As we woke
to a cold morning, it was decided by the forces that govern that we will be
taking the less than 90 kms road to Kathmandu through Pharping. As Amit had
explained earlier, my thoughts had made me think of this road as a tough road
with some hair pin bends (as the ones in Nilgris) and some steep curves. Curves
and Hair pin bends are not new to me, my experience of driving different
continents had brought in the confidence to take any drive without much
difficulty theoretically. But there was for sure a grey area which was clearly
indicated by the puzzled looks of Amit because he was always saying Road 2
through Palung / Daman was the one which we were taking for all these months of
planning and all of a sudden he was convinced that we will take this Road 3
through Pharping.
Just to keep you guys get back to your
calculators, Road 2 to Kathmandu is around 30 kms longer than Road 3. That’s ok
and the time duration is around 2 hours more. What does Google say ? Does this
mean Road 3 is an easier route ? What is the hidden secret ? Remember guys,
Google does not take road condition as a parameter in its Transfer Function.
OOPS…
The Hotel
served us with Complimentary breakfast which was good enough. The weather was
chilly with drizzling. I was back at the Steering of the Terrano at the
basement parking and was looking at the steep climb to the ground level.
Certainly, that was not a normal basement to ground exit. In all of the
Bangalore malls, I haven’t seen such a short & steep climb up a floor for
cars. Since the entry and exit were the same to the basement parking, I asked
Amit to look for any incoming vehicles so that I am not stuck right in the
middle of the climb. Amit would have thought, what a man !!! But I was for sure
thinking of how I am going to take the vehicle out of the basement. Finally, I
was clear that I am going to keep the momentum to push my front wheel drive out
of this hole. Glancing at the curve and steep from the basement, I accelerated
in that parking lot and made a sharp left to the steep curve and reached the
smooth rocky patch of the ground floor exit. Wow, what an achievement !!! Great
job buddy ! I hadn’t thought or experienced a situation wherein the vehicle
slows down completely in the middle of the steep climb… Only that if there is
such a long and steep climb.
Now back on
the road, we were crossing the last stretch of straight and smooth roads for
the next 7 days to come. Nice tar road with 2 way traffic, good weather was
relaxing start for the day. The AC switched OFF, we were enjoying the fresh breeze.
We were crossing Hetauda’s outskirts and I could notice that there were kids
walking to schools all along the side of the road. Then as I was questioning Amit
about the education in Nepal and was surprised to hear that Nepal parents give
important to the Primary education and although there is not a good transport
that is available for the kids going to school, parents encourage the kids to
walk to the nearby schools even though it is several kilometers of distance.
As we
reached the banks of the Trishuli River, I could see that the water force was
revealing that we are right at the bottom of the first hill where we need to
start the climb. I was always under the misunderstanding that Kathmandu is on
the hill and we need to climb the hill. I also believe that some of you readers
would also assume the same. Just to clarify, Kathmandu is a valley and we will
have climb up and down some of the hills, which we standing in front of us.
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