ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 89/342/1: KATHMANDU, NEPAL

Today is the 43rd anniversary of 18th September, 1980, the departure date and Day 1 of our Kathmandu to London Top Deck overland trip on Knackers, a 1954 Bristol Double Decker. The late, great, Gary Hayes was our driver, I was the courier, and Corrie Searle (nee Van Oostveen) and myself were accompanied by 18 punters. The overland journey was, is, and always will be, an adventure trip, but it is also in our opinion, the best. The trip was scheduled to depart Kathmandu on 11 September, 1980 and we departed only one week late, on 18 September, 1980.

The 1979/1980 Top Deck Asian Overland brochure includes our scheduled  itinerary and is here -

http://asianoverland.net/Top%20Deck%20Asian%20Overland%20Brochure%201979-80%20Version%202.pdf

This is the first post from the trip, which the punters and crew recorded in the Day Book Corrie and I have kept for the past 43 years. This post, and others that follow, are a tribute to all of the drivers, crew and punters who have managed to complete an Asian Overland trip, which really is a great achievement, irrespective of who they travelled with, and when they travelled.

These travel diary posts are also intended to help others who have dreamed of doing an overland trip, by showing you our itinerary, other possible itineraries, things to do, and linking you to the places, photos and highlights along the way, for this 11 week Kathmandu to London  trip. If you’re stuck at home and/or unable to travel, these posts may help you have a virtual trip, or plan a new one.

Each day I give the punters a little spiel about a special feature, adventure, destination or country we are travelling through. I try to tell you something you don't know about a country, place or people, rather than repeat what you already know.

We often used to joke as we were travelling, that the world outside our bus windows wasn’t real, but was really a cardboard cut-out, put there so you can imagine you are on an overland trip. It’s hard to imagine the greatest views in the world, but if you look out the windows as we travel from Kathmandu through Nepal, you really are seeing the best views in the world. In today’s internet world, you can add your own photos if you’ve previously travelled to Nepal, and if you haven’t, you can add your own photos or cardboard cutout photos for your own virtual trip. I’m the tour guide or courier on this overland trip. Gary Hayes is still our driver, bless his soul. Corrie is still in charge of the cooking, kitchen and food shopping, and all punters are rostered on in pairs for three days of cooking, dish washing and/or bus cleaning, as per the roster I have prepared at the back page of this Day Book.

All along the windows on the horizon to our north, are the magnificent Himalayas, and our destination today is Nagarkot, which is widely regarded as having the best viewing spots for Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain. Along the way, we’ll stop for a tour of Bhaktapur, a world UNESCO heritage site, with some of the best temples featuring ancient and erotic art. Kama Sutra erotic art is best known in India, especially the temples of Khajuraho , which we will visit after Varanasi. However, the temples of Bhaktapur which we visit today, are equally highly regarded – you be the judge.

Nepal has featured in Indian Hindu history for thousands of years, and is a Hindu monarchy. Nepal is also the birthplace of Buddha in 563 BCE. We will visit Buddha’s birthplace before we leave Nepal, close to the Indian border. Nepal has always been a spiritual place, sharing both the Hindu (80%) and Buddhist religions (10%).

From time immemorial, Nepal in general and Bhaktapur in particular, has been on the trade route between Tibet and India. Nepal has never been colonised. Nepal has always been an effective barrier between the giants of India to the south and China to the north. Nepal invaded Tibet twice, in 1788 and in 1791. On the second occasion, the Nepalese were defeated by the Qing dynasty and had to accept Chinese suzerainty, as did Tibet.

When the British were at their colonising, marauding best, the British invaded Nepal from India in 1815. However, the British underestimated the fighting spirit of the Nepalese Gurkhas, and were unable to defeat them. Thereafter, Nepal overcame the British Raj by closing its borders. China did as well, after ceding Hong Kong to the British for 150 years to end the opium wars.

With my daily spiel done, and the punters walking around Durbar Square in Bhaktapur (same name as Durbar Square in Kathmandu), and later trying to view Mount Everest through the heavy cloud (we can’t help the weather), I thought about some of the itinerary problems we have to deal with on this trip in 1980. To put it bluntly, I’m very pessimistic about being able to travel back through Iran or Afghanistan (although I would never say this to the punters).

