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Published: November 30th 2008
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After a late night spent packing we were up for a 6:30am breakfast and then into a cab and off to the bus station. We didn't have to pay for anything which was great. Leaving was made all that much harder by the fact that we had a farewell party - all the staff of HEHQ plus Natalie and Majella to wave us off! How wonderful but how sad to say goodbye!! The taxi ride was about 10-15 minutes and after admiring yet another awesome view of the Himalayas from the bus stop, we were pretty much straight on to the bus. Theoretically, we had a choice of 15 buses to go back to Kathmandu. It was chosen for us but even if we had made the choice - ALL 15 buses leave Pokhara at the same time, 7:30am. You've got to love this very different country!!!
The bus to Kathmandu is said to take 6 to 8 hours depending on the traffic. Well ours was to be an 8 and half hour slow, slow ride back to Kathmandu. The first half of the morning went pretty smoothly and we stopped twice - once for coffee and a toilet break,
then for lunch and a toilet break. At our lunch stop we chatted (in Dutch to my horror - hadn't done that for awhile) with a Belgian man about the bus trip and our time in Nepal.
As soon as we left the lunch stop we were stuck in traffic and we were pretty much stuck at the end of a long line of traffic the rest of the way back to Kathmandu. Apparently, the day before a young girl (a pedestrian) had been killed when she was struck by a car. In respect of her death, they had closed the road for 8 hours. Luckily, the road was once again open, but the traffic from the road closure took hours to clear!!! There were short periods of time when we got to top speed (which in this road is never more than about 60km and hour as the road is so bad) and we were horrified not just once or twice to find ourselves on the wrong side of the road passing trucks on a blind corner, but on countless occasions!!! Any traffic coming around the corner had to try and stop and we just had to hope
Himalayan Encounters
Photo by Patricia Burt there was enough room to get back into the left lane again!!! OH....................MY.................GOD!!!!!!!!!! Funnily enough, I didn't find this anywhere near as scary as Jan did (much less scary for me than those big frightening airplanes!!!!!). Regardless, we were both very relieved to make it to Kathmandu with only the traffic to blame for being so late!!!
We were once again back at the Mandap and enjoying our lovely room! We then went across to Himalayan HQ in Kathmandu where we caught up with Trish and Tony again. They were frantically busy trying to upload photos for a new calendar but Tony invited us in for a chat regardless. We sat and talked for awhile but we could tell that Trish was (apart from being quite unwell with the same cold as me) desperately wanting Tony's help. She needed a few more photos (in portrait orientation) so we downloaded a copy of all of ours on to her computer and then left them to their calendar. For the record, none of our photos made it to the calendar.
We'd heard along the grapevine that Charis was sick in hospital and were planning to try and visit her but
Himalayan Encounters
Photo by Patricia Burt being so late into Kathmandu it was a bit difficult. Further Trish and Tony didn't know where she was and Niraj wasn't around - so unfortunately not going to happen.
We then had dinner at the Kathmandu Guest House, which was our favourite eating place in Kathmandu. Neither of us felt like doing much today after the long boring bus ride so we settled down in front of the tv and were soon fast asleep!
The next day we had a late breakfast and headed once again to Himalayan Encounters to say our farewells. Trish was after more photos for the brochure on the internet so we were photographed sitting at the reception area with one of the staff members and now 'feature' in the Himalayan Encounters brochure (you have to know we're there for you to be able to find us)! While we were there Charis rocked up with Narandera on the motor-bike. She had just been discharged from the clinic and was also saying her goodbyes as she was heading off back home to England. She'd sadly been told that she couldn't do the Everest base camp trek, nor could she do her next volunteering trip
Helsinki ariport
This photo was taken on the way into Helsinki on the way to Nepal but didn't have many photos for this blog so here it stands! (of 4 weeks) in Vanuatu. Bit of a hard pill to swallow but I think after being ill she was rather glad to be going home.
We also had a quick chat with the always busy Niraj and he organised a taxi ride to the airport. We were being picked up by Narandera who was delivering the keyboard for Pashupati's new computer to the airport to send it to Pokhara. It was great to have an escorted ride to the airport. I was, as always, nervous about the flight. Having a 30min or more delay certainly never helps my nerves but we had good views of Kathmandu and the Himalayas from the plane, which really helped!!! Just a short flight to Delhi to start our 18 hour sojourn in the transit area of Delhi ariport. Oh what joy!!!
We met two Nepalese men while we were waiting to be herded into the transit area and began to chat with them. One was a student living in the Netherlands, which is how we started the conversation as I noticed he had the same Dutch visa in his passport. He's doing some sort of business studies in Den Haag! We
Helsinki airport
Look at the beautiful autumn colours in the background!! had a great chat with him. I was a bit taken aback when he asked if he could use my sleeping bag to sit on when there weren't many chairs to be had in the transit area but reluctantly agreed. I was much more taken aback when he suggested that we share the sleeping bag on the floor to try and sleep!!! Thank God, some of the lay-back chairs became available and he was off to sit on them. We didn't have to wait too much longer until 2 more were available and we settled into our sleeping bags and set off to sleep for the night. Surprisingly, we managed to get almost a full night's sleep on those damn uncomfortable chairs - despite it being very broken sleep!! Well done us!
The flight to Helsinki was almost absolute hell for me. My fear of flying seems to be getting worse with every flight and to make matters worse, Jan and I couldn't sit together - so no sweaty palms making a wet patch on Jan's pants this trip!! (Don't think Jan was at all upset about not having to sit next to me!!!). I managed to fill in
Coming home
Arriving at the station in Arnhem.
Photo by M. ter Bork. the first few hours with a movie and then started to read one of my text books to study for my exam. A man across the aisle then asked if I was a doctor. I said no and established that I was a student and he was an endocrinologist. He was also Nepalese and having seen my t-shirt saying Kathmandu (which by the way I bought in Adelaide) was keen to hear about my trip to Nepal. We chatted for the last 2 and a half hours of the flight. He informed me he was a descendent of the Royal Family and so had to leave Nepal but goes back there often as he has very strong political views and very strong ideas about the runnings of the country etc. More interestingly for me, he's researching traditional and alternative medicines. He had me throughly distracted and entertained for that last period of time!! Wow!!
The last flight wasn't too bad but my sweaty palms did manage to leave a wet patch on Jan's pants and was still drying as we walked out into the chilly 6C of Dusseldorf. This time we managed to get onto the quick train to the Dusseldorf central train station. We were once again 'saved by McDonalds' for our dinner and got on the ICE train back to Arnhem where Jan's parents were anxiously waiting to see us. Must say - it felt fantastic to finally be home again - even if it was freezing (well hey 6C is perhaps not freezing, but after a humid 30C in Kathmandu......!!)
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