Our major challenge today was finding a working ATM. The one we used yesterday at the bank was broken, so we set out to find the other one Becky showed us yesterday. We did some shopping along the way at the frw shops that were open (the bookstore,a small grocery store and a camera store to buy film). We eventually found an ATM near the Kathmandu Guest House, which also looked like a very nice place to stay.
After we got our money, I decided to sit in the restaurant/bar area of the Guest House and have a beer and write some notes, and Shari went off to use the internet. When she came back, we got a pizza for lunch,,then went back to the bookstore and then back to the hotel. We put some stuff that we wouldn't need on our trek in the storage facility, and got our packs all ready for the early morning start. We had already put our valuables in a safe deposit box at the hotel, so we were all set to leave right after breakfast.
4/21: Nar was at the hotel at 6:30 AM with our taxi to take us to the bus station. The bus station was a crazy place - buses and people everywhere. We met Singa and Pratik and then Nar led us to our bus and they loaded our packs and their gear onto the top of the bus and tied it on with ropes. The bus didn't leave until about 7:15 AM, and Shari and I, and two women from Canada, were the only Westerners on the bus. It wasn't full when we left the station but people got on at various times so it got pretty much filled up along the way.
It was no where near as bad as I expected - no goats on the bus and no one got sick. It was a crazy ride though, along narrow, curvy streets with lots of traffic while we were getting out of Kathmandu and then each time we passed through a village. It was supposed to be about a 7 hour bus ride but we got to Besisahar at 1:30 PM, so we only had to breathe desisel fumes for 6 hours, not 7 hours.
I am amazed at how closely all the vehicles pass each other and how often the drivers honk their horns (pretty much every time they pass a vehicle or person walking in either direction). I couldn't even begin to figure out how they know when someone wants to to get on the bus because there are people everywhere on the side of the road. There was a young boy (maybe 14 or 15) who acted like a conductor. He stood in the open doorway of the bus and called out something (probably our destination) and then he would signal the driver when to stop and start by banging on the door.
W stopped for 2 breaks (snack and lunch) and Shari and I both had a very common dish here - Daal Baht. It is lentils, rice and vegetables. It is served on a stainless steel tray with a heap of boiled rice, a bowl of soupy lentils and a serving of curried vegetables. The Nepalis eat it with their hand (they use only their right hands for eating), but they gave us spoons to use.
We stopped at one village, at an army barricade and all the men needed to get off the bus and walk up past the barricade before they could get back on the bus. The tourists, the Nepali women and children were all allowed to stay on the bus. Nar told us they were checking for Maoists (the terrorists in Nepal).
Becky had suggested that we walk about an hour out of Besisahar to a tea house to stay today, but it looked like rain when we got off the bus so Nar tried to find us a room. No luck - all sold out because of many tourists. In any event, it didn't rain and we ended up walking about 2 hours to our first tea house. Singa and Portik were carrying the big packs, so it was quite a nice walk along a dirt road. We saw lots of terraced hills (where they grow rice) and caught glimpses of snow-capped mountains.
I took a variety of pictures today but I think alot of them won't be very good because someone always seemd to walk in front of me just as I snapped the picture. Oh well, hopefully I captured some of the interesting sightsI saw today. I took some pictures of the tea house, so people can see what kind of places we stay in.
We stopped for the night at a tea house in Khudi. Our tea house is basically a couple of wooden buildings with very small bedrooms, a cement building with 2 toilets (eastern style) and 2 washrooms, a small wooden building that is the kitchen, and another wooden building where we ate.
Nar got us our room and then came by to ask if we wanted anything to drink. He also brought menues so we could write down what we wanted for dinner (and what time we wanted to eat) in the tea house book. The owner will record the prices for the food and our room in the book and the cost of the breakfast (we will select what we want after dinner) ands then we will review the bill and pay it in the morning before we leave. The rooms with 2 twin beds are called double rooms and tonight our double room costs 180 Rupees (about US$1.20 each).
Nar came by to get our filter and our water bottles so he could filter water for us and then he broguht me my tea (lemon tea that is quite good). Such service! I will be spoiled by the time this trip is over.
The dinner menu was quite extensive - rice and noodle dishes, pizza, salads, spring rolls, soup, desserts and the breakfast menu had lots of choices too. We can't eat salads or fruit that can't be peeled because the water is not safe. All the food must be cooked and the drinks served hot, like the tea. We can't even use the water to brush our teeth, we must use filtered water. It's only 5:45 PM and we won't be eating until 6:30 PM so I am relaxing, doing my notes and then I'm going to read my book.
I still can't believe I'm here. I'm sitting at a little table and bench oustide my room, listening to the river rush by and in front of me is a beautiful scene. The river is down below me and there are terraced rice fields across the river with big, tree-covered mountains all around me.
Dinner was late getting started and slow to be cooked and served, so we didn't finish until about 8 PM. I think Nar helped cook, and he served us our food. It was pretty good, but we will be living oin the same things for 30 days in a row. Nar decided he didn't want us to eat breakfast there so he asked if we would mind starting about 6:30 AM and eating after we hiked awile. We said fine.
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