Kathmandu 'photos
Wildfox
Anthony Swanston
Fri 28 Jul 2017 02:44
What an
interesting city. In the city centre,
the equivalent of Regent Street in London, there are no big shops. But thousands, literally thousands of little
‘hole in the wall’ places. And the
streets are not paved. Mud and stone
trampled by millions of feet.
I visit a
nice park and when our group gets together we tour the main places still
recovering from the terrible 2015 earthquake.
10,000 people died. The quake
happened at 1030 on a Saturday morning when most people were outside. Had it been a weekday morning when the
schools and offices were open the death toll could have been one million.
Religious life, mainly Buddhism and Hinduism, dominate everything.
The reason I
did not travel far is due to the terrible state of the roads. Damaged by the earthquake much of the remedial
work has been washed away by this year’s heavy monsoon. On the main roads we have an average speed of
12 kilometers per hour. But the dust.
The dust is unbelievable. Almost everything Nepal needs comes by road
from India. The main road is nose to
tail lorries, tankers and gas transporters which are banned from travelling at
night due to the accident risk.
But somehow the
people remain cheerful.
