I am a public transportation-walla and have adapted to including 10-30 additional minutes to my travel time. Why? Simply because to get on time anywhere in the city of Kathmandu you must, must, must take into account traffic, the time of day, the route, sawaris, and the extensive waiting for unknown reasons…which can make for great people watching.

Being a veteran of travelling via micro, I have made some observations about those who travel on them:

1) Everyone is a big fat liar

At least once a day I hear a lie while on a micro. Someone will answer their hindi song ringtone with, “I’M ALMOST AT MAITI GHAR”… except that they just got on at Jawlakhel. And then, it’s necessary to give a time fame, typically the most common being 5-10 minutes, except this could mean anywhere from 15-45 minutes in Nepali time.

Being a girl who likes to be punctual, these lies infuriate me. Not only because the person on the other end of the phone is left waiting (lucky for me, I always carry a book for this reason) but if you’re waiting on the side of the road, you’ll go ahead and wait that “5” minutes instead of going for a coffee, visiting the loo, or being otherwise productive.

Also, why haven’t people figured out that people get more angry when you’ve lied about the estimated time of arrival than just saying “Sorry, I’m running late”

2) Conversations include everyone

So the first point may make me sound like I’m super nosy and listen in on other people’s calls… but the truth it, THEY TALK SO LOUD IT’S HARD NOT TO LISTEN TO THEM. And so you discover things like, how someone will bring the money tomorrow, or how someone was at a friend’s house and not with their boyfriend.

If only this applied to only short phone calls I could deal, but it seems if a conversation happens within the confines of a micro, it must happen at the volume of concerts – and everyone in therefore included in it.

Of course, when certain people talk with the full power of their diaphragm, everyone decides that it’s okay to stare and blatantly listen in. Micro conversations – a communal activity, maybe the Nepal Tourism Board could market it as such.

3) Your ass expands if you have a seat

Sadly, this sense of community does not apply to being accommodating over space. Although technically the second and third rows are meant for two people, it’s customary to squeeze three passengers in the space for two if need be. We’ve all been on the standing side asking meekly for someone to scoot over so you can place half a bum on the edge, but when people are seated they forget that they too have been in that position and getting them to budge is harder than asking politicians to not be corrupt.

4) Rs 1 matters…only if you’re the one losing out

Sometimes, you don’t have exact change, and sometimes, the khalashi bhais don’t have the coins to return. On occasion I’ve lost a rupee, and on others I’ve got a discount. Somewhere along the way I figure it’ll even out. Unfortunately not everyone sees it this way – if a passenger doesn’t get every rupee back they act like one rupee is a good enough reason to wage war. I’ve even seen people resort to foul language, however, if passengers are short of the same amount it’s a casual almost unnoticeable, “bhai, I don’t have a rupee” and that’s supposed to be that. Sounds like major double standards to me.

5) If you’re not the khalashi bhai you’re a hakim-saahib… not

Patrons of the public transportation system often don’t have vehicles of their own, however, since they’re not the cash collector they automatically think they belong on the top of the micro-hierarchy.  This mentality is wrong, and there is no reason for travelers to treat the young boys (on occasion men) with any less respect.

There is no reason why the boys who work hard day should deal with the anger of people having bad days, there’s no need for them to spoken to rudely, and there’s even less reason to ignore what they’re saying.

If everyone in Kathmandu could keep these things in mind, maybe the worst part of traveling would be on the street and it could be a more pleasant experience for those on the inside.

Saani has no real goals and aspirations but she sees opportunity in everything and goes with the flow. This is probably because she loves exploring and discovering. She writes for fun but for the same reason she also cooks, reads, and spends a lot of time on random websites that offer a chance to learn all sorts of tid-bits on life!