Gary Hayes and I drove Knackers on the previous outgoing overland from London to Kathmandu, departing 12 June, 1980, and arrived in Kathmandu only one week late on 28 August, 1980. One week late is pretty good timeliness for Top Deck overlands. On the outgoing overland, I had to spend a week in Ankara, Turkey, at the Iranian Embassy, getting visas for the punters to travel through Iran (no American visas were issued, and my three American punters had to fly over Iran). Our visas were the last Iran visas Top Deck crew managed to obtain up to now. If we can’t get Iran visas, then we can’t realistically travel overland back to Turkey, at least on the roads I know of. Nor can any more Double Deckers cross from Turkey to Pakistan and India.

From my viewpoint in Tehran on the way east, facing down the barrels of about 30 Uzi submachine guns held by angry Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the Persians are angry and getting angrier. The Persians had ruled Iran for about 2,500 years of consecutive rule until a CIA coup led to the Shah taking power in 1953. In 1979, overwhelming Iranian people power led to the Ayatollahs taking back control of Iran. When we drove through Tehran in July, 1980, there were millions of angry people yelling “Death To America”. We managed to escape the masses and travel to the outskirts of Tehran where we stopped outside a school for a short break.

Our bus Knackers was immediately surrounded by aggressive Revolutionary Guards with Uzi submachine guns pointed at our faces. We managed to escape again, but I wasn’t looking forward to repeating the experience. Apparently, we had stopped outside the school where the American hostages were being held. The Revolutionary Guards must have thought that, with the American rescue mission helicopters having crashed in the desert, Plan B was a double decker bus with a top speed of 80 kph making a dash to the border 2000 kilometres away!! (The movie Argo made in 2012 is incredibly realistic in the way it records a similar escape mission from Tehran at the same time we were in Tehran, and sends shivers down my spine when I watch it, as it brings back clear nightmarish memories of our 1980 Tehran adventure).

Afghanistan is also not a good option. The Russian backed Afghan Government had proposed many reforms to women’s rights, marriage law, and land law to the Afghan feudal system. In response to these reforms, the west led by the CIA, funded and provided weapons to radical Islamic groups opposed to women’s rights and marriage reform, creating the mujahadeen, Bin Laden, al quaeda, and the Taliban. The CIA-backed Islamic uprising against the reforms led to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The war is pretty hot in 1980, and doesn’t look like easing soon enough for us to travel through Afghanistan. The last two Top Deckers which travelled through Afghanistan in 1979, were in the war zone and had to cross the front in dangerous circumstances.

Another itinerary problem is the monsoonal floods, which were so bad last month, that we couldn’t cross the Ganges at Varanasi or any bridge south or east of Varanasi. The only bridge crossing was back west past Kanpur, and across the Ganges to Lucknow, travelling along “roads” which Deckers had never been across before. If we have to go that way again, I’ll need an axe, as Deckers are 4.1 meters in height and ox carts are much smaller. But we can cross that bridge when we come to it (or not, as in the case of 4 out of 5 bridges I tried to cross the Ganges in India last month).

The only solution to the itinerary problems is to keep rolling the bus west and make a decision on the route across Iran or Afghanistan by Lahore in Pakistan (Day 21 in the brochure, but don’t count on it), or further south along the Indus river before the turnoff to Iran at Sukkur.

Another little problem is that Top Deck hasn’t sent me any trip money (Bugs Bunny) yet, so I’ll have to wait in Kathmandu for the Bugs, and let the bus go on to Pokhara without me. Hence, the real reason we had started the overland west by going east to the beautiful Nepalese towns of Bhaktapur and Nagarkot. It's pretty obvious what you do when you start an overland without trip money - you head to Bhaktapur and Nagarkot for the punters to enjoy kama sutra wood carvings and the beautiful views of Mount Everest. It was extremely overcast when we arrived at Nagarkot, so the punters didn't enjoy the view of Mount Everest, but the view of Knackers was pretty good, same with P.K, the manager of the Nagarkot Lodge where we stopped.

In summary, we’ve started this Asian Overland with no money and no realistic itinerary, but in true Top Deck fashion, we’ll do it anyway.

China and Tibet are still closed in 1980, so the Himalayan view you are looking at, is effectively the end of the overland road. Looking through the clouds, fog and mist towards the direction of Mount Everest, Corrie and I resolved to cross the closed border from Tibet into Nepal as soon as the border opens. As it turned out, the border opened in 1985, much earlier than we had expected, and we had great views of Mount Everest as we crossed the Himalayas from Tibet into Nepal across the Himalayas in 1985.

The latest reference book for Top Deck Overlands is Ian Hall's “Overland with Top Deck. A dog’s life”, available on Amazon in print and as a Kindle. Also, Trevor Carroll’s Crossing Continents with Top Deck, a great book and an easy ready.

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