Day: Jan 31, Thursday
My wife has bought a scooter and I am the one who has benefited. I have been driving it around the city and witnessing the traffic fiasco everyday. Now, after almost riding 1000km on the scooter, I feel that: to understand Kathmandu, it’s essential to understand the roads of Kathmandu.
Here is my roadlog of a day.
Time: 7:15 AM Venue: Koteshwor, 100m off Ringroad
The traffic was slow moving because of the queues for petrol/diesel at two gas stations at Jadibuti, near Koteshwor. I was behind a heavy truck when a Pulsar swished through me. A boy was riding it with two girls as pillion riders – a clear violation of the riding rules.
The truck stopped to give a way to a taxi that came on the truck’s lane from the opposite side and the Pulsar could not stop in time. The rider braked the bike but it skidded half-way through and he was hit on chin. Thankfully, he just escaped with a minor cut on the chin and bruises on hands and the girls unhurt.
Time: 3:15 PM, Venue: Balkumari, Ringroad
I saw many people watching for something – I could see nothing. There were police officers and onlookers. When I reached there I noticed pieces of plastic covers of a vehicle spread all over the roads. I stopped to ask what had happened.
“Accident, motorbike rider died instantly,” he said adding that a Microbus was involved in that accident. I was a deadly accident, I can tell from the sight and I just remembered how quick I needed to grab my brakes after seeing a microbus zooming towards me on my lane a few minutes earlier.
Time: 3:30 PM, Venue: Talsikhel, Ringroad
Normally, Ringroad is not the place where traffic jams occur. But the story was different today. I saw a few heavy trucks parked across the road – I know some kind of protest was going on. There was no placard and from the traffic there, I could tell it started not more than half-an-hour ago.
I tried to ask what had happened but no one knew. Just then, an ambulance arrived and stopped. A few people from somewhere came near it signaling it to return. I took a few photos and before I moved towards them I saw a bus moving ahead to provide space to the ambulance. That’s was a good gesture!
Bikers in Kathmandu, as you know all, find space to move ahead in any condition. And, here they found a high-clearance truck that allows them to pass under with their heads bowed to level the handle.
I returned. But before I moved 500m, I saw the traffic moving. I knew the road was now open and turned back. At the place, where the road was blocked, I stopped to ask a truck driver who had just moved his truck out.
“To protest oil shortage,” he said. Why they have withdrawn then? “I think THEY have reached an agreement!”
Time: 7:30 PM Venue: Minbhawan to Subidanagar
It was a traffic jam due to vehicles moving in and out of Shatinagar sub-road. At Min Bhawan, probably 500m, I saw the road jammed as it was a five-lane one-way road. There was no space for vehicles coming from other way for about 100m. I rode on opposite lane and then to the pedestrian’s walk.
At a place I had to stop near the bus carrying picnickers who were seemingly frustrated with vehicles especially bikes coming from opposite on their lane. A motebike with a lady pillion rider was ahead of me.
A picnicker from the bus shouted at the bikes and then to the bike ahead me using such words that made, even me, look away. He repeated used the F-word in Nepali without caring for a lady on the bike near his window.
After crossing Shatinagar on pedestrian’s walk, I saw the similar scene – that all road is blocked by vehicles moving towards Minbhawan.
It’s all in every day’s life of a biker, I believe, in Kathmandu!
