Stuck Another Day

Wednesday March 9, 2011

4:22PM

There isn’t really a lot to report today in terms  of events, aside from another 5 hours in the airport, only to have our flight canceled due to “ugly air” in Lukkla. Really, I would prefer ideal flying conditions, because my understanding of the Lukkla airport is that it is comprised of one runway  about 200 meters in length perched somewhat precariously between the higher mountains surrounding the village. We’ll be traveling in a 4 engine turboprop plane that is only able to stop or take off on the short runway due to the strip’s 12 degrees of slope. Sounds interesting. Maybe tomorrow will be our day.

After collecting our bags we headed back to the Marshyangdi riding with one of the more aggressive taxi-van drivers I have encountered. It seems that traffic rules in Nepal are few and the largest car on the road has the right of way. This guy definitely used the slightly larger size of his vehicle to intimidate motorcyclists and smaller cars when he pulled into the right-hand lane for most the trip. The scary part for us is that traffic here drives on the left. He also wasn’t afraid to barrel down small one-lane alleyways, one hand constantly on the horn, scattering pedestrians, BND’s and chickens. 

The vans that transport groups of people or larger quantities of baggage are similar to but smaller than the old 1980’s Toyota (Nissan?) Windowvan, and are about the middle of the traffic pecking order. I would estimate that 50% of the vehicles on the road are motorcycles followed by tiny 5 passenger Fiat Pandas or Suzuki somethings. A very small proportion are full-size trucks, cars or SUVs. Most of the taxis fall into the Fiat/Suzuki category. The remainder of the roadways are occupied by pedestrians, bicycles, rickshaws, tuk-tuks, buses, and on occasion sheep or cows. 

Traffic Light

It is humorous to see 4 Westerners pile into the tiny taxis with their baggage, because the cars are so small that my head touches the roof of the vehicle while sitting upright. This has resulted in two good-size lumps on the top of my head when I failed to notice an upcoming pothole or speed bump and duck accordingly. The important thing is that they are maneuverable, because traffic flow consists of a continual race from one bottleneck to the next. Communication between drivers is a combination of the rare turn signal, more frequent hand signal and nearly constant blowing of the horn. Amazingly, I have neither witnessed nor been involved in an accident, but I have seen very few vehicles without some sign of previous damage. My suspicion is that minor accidents are common, and the likely outcome is a brief inspection of the vehicles by their respective drivers before continuing onward if still mobile. I also suspect that significant injuries are not common as it is rare to break 20 mph. 

As I previously mentioned, horns are the primary method of communication on the road and some drivers honk incessantly for no apparent reason while others only at times of necessity. Most of the time it seems to be a declaration of position, as if to say, “Hey, I’m right here and this is my piece of pavement.” Like the taxi drivers who use them, the horns themselves have some degree of individuality as well. Most are a high-pitch, nasal honk and there is similarity between the scooter, mopeds and small taxis. Others are slightly more robust but nothing that approaches the full-bodied tone of my Tahoe back home. The ones I can’t stop chuckling over take the high pitched nasal sound and turn it into a two- toned “diddily-diddily, diddily-diddily”. It seems to me that a truly effective means of getting other driver’s attention and clearing the road would be to install a deeply bellowing fog horn. I can’t imagine that no one else has thought of this, so they must not be available here.

It’s raining here now and as you can probably tell, I’m starting to get a little stir crazy over the lack of activity in the past few days. My thoughts on traffic patterns, taxis, drivers and horns may not be terribly exciting or even interesting but it does give one an idea of daily life here in Kathmandu. If we don’t have any activity tomorrow, I may have to resort to discussing local religion or economics, so pray for clear skies and low winds in Lukkla tomorrow!