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November
01, 1999
Hello this
is Jeff calling from team Around the World 1999 with today's journal
update for November 1, 1999, day 26 on our journey. It covers from
Zhangmu, China to Kathmandu, Nepal.
Well, after
yesterday's crazy 10,000ft decent we have another 3,000 feet to descend
today. After a minimal breakfast in the Zhangmu hotel, we loaded the rigs
and drove to the border of China and Nepal. The border patrol wanted $40
American dollars to let us cross, per car. We had pre-paid for China
which was suppose to pay for all costs, food, gas, lodging, and any
tolls. So I called Jian Ping, our China tour guide manager, and he spoke
with Phubru (Tsering), our Tibet tour guide, and arranged for him to pay
for the toll. We gave Pu-pu a generous tip. And Todd gave Ninda, the
driver of the Tibet tour guide Land Cruiser, his cowboy hat, which Ninda
had been admiring the whole time in Tibet. He looked pretty sweet in it.
We bid farewell to our guides and crossed the border. Our first time on
our own. No more guides to lead the way, check us into hotels, and make
sure we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner. It would now just be us, our
GPS, and the maps.
The road
heading into Nepal was hectic. It was all dirt down a steep valley with
1,000ft drop-offs, waterfall crossings, and hairpin turns. Oh yeah, big
trucks, buses, and speeding Toyota Corolla taxis. It was impressive that
anything other than a 4x4 could make it down the steep and bumpy path.
All was going fine until about an hour into the drive when we hit a huge
traffic jam. It turned out there was a huge truck carrying a tractor that
tipped over was blocking one lane of the dirt road. A bus trying to
squeeze through the narrow opening on the other side, coming in the other
direction, then got stuck. There were about 30 Nepalese men all trying to
help get the bus out into the road and get the traffic moving again, but
to no avail. Finally, they freed it by towing it with a big truck. Then
another big truck got stuck trying to come up the same way. This kept
happening and hour after hour went by.
Finally,
Todd busted out his guitar and entertained the gridlock crowd to some
music. Everyone seemed to enjoy our group version of the Romantics,
"What I like about you". As we approached our sixth hour stuck
in the pass, we decided to break out our stove and make some Mountain
House backpacking meals. Finally, after well over six hours, it was our
side's turn to drive over the pass. After the pass, we round our way to
the outskirts of Kathmandu. We finally found our hotel in downtown
Kathmandu around 9:30pm. The driving in Kathmandu is crazy, by the way.
We had just enough time to get to Wimpy's and have some hamburgers. We
discovered that the patties were made from goat meat. Interesting, but
definitely weird. We all crashed hard that night and slept like we never
have before.
Anyway,
that's about it for the November 1st journal update. Thanks for your
time. Talk to you soon.
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