The bus was slightly less broken than the road. It’s not a highway, it’s a very rough track with landslides having damaged it all along its route. The road is being upgraded but it’ll be 2-5 years before it’s finished at a guess. We took 12 hours, not the advertised 7 hours. We experienced a blow out (fixed very quickly) and electrical failure. Pitch black, no lights for 45 minutes. The three stars are for the crew, especially the driver, who was excellent. I’d turn up at the bus station to get a better rate too. Watch out for dodgy insurance being auto added by 12GO. You have to select no to remove it as opposed to yes to include it. I tried to request a refund but the website didn’t work. Use 12GO as a guide then go local in my opinion.
The bus without AC , unconfortable . As it rained during the trip my two bags arrived full of mud . Driver and asssistant with very nice and helpfull actitude.
I took this ride based on other reviews and in my experience it could have been better. First off when I asked which bus they were they wouldn't say. I stood there asking the same person repeatedly until I saw my name in their list. Second, even though there was space on the bus to sit in a side seat, they put me to the back. It seems foreigners sit in the back despite what they pay, and despite them getting on at the start of the route. But in my case when another woman foreigner got on she was allocated the seat I requested. The guy who did this and had refused me spent much of the journey staring at me knowing, I believe, that he was in the wrong. 3rd, there was a break within an 40 minutes of the ride, then 3 more stops. Stops are good, but getting people to pee on the side of the road because you stayed too long elsewhere was not cool. And the lunch break was so long that all the passengers were outside looking for the drivers. The gist is, it could have been better. It was a bumpy ride on the backseat and they don't decline so if you pay for that, forget it. Thankfully the power sockets worked. The most important thing is they got us to our destination safe, only 30 minutes later than advertised and water was available. I guess the most epic part of the journey was when 2 foreigners made a run for 2 free seats a space ahead. The seat allocator shouted them out and to the back when 2 locals refused to look at the backseats as an alternative. Such drama equates to an adventure. I wish the company well...and anyone else who travels with them.
The van was supposed to leave Kathmandu at 1 p.m. I arrived at the bus stop at 12 p.m. and told the two staff members that I was going to grab something to eat and would be right back. I left my trolley with them behind the counter. Shortly after, I received a call from the driver asking where I was, and he ended by saying he’d be at the bus stop at 1 p.m. When I returned to the bus stop shortly after, my trolley was gone. The staff said it was already in the van, which would be back in five minutes. The van arrived more than forty minutes later. I suspect it had made a tour through Kathmandu to pick up more passengers, because when I booked the day before, almost all the seats had been available, and now the van was full. The trip took nearly two hours longer than indicated at the time of booking. The ride itself was fine; the driver and co-driver were super nice. There were a few breaks, and the van kept stopping along the way to look for more passengers to fill the empty seats whenever someone got off.