Stepping into a vehicle in Nepal is, I sometimes feel, a bit like playing Russian roulette. On my very first trip here as a tourist, the bus I was on coming from Pokhara to Kathmandu had a minor crash. Now whether it was the driver’s fault or the fault of the bridge rail­ing which was just kind of standing there, right at the edge of the bridge, I may never know. Luckily, the only one who was injured was me. Due to nerve damage, it was more than seven years before feeling came back into my big right toe. But it was ‘only’ a very minor accident. But every day we read about bus and jeep crashes as the complexity of the landscape, combined with some less than perfect driving, takes its toll. So where does that leave us, the passenger, who needs to get from A to B? Even driving our own bike, cycle, or car leaves us open to others’ bad driving or the whims of the universe. Sure, in every country there are accidents, and some pretty major ones, but what I am really getting at is: why, given the hilly and often bad road conditions, are drivers so gung-ho?

 

Bus drivers are more often than not young guys with an image to keep. And who doesn’t like a young, leather-clad stud, with his own (albeit 48 seater) vehicle? When I lived out in the sticks, the local girls’ eyes lit up at the arrival of certain bus drivers and more often than not there was at least one female sitting up front to keep him company.

 

Even the older guys drive as though the devil is on their tail. Overtake on a blind corner? Why not! Every driver gets excited when a bit of the road opens up. Here is a chance to demonstrate his ability to be in the next Grand Prix. I’m quite surprised there are not more road accidents in Kathmandu than there are. Despite the lack of official driving lessons and knowledge of road signs, drivers in Nepal are fully present 99 percent of the time.

 

Avoiding a stray dog, cow or child is part of what driving is all about, and at that they are experts. Wander onto the road in a British town and you are likely to become toast whether you are a distracted human, stray dog (highly unlikely), or a cow (extremely unlikely). Fully trained and well equipped with a deep understanding of correct road procedures, your average British driver is under-prepared for unusual occurrences. So, yes, despite being, on the whole, horrible drivers deal­ing with horrendous roads, Nepali drivers do have their plus side.

 

And, what is with this extreme, yogi like patience? Being stuck in a traffic jam does not ruffle feathers. Drivers will wait not only patiently but with what appears to be medi­tative mindfulness while the line of cars in front does not move for 10 minutes, or a truck is unloading its goods. Or, my favourite and a reg­ular occurrence on my road, baby chicks are herded up by mother hen.

 

Indeed, maybe us pedestrians need to adopt the guise of chickens in order to cross the road. (I’m sure there is a joke in their somewhere!) Certainly those of us in the guise of zebras are not doing too well. I have noticed that most pedestrians have taken to using zebra crossings. So, obviously it must be those motor­bike helmets and the metal walls of vehicles stopping the flow of infor­mation on these odd, and often fad­ing, white stripes on the road from entering the heads of drivers.

 

While road safety is a very serious topic, sometimes you just have to shrug your shoulders and smile. That, or cry…