Trekking Day 1

We left home with our packs at 5 am and walked to the church to meet our travel companions: Pastor Shem, his adopted daughter Yungchin (from Gatlang Village) and Pastor Prem (of Gatlang Village). We took a taxi to the bus park across town, took some Dramamine and were ready for our 11 hour bus ride to near the Tibet border. There had been a “Bandh” (a transportation strike organized by the Maoists) north of the city the day before and so the bus was full and crowded with every space taken and about 20 people on the roof. We had gotten our tickets a couple days before so we had a seat, but many people were standing in the aisles throughout this journey. About 1 hour into the bus ride passengers were being held out the open door so they could vomit. Thank the Lord for Dramamine and an ipod! As we continued on our journey more people joined us on the already crowded bus and sacks of rice, potatoes, and flour were also stacked in the aisle with children perching on top for seating. I think at one point there were some children even sitting on Tom. I asked Shem if this was normal and he just smiled. I don't think it was normal though because as we passed village after village I would see people come out of their houses staring openmouthed at us and at how many people were on the roof. This reaction made me a little nervous …

However many times I thought we were going to tip over and roll thousands of feet below, we never quite did and made it safely (though perhaps a few years of life shaved off) to our final bus stop. We retrieved our luggage, our headlamps and continued the last two hours of journey on foot, finally reaching the village of Gatlang and a welcome meal of daal bhaat at Pastor Prem's house.