Flying back to Kathmandu was a relief since we had bad weather and there were no planes coming in a one point. However, once back in all the dust and noise, this relief was soon replaced with stress.
We spent a further 2 more days in Kathmandu to sort out our gear to be shipped back to the UK since we had accumulated a ton of trekking gear for our time in the Himalayas.
Our bus for Pokhara left Kathmandu around 7am from a rotten part of town. Graham managed to fall over under the weight of his backpack which made me laugh since I enjoy seeing him in distress. Our bus (a tourist bus) was ok, we had seat numbers and were told the journey was around 5-6 hours. After 2 hours we managed to get out of Kathmandu borders and headed along a half tarmac, half rubble road. At around 10am we stopped in a small village, not sure why, but we grinded to a halt. There was a local dispute where a villager was upset by someone who had short changed him over something, so he wanted a police resolution.
In Nepal, there isn’t really a legal system so people do whatever they can to get some interest from the authorities. A good way of doing this is by forming a blockade in the main highway between Kathmandu and Pokhara. For 3 hours we waited until eventually the army turned up to get things moving. We arrived in Pokhara around 5pm, still light thankfully, and a mere 4 hours late. We found a small quiet guesthouse, checked in and went for a feeding.
Over the next few days in Pokhara we did plan to do a long trek, however graham was still very weak from malnutrition so we skipped that and relaxed for two days. We did however, climb a high to the World Peace Stuppa which gave clear views of the smog over the city. The lake in Pokhara is huge, mainly because of the hydro-electrical dam that provides 20 hours of electricity. Yes, twice a day there are scheduled 2-hour power cuts. It is strange that everyone accepts this and does nothing about it even though it affects business, solar panels would be the solution but these people do not seem to see the wood through the trees on some things.
We left Pokhara on 19/12/09 heading for the border with India. On the bus we met a dutch girl (Susan) whom was going the same way as us so we became aquainted and started discussing the travels. Our bus was a local bus this time and the journey was hell since we passed so many smashed up vehicles in the ditches including a local bus. Our driver was a maniac and determined to break the world bus speed limit on a windy road with a shear cliff face to one side. To our relief we changed buses after 3 hours at the lunch stop. This change was just the first of four, not sure why but kept changing into smaller buses all the way to the border town. We finally ended up stacked high on a unicycle for the final 200 metres. We arrived at the border town at dusk, found a cheap very basis room and went out for dinner. There was no point crossing into India tonight since we were all tired and had had enough travelling for one day. The next day we planned to visit Lumbini (Buddha birth place) but there had been some Moaist activity in Nepal so the entire country was going on strike for 3 days. We had been very lucky to get to the border when we did, that’s for sure, but it did scupper our plans for Lumbini since there was no way of getting there unless we walked for 4 hours each way.
We left Pokhara on 19/12/09 heading for the border with India. On the bus we met a dutch girl (Susan) whom was going the same way as us so we became aquainted and started discussing the travels. Our bus was a local bus this time and the journey was hell since we passed so many smashed up vehicles in the ditches including a local bus. Our driver was a maniac and determined to break the world bus speed limit on a windy road with a shear cliff face to one side. To our relief we changed buses after 3 hours at the lunch stop. This change was just the first of four, not sure why but kept changing into smaller buses all the way to the border town. We finally ended up stacked high on a unicycle for the final 200 metres. We arrived at the border town at dusk, found a cheap very basis room and went out for dinner. There was no point crossing into India tonight since we were all tired and had had enough travelling for one day. The next day we planned to visit Lumbini (Buddha birth place) but there had been some Moaist activity in Nepal so the entire country was going on strike for 3 days. We had been very lucky to get to the border when we did, that’s for sure, but it did scupper our plans for Lumbini since there was no way of getting there unless we walked for 4 hours each way.
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