trek1

2011-08-30T13:29:00.001-07:00

With a lot of enthusiasm, lack of sleep and last minute pick ups we began our epic Visit Nepal 2011 trip on the 26th of July from Kathmandu to Pokhara . Our en-route stop was a little town called Gorkha. This place is renowned for having a hilltop fortress built by Prithivi Narayan Shah the founder and uniter of Nepal as we know it today. 18 of us headed off in our mini bus/ hiace with a conductor in tow and began our 6 hour journey to Gorkha. The Gorkha Durbar there was about a 45 minute walk from the town centre. We set out with a spirit of adventure but the climb was uphill, steep and challenging for most of us. By the time we reached the top we were drenched in sweat but excited still. What greeted us was a humble but original temple and a palace built in Newari style. The view of the surrounding valleys was breathtaking and the history that surrounded us was humbling.
We began the second leg of our journey and continued to Pokhara. The hiccup in our plans was caused by an unfortunate accident between a bus and a truck blocking our path en route to Pokhara. As per usual in Nepal accidents bring traffic and people to a standstill and especially in this remote of areas weary traffic queued and Agro and me excitedly left our vehicle and went ahead to investigate. Throngs of people had gathered at the scene of the accident and we tried to snap away trying to appear inconspicuous at the same time. Pretty soon the rest of the party joined us and admist the drizzly rain and crowds hunger and natural urges beckoned to us. The area we were in was fairly rural with a few shops and hotels. Sibani, Bhawana, Agro and me I can safely say visited the worst loos of our lives. It was part of a tiny dhaba that sold delicious chowmein according to Lex. This loo was situated in the back garden and we had to climb down wooden stairs and manoeuvre our way through an overgrown field to reach it. It was a squat loo and the memory or even image of that loo has the power to reduce our appetite even now.
Once the police arrived, the rubble cleared and suitable bribes exchanged hands the roads were cleared again and we continued our journey to Pokhara. We reached there just after nightfall and yes it was pouring down cats and dogs by now. The irony was that hotel Begnas tal where we were staying for the night was on an island, so we had to get into 2 boats and watch blindly as the boatmen rowed us for 45 minutes to the hotel in the dark. It’s safe to say we love our photos a little too much as even in the dark we started flash photography till the boatmen had to chide us as it was becoming a distraction for them. We finally reached the hotel and were warmly welcomed into beautiful rooms with hot showers and warm beds! But as per usual the talks continued long after dinner and drinks. We had our fair share of ghost talks and the night was pretty uneventful except when Sibani my room-sharer wanted to sleep in another room with more people as she was quite freaked out by the silly ghost stories we had listened to earlier. It did not help that whilst having a midnight shower there were people constantly banging on our windows and patio doors.

The morning was quite relaxing, we had our first opportunity to truly admire the beautiful island and hotel we were in and best of all was the view of the lake from our breakfast table. The lake stood still as the mighty mountains endowed it with peace and serenity. As usual we were running late so we ran to and fro packing and getting ourselves ready for our waiting bus across the other side of the lake and there is always someone who leaves something behind and this time it was a phone.

palominoblues

trek1