Ha ha ha! Who ever described the bus ride to Jiri as 'Hell on Earth' wasn't far wrong...
By the time we made it to the bus station in Kathmandu it was 10 past 6 in the morning. The bus was due to leave at 6am. We did a couple of laps of the station at speed and finally found our bus - driving around honking it's horn picking up passengers. We jumped on board and found ourselves in the very back row - a spot where no normal human being, with legs, could possibly fit. The seats were so close together that my knees were by my ears. Michael looked like some kind of new pretzel.
The bus pulled out of the station at 6.15 and we were off! After bouncing along for a few hours we pulled over for lunch at 9.30 in the morning - not feeling like eating that early Michael and I waited for the journey to resume. The side of the bus was covered in vomit - from every window!! I think we were the only ones who didn't suffer from car sickness. But the sound of the retching was almost more than I could bear!!
Michael got up on top of the bus, with the luggage, for the rest of the trip. Which left me with space for 1 of my knees, and half a thigh. We arrived in Jiri at 12.30 where the bus then took a dirt track towards our destination - Bhandar. The switchbacks are insane and the road is dirt and potholes. We crossed a river just by driving through the water - no bridge yet.
As we climbed higher and higher the road got narrower and narrower and the turns more life threatening. Every time we hit a pothole I bounced out of my seat. The bus rounded a corner and then the wheels started spinning in the mud. We stopped 4 times - everyone out of the bus to push, throwing gravel under the wheels. After about 5 hours the bus driver decided to turn back. We found out that a bus has NEVER made it to Bhandar.
We got out at the nearest town, and walked to our destination for the night, arriving at 6pm - 12 hours after we had departed from Kathmandu.