Catering 3-wheel handcarts in Bakhtapur, Nepal

April, 2002

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A typical roadside garage in Kathmandhu. This one was next to the ring road, a route I always dreaded riding on my motorcycle. All Nepali roads are a challenge, what with dodging pot-holes, dogs, cows, people, cars, and the extreme levels of dust. But the ring road is the Nepali equivalent of a motorway, despite being just a slightly wider pot-holed two-lane road, and Nepali trucks and buses don’t stop for anything or anyone.

Kathmandu, Nepal, April, 2002
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This strange three-wheeler carrier has no seat for the driver – either the driver sits inside the rear pick-up bed or, when it is full, it is pushed like a hand-cart.

It’s in the renovated medieval city of Bakhtapur (not far from Kathmandhu) which is a World Heritage Site.

Bakhtapur, Nepal, April, 2002

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This Royal Enfield motorcycle rental sign was in the tourist area of Thamel, Kathmandu. For British motorcyclists, India, Nepal and Thailand are excellent places to rent motorcycles – they drive on the same side of the road as us, only usually cost £3 or £4 a day, and in the right season the weather is ideal for two-wheeling.

I’ve also enjoyed a sport in Nepal that can best be described as motorcycle trekking – riding your rented motorcycle up mountain paths to the top. But don’t do what I did: I forgot that it also takes a long time to drive down again; after enjoying the most sublime sunset on top of the mountain, my passenger and I had 3 hours of downhill motorcycling to contend with …in the dark.

Kathmandu, Nepal, April, 2002

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Like the Jagganath Temple chariot in Puri, Orissa, India, this temple chariot is pushed through the streets of Bakhtapur, Nepal once a year. I’m not sure if it fulfills a similar purpose as the one at Puri, which transports the temple deities (statues) to a new resting place for their annual ‘holiday.’

But I do know that it’s a dangerous journey for locals and local buildings alike. There are no brakes, and the giant wheels of these chariots have crushed people to death. When I lived in Nepal there were pictures in the newspaper of an 18th century Bakhtapur house on this chariot’s route with the entire front caved in where the chariot went off the road.

Bakhtapur, Nepal, April, 2002

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