We accepted the fact that we couldn't get from Chitwan to Lumbini by any "Tourist" air-conditioned bus, so going with the flow we boarded the local bus bound for Bhairahaw, a town about 20 km from Lumbini, the site of Buddha's birth.
The "cab" looked pretty spacious, with the usual Ganesh statues and banners and the ubiquitous solar powered prayer wheel. The prayer wheel seems to be so effective in protecting us from near-fatal crashes here that I got one for my Honda.
We stopped for lunch, some cookies and a bottle of water for us, a huge plate of rice with dal (lentil curry) for some of the others, eaten with the fingers of the right hand, similar to the way Hawaiians eat poi.
One of the passengers jammed in front of us had a funny knock-off tee shirt. Hermes is on "Faubourg Saint Honore" in Paris.
Again, the amount of heavy physical labor that women do here is astounding. This one is filling a basket with rocks that she will carry up a hill. We see piles of rock and brick beside the road and while some are deposited by dump trucks or tractors, their final move to the construction site will be by this method.
The "cab" looked pretty spacious, with the usual Ganesh statues and banners and the ubiquitous solar powered prayer wheel. The prayer wheel seems to be so effective in protecting us from near-fatal crashes here that I got one for my Honda.
In addition to the driver and a fare collector (the usual system here, a wad of cash in his pocket) there was a third guy whose duties were to climb up and arrange the luggage on the roof rack and to hang out the always-open door looking for more passengers along the road. Some seemed to be regulars waiting at appointed places. Others got a two-fingered gesture that probably meant "do you want a ride?" The guy would then bang on the side of the bus once if he wanted the driver to stop or twice if he wanted the driver to keep going. Pretty wild.
Soon the bus was packed like a rush hour subway car. There were at least 12 just in the forward cab.
We stopped for lunch, some cookies and a bottle of water for us, a huge plate of rice with dal (lentil curry) for some of the others, eaten with the fingers of the right hand, similar to the way Hawaiians eat poi.
One of the passengers jammed in front of us had a funny knock-off tee shirt. Hermes is on "Faubourg Saint Honore" in Paris.
Again, the amount of heavy physical labor that women do here is astounding. This one is filling a basket with rocks that she will carry up a hill. We see piles of rock and brick beside the road and while some are deposited by dump trucks or tractors, their final move to the construction site will be by this method.
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