Nepal quake was a nightmare, say Indian tourists

A 15-member group of tourists from Indore, who returned home safely after experiencing a "nightmare" in the quake-hit Nepal, won't be able forget the ordeal they faced during the last three days.

“It was like a nightmare for all of us. We are thankful to God that he has protected us, but it is not possible to forget the ordeal that we went through after the high intensity earthquake hit Nepal,” Sanjay Kala, who reached Indore on Monday night via Delhi from Kathmandu, told PTI.

Kala said that his 15-member family group who left for Nepal on April 19, included seven children and eight adults aged 12-50 years. They were scheduled to return on April 25.

“When the powerful earthquake hit the Himalayan nation at around 11.45 am on Saturday, we were on the second floor of a hotel in Kathmandu. Everybody got frightened and began screaming as the entire building started shaking and cracks appeared on its walls. We all panicked and somehow managed to rush to the open parking area,” said the 49-year-old Indore-based businessman.

“Within no time the entire hotel was vacated. A huge crowd of panic-stricken people was seen on the roads. There were tremors all day long in Kathmandu. We spent the night in open in the hotel lawns,” Kala said.

“On April 26 at around 6 am, we somehow managed to hire a taxi for the airport, but our flight got cancelled twice and finally we managed to fly back to Delhi on Monday,” he said.

Kala said that the situation in Nepal is very bad following the calamity. A large number of people are still feared trapped under the debris. The relief work is going on at a slow pace and thousands of people are forced to spend nights in the open.

Following the devastating temblor, there is a huge shortage of food items in Nepal, he said, claiming that a half litre bottle of water was being sold for around Rs 250 at the Kathmandu airport.

Kala said they somehow managed to survive for two days on the dry snacks they took along from Indore.

He said that hundreds of Indian tourists are still stranded at Kathmandu airport. They have no option but to take the aerial route back home as roads at many places, specially those connecting India with the Himalayan nation, were badly damaged following the earthquake.