Nepal 2015 - Pokhara-Neyapul-Hille

< Nepal 2015 - the adventure begins

We've started our journey - by van from Kathmandu to Pokhara, then bus to Neyapul and the start of our hiking.

The van ride to Pokhara was such fun.  We all sat in the back, with two next to the driver.  We meandered out of Kathmandu in all the traffic of the morning.  The road is one of the best in Nepal, but it is really little more than a rural two lane road.  With loads of traffic.  And potholes that could misplace a wee motorcycle.  The people in the front only squealed once or twice on the trip.  On coming traffic always got out of the way.  We stopped for tea and lunch and arrived after about 8 hours in Pokhara.

Our accommodation was very central to the tourist area and nice and clean.  With an en-suite.  And a television.  Toby loved it!

We left Pokhara early in the morning after a great lunch outside in a place called Paradise. Initially we got confused because we started to enter another place also called paradise. Pretty sure it's ok to have multiple paradises in a Buddhist country.

The lake 

Breakfast was toast (with Marmite - and it's very popular with the group) and omelette and potato (with onions and chillies). It seems to be a common breakfast.

The night before we wandered down to a place that served pizza among other yummy food. I ate dhal makhani. It's my favourite in Wellington too. It was good here though. Yum. Mind you, given every second meal is lentils based, my stomach is busy processing that sudden increase in beans. Lucky I'm only sharing a room with Mike and Toby. Toby ordered ham pizza and it was delicious. Mike got chicken tikka masala. I tried some and it was good too.

With no one around, we have these big places to ourselves. The place must be heaving ordinarily.  Mike indicated that was how he saw it the previous year.

Anyway, after a great sleep and breakfast, we took a bus for 30 km and 1.5 hours to Neyapul. From there we started our trek. It was easy, but steadily uphill for most of it. A huge river thundered down the valley beside us. It looked like it was out of New Zealand. Clear, fast water.

It was really hot work. The sun beat down almost the entire walk. We stopped for tea and a drinks break twice. The rest are fit enough and Toby did well. Mike was rather exhausted. When they fed us a late lunch at our accommodation, Mike snuggled in his bed and slept. I washed some clothes in their hose pipe. My shirt, two pairs of socks and some undies. Unfortunately they are hanging outside our room in full view of everyone walking past. Oh well.

I'm not sure they will dry. The air is humid. Not the best drying weather.

I also had a shower. They have this sign on the door saying five minute hot shower. But the shower room is like a dank, dark, wet cave. The sort of place you can't drop anything otherwise it'll be soaked. Even brushing up against anything will make it wet. So you balance precariously on your sandals while trying to shed items of clothing and not to drop them or let them touch something. There are wee hooks and nails to hang up things and slimy shelves to put things.

Eventually you're naked and approach the myriad of taps and pipes. Turning some does nothing obvious. Maybe the central tap that seems superfluous does actually control the flow of water. Turn that. Yes! Out comes a trickle of cold water. The other taps just look confusing. So you resign yourself to a cold shower, thankful it's been a hot sweaty day and is still warm outside your dank cave. You only use shampoo because the thought of spending more time with conditioner under the pathetic cold trickle is somewhat unappealing. Soap on parts that need it for the bare minimum personal hygiene.  Noting the lack of the presence of your husband or son anywhere near the inside of the shower when dwelling on the social aspects of personal grooming.

Then you turn off the water and try to dry yourself in the most inhospitable environment possible to stay dry. Except perhaps for balancing on a lilo in a swimming pool. Which would be almost as tricky as this shower room.

Then, Toby locked me in. With a door with a bolt on the outside. What a useful design. It's hard not to panic when you've been in this horrid room for far too long already and you find your exit is impossible. Not happy. Fortunately I think Toby could sense this and let me out.

I entertained Toby while Mike dozed. And we went for a wee walk, patted a dog bravely (he looked healthy and cute and belongs to our accommodation ) and generally filled in time before a cup of tea and biscuits.

Toby took more sugar for his masala tea after we'd said no more. So now Bharat has permission to discipline Toby on his sugar intake. But the cookies were good to dunk in the tea. And sliced cucumber was superb.

Toby invented a game we played after Simon the accountant asked if the set of all sets contains itself. I explained sets and subsets to Toby. Then he invented a game. You start with one category. Then you declare subsets of that category and the next person refines the subset search. It's passing the time quickly.

I think I'll pass on dinner tonight. I'm still full. Tomorrow is our hardest and longest day. Steep uphill and seven hours trekking. The other days are less arduous. But the day after tomorrow we're up early to walk up Poon Hill to see the sunrise over the Himalayas. That'll be a long day too.

29 Sep - Hille to Ghorepani >