These are the travels of the spaceship Enterprise and it’s quest to go where no man has gone before. 

 …oops wrong show. Actually this is the beginning of my trek to Everest Base Camp or EBC for short. This being the prologue there is not a lot of walking and a great deal of driving involved and as with all great adventures this trip starts at Ratna Park bus station in the middle of Kathmandu.  A dirty, noisy and smelly place
it’s greatest benefit is that it’s close to my hotel.

The driver puts his favourite Hindi music tape on, dials the volume up to distortion level and the bus lurches out of the station right on time then promptly stops five minutes down the road and waits for half an hour for more passengers before continuing on its journey. The driver is a bit of a maniac who tailgates everything in front of him and then of course has to violently brake as soon as those in front of him slow down which sends people and luggage flying through the bus. A regular Nepali bus ride then. 

On the upside once we leave Kathmandu the air quality improves dramatically and I settle in for the nine hour ride to Jiri. 

Shorty after lunch the road works start. I traveled this road last just after the earthquake and it was perfectly fine. Now in the name of improving it 30 kilometres of it has been dug up and turned into dusty potholes as if the country hasn’t got anything else to do like rebuild houses or so. 

It’s dark by the time we get to Jiri. I literally have bruises from all the shaking about. Another fine day.