Dave Tapsell
Overland Buses (xx)
Nepal: October 1975
The Dutch 45-seater Van Hool, left-hand-drive bus I had driven from Istanbul to Delhi with a full load of passengers. Now empty, it is photographed on the road from Pokhara to Kathmandu, in Nepal. On arrival in Delhi, enough new passengers were found to fund a two-day round trip down to Agra and the Taj Mahal. This bus was not returning to Europe so I drove it empty across northern India and up into, and across Nepal so it could be sold in Kathmandu. There was no hurry so I took my time; it was strange to drive the thing with no passengers to think about. I'd been tempted to buy the bus myself and run it for two or three or trips between Istanbul and Kabul, and back. I'm glad now that I didn't buy it because not every trip could've run as smoothly as that particular one.
Although it was a superb bus to drive, it was too large for most of the Nepalese roads, with their narrow mountain passes and hairpin bends – it had already proved to be almost too long to negotiate the very tight left turn required to access the roadway deck of the old Attock Bridge across the River Indus in Pakistan.
Overland Buses (xx)
Nepal: October 1975
The Dutch 45-seater Van Hool, left-hand-drive bus I had driven from Istanbul to Delhi with a full load of passengers. Now empty, it is photographed on the road from Pokhara to Kathmandu, in Nepal. On arrival in Delhi, enough new passengers were found to fund a two-day round trip down to Agra and the Taj Mahal. This bus was not returning to Europe so I drove it empty across northern India and up into, and across Nepal so it could be sold in Kathmandu. There was no hurry so I took my time; it was strange to drive the thing with no passengers to think about. I'd been tempted to buy the bus myself and run it for two or three or trips between Istanbul and Kabul, and back. I'm glad now that I didn't buy it because not every trip could've run as smoothly as that particular one.
Although it was a superb bus to drive, it was too large for most of the Nepalese roads, with their narrow mountain passes and hairpin bends – it had already proved to be almost too long to negotiate the very tight left turn required to access the roadway deck of the old Attock Bridge across the River Indus in Pakistan.