Salim Reshamwala

Ranjan's from the southern plains region.

In terms of language, food, and culture, it's pretty similar to the northern part of India.

It's very flat, so it was relatively easy for him to get around.

But Nayan?

I come from what used to be a pretty remote and disconnected place.

Right now, with all the road connectivity, it's pretty close by.

Like, it's not very far as the crow flies, which is a big disclaimer in Nepal.

Like, it's a small country, but like sometimes it might be just like 80 kilometers as the crow flies, but might take like, you know, eight hours on these crazy roads in the bus or like two days of walk or something like that, right?

Right.

You'll hear as the crow flies a few times in this episode.

But keep in mind that crows flying across gigantic epic mountains have it way easier than people going up and down them.

So as the crow flies tells you basically nothing about how long a journey will be.

As Nayan started traveling around the country, he started realizing just how diverse Nepal's geography is and how even short trips put him in totally new environments.

If you travel from southern plains, like within half an hour, you get so much elevation and you are in a very cool place.

Like the south of Nepal is generally warmer, right?

And then as you're driving south to north from anywhere in Nepal, then you gain so much altitude so immediately, then you're immediately in

30 minutes of driving, you are in a completely new climate, new temperature, new geography, new way of life, new food, new dress up, new, I mean, even like sort of the people's sort of like facial features and like the ethnic groups and they all change.

It's an extremely diverse country in that sense.

If you ask an outsider to picture Nepal, they might think of the Himalayas, those white, snow-capped, silvery mountains, highest in the world.

but travel down toward the midhills, which are still giant, and you'll see what look like tiny threads connecting them.