The journey to Pokhara

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Packing up at Birendra’s

Last night Ian and I slept continuously for several hours. I think it was the best sleep we’ve had since starting our holiday. Of course we had the morning chorus of roosters, dogs and temple bells at day break again. I suppose you would soon get used to the din if you were exposed to it every morning.  Ian and I began packing our gear back into our bags. We let Jeremy sleep in for a little longer. We needed to ram our sleeping bags back into the vacuum bags we brought them in. Birendra kindly provided his vacuum cleaner for us. This lovely man cooked us omelettes again for breakfast and they were thoroughly enjoyed.

 

 

Where is the car to take us to Pokhara?

Birendra had booked a car to take us to Pokhara but when the time came for us to leave there was confusion with the car company. Poor Birendra had to madly flap around at the last minute and find us an alternative. A car eventually came and we were impressed. It was bigger than the average Nepalese car and we could fit all of our luggage in the boot of the car rather than my poor suitcase having to perch precariously on the roof rack as had happened with the two taxi rides to Birendra’s house. There was quite a reasonable amount of room inside the car too. We were expecting a delightful picturesque journey of 205 kilometres. We couldn’t have been more wrong!

 

“Michael Jackson” begins manoeuvring the car to Pokhara

A young fellow hopped out of the car and began helping us get our luggage in the boot. He wore a bright pink shirt, had his hair in a short pony tail and had Michael Jackson style sunglasses perched on his nose. We soon realized this fellow was one of the 75% who must have got his licence illegally. He very soon proved himself to be a bloody idiot. He began by taking us the long way all around the neighbourhood and almost back to our original starting point. Eventually he found the correct road and our journey began.

You could drive down almost any street here and find a large pile of rubbish on fire with smoke billowing out in all directions. The amount of litter, rubbish, smoke, smog, exhaust fumes, dust, rubble and beggars quickly put us into a bit of a spin.  Foolishly we thought that once we left the city the pollution would diminish. After all we were heading out into the countryside weren’t we?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roads were totally jam packed with cars, motorbikes, trucks and buses but we found the roads were in a much better condition than those in Bhutan.It was quite common to see every bus fully packed, with no less than half a dozen people sitting on the roof with another one or two hanging outside through the doorways. We saw passengers climb down from the roof whilst the bus was moving with no concern for their own safety at all. We saw many overloaded trucks. One in particular comes to mind with a big heap of furniture on the top and a man up there actually rearranging furniture whilst the truck was driving along. Work Safe would have a heart attack over here.

 

 

Next page - The end of the journey

 

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