I was in Nepal from Early 1986 and in India during the same times from about January until April with my family that year. In India, I often rode on top of buses when the journey was on the level because of the heat. Though this sounds strange there is a metal and wire enclosure on the roof on most buses (at least in 1986) where men often rode on the roof because often people were smoking or eating and spitting Beetlejuice (Betal Nut) inside and often it was very hot most of the year as well and generally public buses then did not have Air conditioning unless you were in a chartered upper class bus for longer distances than just city travel then.
However, often limbs and wires of phone lines and power lines barely cleared the top of the bus so if you weren't very vigilant you would be thrown off the bus or killed by a line or a tree limb or a traffic signal if you weren't careful. So, because of this I tended only to ride on top on the warmest of days when traveling and sometimes my step son and my son also rode on top with me and other men sitting on top of luggage stored there while holding on to the railing so we wouldn't fall off. I was 37 then and so capable of doing things like this and had quite a sense of adventure about the whole thing.
One of the worst stories a friend of mine told me of regarding buses was why I didn't take my family into Tibet. At that time you could not fly to Lhasa because China and Tibet were just opening up to western people then and a friend of mine that I met in India told me about his journey into Tibet by Bus from Nepal. His bus came across a bus full of dead people including the driver when it broke down on a 20,000 foot pass going into Tibet from Nepal. The people were all freeze dried in the bus and when the bus broke down they couldn't breathe well enough to survive or do anything about it and froze quite quickly. He said there bodies had been freeze dried already for over a month then. This made me decide not to take my family by bus into Tibet.
Never sit in the back of a bus in Nepal or India. The reason for this is the roads. Often they are not maintained like roads in the U.S. so there are often foot deep chuckholes in them. So, when a bus hits a chuckhole in the road if you are sitting in the back of a bus you will be catapulted and hit your head on the ceiling. This happened to my whole family the first time we rode a bus in India. We never sat in the back while riding a bus ever again while in India or Nepal.
30 killed, 35 injured in Nepal bus accident
KARE 11 Minneapolis-St. Paul5 hours ago30 people killed, 35 injured when overcrowded bus veers off mountain road in Nepal
The Canadian Press via Yahoo Canada News3 hours ago30 dead in Nepal after bus plunges over cliff
AFP via Yahoo! India News5 hours ago
- Nov 02, 2015 · An official says an overcrowded bus carrying passengers inside and on its roof veered off a mountain road in northwest Nepal, killing 30 people and ...
- Nov 02, 2015 · KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A bus packed with passengers riding both inside and on its roof veered off a mountain road in northwest Nepal on Tuesday, killing ...
- ASK NEWS: 30 Killed, 35 Injured in Nepal Bus Accident - ABC News 30 killed, 35 injured in Nepal bus accident - Ledger-Enquirer 11/3/2015 - 5:55 am | View Link
- The above video is not the one that killed 30 and injured 35 but it is another bus accident
- that happened in what looks a lot like India or Nepal by the way people are acting in this incident. Bus accidents are very common in this region of the world for a variety of reasons.
To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future
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