Highway to Hell

The boys had been very keen to head back to the jungles of Chitwan, so with that in mind we decided to travel further North West to the steamy plains of the Terai to a place called Bardia.

Again, like all travel here, we had to work out the safest and most comfortable way of getting there. There was the option of flying in a small aircraft, of which I am not a huge fan or the overnight bus, which could take anything from 18 hours to 36 hours depending on the roads, i.e. landslides, traffic, bus accidents or livestock wandering about. Actually, the mind boggles at what you can see on these roads. The buses are notorious for crashing, particularly on this stretch of road due to the narrow winding roads, snaking up and down around the mountains. We chose a private driver and van.

We were fortunate enough to bump into friends we had met in Kathmandu, a Canadian family, Louis and Rhonda Corbei, travelling for a year with their 2 boys, Gabriel, 13 and Merek, 11. We all get on famously. We all decided to make the road trip together to Bardia.

We left the relaxing shores of Pokhara with its glistening lake and snow capped peaks early, to try and make the best time we could. However, we hit the dramatic Siddhartha Highway with its landslide scarred valleys, winding roads and spectacular views and stopped every 10 minutes or so. There was vomit, oh so much vomit!

It was touted as an awesome sing-along road trip; instead it was the bilious, chunderous, churning, vomiting road trip from hell. Not only was it happening inside the van, but people from passing buses hung from their windows splattering our windscreen and roof. We reeked of the stuff!

However, that said, we made it to Bardia by early evening and we did make it in one piece.

x Lisa (slightly traumatised Mum)

Sidhartha Highway

Arriving in Bardia on the roof of our van