. The Butwal to Bardia bus was the first time my bus conductor did not speak any English at all. And around Kathamandu or the road to Pokhara I can kind of get some sense of where I am, because in towns the Coca-Cola shop signs will have the English name of the place on them, but in the Western Terai, all English writing disappeared. I made it safely to Bardia eventually, but I think the experience shook me up more than I initially gave it credit for. After talking with some folks here, it seems that the experience was pretty typical of what happens to women traveling alone in India. I talked to a girl in Kathmandu who says it was easier to travel around India if you wear a Kurti. I may try this approach, but she has dark hair and dark skin and she agreed that I am never going to be able to blend in. The blond hair/blue eyes thing is killer.

I thought I was going to have round two of Lubmini to Bardia on the way home from Bardia, but I was pleasantly surprised. My hotel in Bardia got me on an express night bus back to Kathmandu and it was such an easy trip. The seats were actually assigned! There was no one sitting on the floor! And the seats were comfortable enough I was actually able to sleep a bit! The bus made about four stops in the Bardia region, then other than dinner and bathroom breaks, did not stop again until we got to Kathmandu! Amazing. The night bus was less scary than I thought it would be, largely because although the speeds are still crazy, there were a lot fewer people on the road, and the sun came up before we got to the really twisty scary roads.