Kathmandu Traffic Jam

The traffic in the Kathmandu Valley is crazy. There is only one main highway heading west out of the city towards Pokhara, and it's only two lanes wide. As is one in each direction, along a twisty, windy, ill-maintained mountain road. The roads in the city aren't too good, so everyday hundreds of trucks bring repair supplies into the valley and city. The trucks are overloaded and in dubious condition to begin with (we saw one that had no front, the pedals were literally hanging in mid-air), and on a road that can't support that volume or weight of vehicles, so it's super slow going getting into the city on the best of days. This is a traffic jam where you park. There is even a guy selling ice-cream along the side of the highway.
All the little vehicles (ours included) are weaving around the bigger ones whenever possible, but nothing can go fast. Even the emergency vehicles are hampered by the gridlock. This road sees it's share of cars and trucks going over the edge too. Right now I'm looking across the valley to the road on the other side (which we still need to get to, and then some more) where a truck is pointing straight down the side of the ridge. It's been winched up from where it fell to, but it doesn't look good!
The day after finishing ABC, I headed from Pokhara to Kathmandu with Caitlin and everyone from Gorkha. Just our luck, it was the day before a strike. And just like that first week trying to get from Shivapuri to the Riverside Inn, everyone and his brother was trying to get into the city that day, as they wouldn't be able to the next. Caitlin, Hari and Ed were supposed to have another day in Pokhara, but had to change their plans and come to Kathmandu a day early. So here I am sitting in a parked microbus that has every window open but is stull really hot, writing this because there's nothing else to do. Luckily the six of us, together with a few of our ABC guides, rented a private bus, so it's not as bad as it could be. Still hot and boring though. We even managed to play a few hands of rummy while the bus was stopped.
You can tell that the monsoon is getting closer. It's still a couple of months away, but already it's far far dustier in the valley than it was even a month ago when Caitlin and I came down for the weekend. It's gotten hotter too. Trucks, buses, cars and microbuses all have doors and windows wide open. It might just be because 4 days ago I was in the middle of a circle of mountains where it frosted overnight, but it's definitely gotten hotter. I'm having the same feeling as Lumbini, where I could handle the heat because I knew I was going somewhere cooler in just a few days. In this case it's Everest Base Camp, and it's looming; we're leaving in just 3 days. For once in my life I can't wait for cold weather. I don't even want to think about how hot it's going to be in India. It's already too hot to be hungry here. It's too hot to do anything.