Tag Archives: travel

British Train: First Class Journey

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Things that you didn’t see or experience while growing up often generate curiosity in you whenever you come across them. The level of curiosity increases if such things are not yet part of your daily routine. They invoke a desire in you. The desire to own, control or use them. Rail network is one such thing that we don’t have in Nepal. Many in Nepal want to see a functioning railway network in their country. They want to travel in trains.

Many of us get our first rail experience in India because of the country’s geographical proximity and other socio-economic reasons. My first real train journey (not counting the metro rail commutes in DC and NYC) was in India in 2008 when I traveled to Trivendram in south from Gorakhpur. It was a long and tiring journey that also gave me a story to write for my paper at the time. More than anything else, that particular journey provided me an important glimpse of the wonder that the Indian railway network is. Continue reading →

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York

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london victoria coach station 1 It was a long drive that involved two buses and a taxi but not as tiring as one would expect given the distance covered (about 330 kilometers). I found the section between Leeds and York particularly enjoyable. One, I was sitting at the upper deck of the double-decker bus (second one, changed at Leeds) with better view of the area I was passing through. Two, window panes were not tinted as they were in previous bus. Three, the atmosphere, I felt, changed for better. More open spaces, reasonable space between two houses, less people on streets and fewer cars on road. Overall, the atmosphere was welcoming and energizing.

london victoria coach station 2

People usually mention or write about things that they find new. For me, seeing ‘gates’, like in airports, in a bus station (London’s Victoria Coach Station) was new. Thus these pictures. I boarded via gate number 18 that didn’t have pigeons sitting on its noticeboard.

More photos of the day and details of what I did in York this evening later.

Northward

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There are so many things to write about. This evening’s bus ride, branded shops of Oxford Street with ridiculously high prices of the products on display and malls that sell things surprisingly cheap stuffs. The famous bridge of London, museums that I visited, television studio that I liked, portraits that I saw, food that I ate and people I met including the hobbyist singer with whom I just exchanged email address in a pub. But I don’t have enough time to write about all these things and select, edit and post photos. Will try and do that when I am back in Kathmandu.

Now I must get some sleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to catch a bus that will take me to a northern city of York via Leeds. And then to Edinburgh in a train.

a plane full of migrant workers and other travelers

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The plane that just brought me here in Doha from Kathmandu was, as one would normally expect, full of Nepali migrant workers headed to various destinations in the Gulf.

One guy, who said it he was headed to Saudi Arabia to fulfill his dreams, tried to impress a woman by singing a song that he said he heard in one of the singing talent shows on Nepal Television. “Do you know this song?” he asked the girl (alikati legro halera gayepachhi). The girl, apparently headed towards a western destination, was clueless. Not that I could recognize the song but it was not that difficult to understand and feel the singing passion of this man who was forced to leave his homeland to feed his family.

Ani, post-Sita Rai, I didn’t notice any improvement in rough behavior of immigration officials at the TIA. In fact, I was disheartened to see a man intimidating and humiliating a Tokyo-bound semi-literate woman who was traveling via TIA for the first time to meet her husband in Japan.

Apart from migrant workers, there were many other Nepali passengers who were using Doha as a transit to go to other destinations like, for example, Boston. I saw boarding pass of an elderly couple who were headed to that American city via London. The man was decorated in daura, suruwal and dhaka topi while the woman, clad in sari, cholo and majetro, was wearing a body full of jewelleries including, if I am not terribly mistaken, a big bulaki as well. Beautiful.

Oh yeah, and one of the air-hostesses was so very curious as to why the man seated next to me was having coluored rice spread all over his head. It took a few minutes to explain to her that the thing, mixture of uncooked rice, curd and vermilion powder, was called tika. “Nothing dangerous,” the man tried to assure her. “It’s just rice, coloured.”

“I know, I know,” she said. “But I had never seen such thing. I had seen red thing put on forehead but rice on head?”

Hmmm…

Hated Airport and the Mighty Himalayas #Nepal #Travel #Tribhuvan

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Kathmandu’s (and Nepal’s) Tribhuvan: One of the World’s Most Hated Airports (!)

A plane is about to take off from Tribhuvan International Airport's runway.

CNNgo recently put Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan in a list of 10 “world’s most hated airports” along with JFK, LAX and Heathrow detailing correctly the shortcomings of Nepal’s only international airport. But the travel site also said correctly, at the end, this: Never mind. The city’s markets and surrounding mountains are lovely.

I agree with both the criticism of the airport as well as the praises for the city of Kathmandu. A few days ago clouds disappeared from above the green hills of Kathmandu valley providing us the stunning view of the mighty Himalayas that overlooked the airport. Fliers must have seen those snow-capped mountains from close and relished the view. That must have helped them to forget all the hassles that they might have gone through at the airport before boarding in the planes. Here are more photos and the detailed entry on the subject: Kathmandu’s (and Nepal’s) Tribhuvan: One of the World’s Most Hated Airports (!)