Welcome back readers. If all goes well, this will be our first day on the track to find out the little things that actually make up Nepali village life real, or at any rate, as much as can be see in four nights of travel.
By 5:33 AM our driver Botha was pulling out of the drive. As one might expect, the scenery along the way was pretty, and the road was constantly twisting and turning up and down the side of the mountain. For the most part the road was reasonably “good” but yes, there were patches where it was just dirt or where we had to drive though very small bodies of water. However, I certainly never felt unsafe.
I had originally thought that I would probably end up sleeping most of the way despite the beautiful scenery, but as a result of the still rather cramped conditions for my 1.82 metres and 90 kg frame, plus the often rather bumpy and swerving road conditions, that was clearly not likely to happen for much of the ride. By
At 8:45 AM we stopped for breakfast near Khurkot. I forgot to ask the name, so I’m not actually sure exactly where we were.
The food was more than adequate and some would no doubt even say delicious. Certainly the server was gracious. The cost was 350 NPR ($2.66 USD) for each of the three of us. I assume we were also paying the cost of Hit and Botka in that as well. By 9:30 AM we were back on the road again.
As we were going along, Botka regularly stopped the vehicle to speak to someone near the side of the road. At first I thought maybe he was asking about road conditions ahead or perhaps even directions; although, in retrospect, as there was only one obvious “road” that was a foolish initial assumption. Hit then clarified that Botka was evidently registering time etc . . . with the official. This is a way that they use to keep people from going to fast along the twisting and many times rather narrow roads. At 12:05 PM we stopped for lunch in the town of Ghurmi.
The cost for all five of us including the momos and two beers (no, neither was for the driver) was 1950 NPR ($14.76 USD). And by 1 PM we were once more in motion.
The road started to climb upwards again and we arrived by 3:37 PM we had arrived to our first village destination, Siddhicharan. It was raining, and rather cold, but our hosts were kind.
Dinner was around 7 PM and then we played cards with the kids. Again, our hosts are very pleasant, but it was also 5 degrees Celsius and rainy with a not very encouraging forecast for the next few days.
Before going up to bed, we chatted and decided that the best course of action would be to see how the weather actually looked tomorrow morning, but probably we will try to head back towards Kathmandu on Wednesday rather than walking for four hours to an even more isolated village. It’s just too chilly and rainy and we don’t have adequate clothes. Hopefully, we will be able to get out a bit in the morning to see something of the area around the local village. The forecast seems to indicate that would be reasonable for a few hours, but we will have to see. As I got in bed at 9:30 PM, the rain was still coming down and it was 2 degrees Celsius both inside and out. . ..
What will tomorrow bring?
Travels with Jay 