during my stay in nepal, i wanted to
do a short trek and my trekking guide recommended a 3 days 2 nights trek to the gosaikunda lake, located at an altitiude of 4,380m above sea level, in the langtang national park in dhunche. this was a holy lake
where the local hindus would go at least once in their lifetime. since i had never been
there, i did not mind going.
i was visiting trishuli and staying
at my trekking guide’s friend’s house for a night. from trishuli, we needed to take a 6 to 7 hours bus ride to dhunche the next morning.
initially, the bus ride was quite smooth,
until we reached a part of the bus route. the road was badly maintained,
with a lot of potholes, making it very difficult for the bus to cross. moreover, the road
was narrow, barely allowing vehicles from both directions to drive through. to
make things worse, the bus was on the side of the road near the cliff. any
slight mistake by the bus driver could cause the bus to fall over the edge. you
could not imagine what would happen to all the passengers inside and those
sitting on top of the bus if it fell over.
the bus driver attempted to drive
through the road, causing the bus to shake so violently. at every attempt to
cross over, there was commotion in the bus. i was asking inside my head, was
this a test for me? would this be my doomsday? by chance, i happened to sit on
the side of the bus near the edge. whenever the bus driver was trying to drive through, i could
feel that the bus would fall any minute. when i looked down, i saw the rocky
surface at the bottom of the cliff. not advisable to look down in this circumstance.
seriously, i had never been so close to the edge. my trekking guide who was sitting on the other side dared to ask me, "are you okay?" obviously not! i shouted back a big 'no'! i kept leaning away from the
side, hopping that my weight would be distributed to the other side, defying gravity.
people often said that when one was at the end of his life, he would have flashbacks of his past. well, i was waiting for that to happen, but it did not. maybe my time was
not up yet. in matter of near death, a lot of things came to my mind though and
suddenly, a lot of things did not matter as well, as long as i was alive. i could only react and face the fear. my mind and heart were racing fast in this real life thrill. the bus driver attempted twice
and i thought i had more than enough thrill. my heart might not be able to take it further. i decided to get off the bus and walk past the bumpy road. i felt that i was better in control of my life, than leaving in the hands of someone. it would also be easier for the bus driver if
there were lesser passengers onboard, lesser weight.
it suddenly dawned on me that all
the passengers’ lives were dependent on the driving skills of the driver. we had expected the driver to bring us to our destination safely, that he was skillful enough to drive in any road condition. i would say he was definitely skillful. on a bigger context, we often had a
lot of expectations on a lot of things and people in our lives subsciously. gradually, we started
to take things for granted and got disappointed when things did not happen as
expected. we became greedy and wanted more. we forgot to appreciate. only
in times of crisis would we be awakened and thankful for whatever we had. in nepal, many
people were living their lives at the edge for
survival, travelling on this kind of road condition everyday. i should be
grateful that i lived in singapore, where the roads were well maintained and
the transport system was so convenient.
in the end, with lesser passengers onboard, the
bus driver finally managed to drive through the road hurdle. once again,
we hopped onto the bus and drove off.
first time experiencing such a nerve wrecking bus journey! +_+
first time experiencing such a nerve wrecking bus journey! +_+
the bus i took on the way back to kathmandu after finishing the trek. due to limited seats in the bus, the locals had to sit on top of the bus.
we met the same situation on our way back as well. the road was so bumpy that they had to get a bulldozer to move away some of the big boulders.
the bus was stopped further away, waiting for the road to be cleared.
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