Traffic Violations Kathmandu

Posting here on behalf of the Facebook group "Traffic Violations Kathmandu", please spread the word.

We all drive and walk the road and street of Kathmandu everyday and are witness to a very large number of traffic law violations, loud horns, bright headlights, cars and bikes swerving everywhere, not stopping for pedestrians at zebra crossings, micros and tempos stopping in the middle of the way etc etc.

Time has now come that we do something about it!

I made this group so that we can post photos of traffic violations we see in the roads of Kathmandu. Please remember that we aim to put photos here so that people who are reponsible to correct the traffic situation can see these photos and make action based on them.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT DO NOT TAKE PHOTOS WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING. WE DO NOT WANT TO CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS OR ACCIDENTS BY USING CAMERA WHEN DRIVING.

Thank you and PS Add your friends!

http://on.fb.me/ktmroads

A bandh day - 9 April 2012

9 April 2012, bandh imposed in the Kathmandu valley and the Bagmati zone by Rastriya Janamorcha (National People's Front) to demand and pressure for a timely constitution promulgation and that federalism should not be implemented in Kathmandu.

Decently effective bandh with very little traffic movement.

New Baneshwor Chowk at 6:15 AM

Heading east on Maitighar - Tinkune road, approaching New Baneshwor Chowk...

Engines cannot run without fuel!

Contrary to what many people think, this is true, engines - be it railway, aeroplane, ship, motorcycle, moped, scooter, car, truck, bus, my favorite "bull"dozer or any other contraption - need fuel.

What is fuel?
Firewood is fuel
Paper (when burnt) is fuel
Infact many things out there are fuel.

But for our friends, the nice contraptions mentioned above and again, my favorite "bull"dozer, firewood or the rolls upon rolls of paper just won't cut it... They love petroelum... it is their fuel...

Engines cannot run without fuel!!!


by a long shot this has to be the most idiotic, stupid and utterly nonsense post I have written in recent days, but I will say again - Engines cannot run without fuel!

Drinking responsibly, Driving responsibly

Time and again, driving along major roads, looking at newspaper and magazine advertisements and also countless ads on the TV set, we are bombarded again and again by this message, some call it Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - "Do not mix Drink and Drive" or "Drink Responsibly" etc etc...

It is easier said than done, there are hundreds of urban myths and legends surrounding the Drink, multiply this number by say a thousand and you get the permutation of legends and myths about Drinking and Driving.

One of my favorites is "If you can't sign your name after x number of drinks, you've had too many!"

But I have personally violated this rule and seen it violated by many of my friends and colleagues.

I for one always know when I have had enough and to what extend I can control my ride, be it a bi-cycle, a motorbike, a car or a 4x4. I do not want to dive into my drinking habits, but just want to make a simple point:

The best judge of how much a person had drunk and to what extent he/she can control his/her bike, car or even walk, is that person himself/herself.

Here comes the catch, the person has to be aware that he/she is his/her own judge...

I will never get behind the wheel or the handle if I can't handle it. For me, this is drinking responsibly, this is driving responsibly.

Kathmandu valley bandh - 25 January 2012

Different student unions today imposed a bandh in Kathmandu valley, that spans cities in three districts - Bhaktapur to the East, Kathmandu in the center and Lalitpur to the South (looking from Kathmandu point of view).

Now I do not want to give an all encompassing overview of the bandh, I am just going to write about how I perceived the bandh in my short 8km walk today (Yeah! Short it was!!! Legs aching)

Uploaded below is a map of the route I took, I have tried to make it as nice as I can but I'm quite challenged when it comes to matters of drawing or art.

I started at the bottom right corner of the Map, and took the green route ending up at the top left corner. :-) Here is what I saw along the route:

• 3 Ambulances and 1 Hospital staff bus.
• 2 Police Jeeps and two trucks
• 3 Motorcycles, one was kind enough to give me a short lift of about 500 meters when the kind man got a call on his cellphone that come home or something.
• 2 cars of diplomatic missions.
• About 10 cycles.
• 5 rubbish collection rickshaws.

I will continue to tweet (@bullet350) about the bandh and also maybe follow up with a blog post later about my walk back.

Additional news of the bandh can be found at:

• बन्दले उपत्यका सहित विभन्न जिल्लाको जनजीवन प्रभावित (Kantipur (in Nepali), http://www.ekantipur.com/np/2068/10/11/full-story/341731.html)
• Students union enforce valley banda against fuel price hike (Kantipur, http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/01/25/top-story/students-union-enforce-valley-banda-against-fuel-price-hike/347789.html)
• Valley banda cripples normal life (Republica, http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=41218)
• Students refuse to budge; bandh cripples country's capital (The Himalayan Times, http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Students+refuse+to+budge%3B+bandh+cripples+country%27s+capital+&NewsID=317986)
  

Easier getting into Kathmandu

On numerous occasions, I have waited for a fairly long length of time to get into Kathmandu city when driving into the capital (both from eastern - Bhaktapur route and western Thankot route), once I remember spending as much as 8 hours in a traffic jam at Kalanki.

More recently however, there is a welcome difference to this, better traffic management, i.e. more traffic police at the site and concrete road dividers (that I've seen stopping a LandCruiser driving at 120 kmph+ in its tracks, ofcourse the LC collided with it!) and road widening...

Now the drive from Thankot inside and crossing Kalanki is, dare I say it, quite easy...

Today, it was picked up by a news paper (Republica), here's a link to the story: http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=40974

YouTube video - World's Most Dangerous Roads - Nepal (2011) [BBC]

Welcome!

Welcome to Riding Bullets, my attempt at rationalizing in expressions and wording in thoughts about some journeys I undertook along some of the most beautiful places on this earth, these include road, off-road and trail journeys, some of which can be classified as adventures...

I will try to include maps, contact details and other useful resources that could be of use to other travelers who undertake the same journeys.

All for now, I will kick of this blog with a video I recently saw on YouTube.