Kathmandu – Farewell My…. China

Kathmandu Tourist Bungallow 200 NRs for a big double bed room with attached luxurious bathroom (sometimes I need luxury also, )

From Nyalam to Zhangmu (Chinese-Nepali border) it’s a 30 km journey down the hill. And the scenery is completely different. Here, it looks quite like indonesia, green forests (compared to rainforests of Java), plus the snow peaks far away there. Again, the driver often stops the truck to let me take pictures of the scenery (even sometimes I dont think there is something to photo about). This highway is the longest road in China, more than 5300 kms starting from shanghai to Zhangmu.

Arriving in Zhangmu quite early in the morning. In order to avoid the problem with police (truck drivers are not allowed to take passengers) I got off some meters before the checkpoint and walked my way there. Zhangmu is quite a “long” town, down the way to Nepal. So the direction used here is “up” or “down”. My driver refused my payment for the lift, so I traveled the 200 km from Tingri for free, merely that because I am a student of Tsinghua. The driver was so proud about this, borrowed my student card and showed it to many people, then took a photo of it with his mobile phone.

OK, I stayed quite long day in Zhangmu waiting for the other Chinese travelers hitching the other truck. And they arrived in the afternoon, before they told me that they didnt want to cross today. So about 4 pm I decided to cross the border. Once my passport was stamped, I found anomaly on my camera ( oh no, this is the new camera i am relying on). BTW the exchange rate of yuan to Rupees is highest in Zhangmu, about 8.83 NRs to a yuan.

With the camera broken, I decided to go to Kathmandu as soon as possible to have it repaired. After crossing the border, I took shared taxi (1000 NRs). In Nepal sides, there are so many checkpoints, due to the current political situation. The scenery is pretty much the same as Indonesia (surprise…) minus the people and buildings.

I decided to go to Thamel, quite much like Khaosan in Bangkok, just to find convinience for searching where I should repair my camera. The taxi driver here is so friendly that he helped me to find hotel and bargain for each hotel we attempted. And although 2000 rupees is quite expensive for me, but with my mood at this moment, I take this luxurious room.