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Published: April 26th 2009
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Although it was 7:30 in the night and there was a power cut on town, the crossing of the border to Nepal was a lot smoother than I expected. Sure, it was crowded with people and trucks taking and bringing things, but we were not hassled with it. Nepal, at that point, was not at all much different than India and we almost didn’t feel the change until the next morning, when things started to go out of plan (as unfortunately often happened to us in Nepal).
We stayed at a hotel pre paid for the occasion. The trip we bought to get to Nepal included all the way to Pokhara, a beautiful little town in the middle of Nepal, and to get there we were going to spend a night in the border town of Sunauli. The hotel was not a place to spend more than a few hours, but since we weren’t going to more than that, we didn’t complain.
The wake up call the next morning was supposed to be at 6:30 am, to take the next bus at 7:00. The surprise came at 5:30 when they hurried us out of bed because we were already late for
the bus!
The bus took our group of tourists, and other 10 Nepalese (that were constantly changing in according to where they were going in and out of the bus in different villages). The trip was going through a beautiful road through the mountains towards Pokhara. The mountains and the white rivers that run between them were nothing less than a big and constant postal card!
The first stop was at a small shop where we had breakfast and at that point we noticed that the people were already very different than India. You could say that they were more at ease, if that’s possible, more relaxed. Not that Indians weren’t hospitable, but we can say that Nepalese were much better at it. The breakfast was simple, with simple people serving simple food surrounded by the most amazing mountains.
When we got to Pokhara we spent a while finding a hotel. It was a pleasant change not to be violently harassed with “come to this and that hotel”. Not that there wasn’t any, it was just much polite. “Would you like to come and see my guesthouse?” They would ask, and not bother any more if the answer was
simple “No thanks”. Now that was a huge change from India!
Pokhara is set in the middle of the mountains, in front of a lake, surrounded by Himalayas. That we saw in the local postcards because the season was not the right one for the Himalayas to show themselves! The main attractions here are: The World Peace Pagoda, the lake, and all the amazing walks and trekking paths you can follow. We hired a couple of bicycles, bought some fruit, yak cheese, bread, and some sweet pastry from one of the many German bakeries around and went exploring. We rode to the Davis Fall, a waterfall just 2 km from the centre of town, where we ate our yummy improvised picnic. We also hiked the long and arduous trek up to the Pagoda and then we took our time to plan one of the most important things in Nepal: our trip to the Chitwan National Park.
Chitwan National Park is located in the middle between Pokhara and Kathmandu. You can reach it from land, air and the chosen one, by rafting! Since we thought that we didn’t have much time, we decided to unite the rafting excursion and the
National Park and make it a single tour.
And so it was that we went on an amazing trip on a not so dangerous river but one that gave us a couple of nice rapids and a lot of peaceful moments while we navigated through the quiet Nepalese mountains and rice fields cut in the side of them. We spent one lovely night camping on a nice river bank at the light of candles, and the most amazing dinner prepared by the same guys rowing with us in the boat!.
And the next morning… Pancakes! On the river side! The rafting couldn’t have been better.
When the rafting ended and we got to the point where we were going to be taken to Chitwan… Again, what seamed to be the rule instead of the exception, our plans were crippled: we couldn’t go to the Park. A strike from a local tribe cut the roads that go to the Park! Without much alternative we went back to Pokhara to wait for a change in the conditions. That didn’t happened.
So on our way back to Pokhara, we got a very nice surprise… The best bus ride so far! The bus
was a little crowded so we were offered to travel on the bus roof top! We definitely couldn’t refuse that offer! We often had noticed locals bunched up on top of buses amongst the luggage. So we took a couple of pillows to sit on, and enjoyed the wind in our hair and the landscape’s view which was amazing from that high up! This ride took a little of the feeling of disappointment that was cast on us since the bad news, we really had a good time there. Riding the bus!
We stayed two more nights in Pokhara, waiting for the situation to change which was hopeless. Nothing changed, and things got worse as the days went by when a few people got killed in the riots…
Disappointed we decided to change the plans and go straight to Kathmandu. To make the most of our trip. Our days were running out so we decided to visit the mythical Kathmandu instead of waiting in Pokhara.
As we got there though, the road to Chitwan opened! So we got the first bus to Chitwan without thinking of how to come back if the strike started again. And it did.
But first we got to go to Chitwan!
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Graciela Santiago Ruiz
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Pensando en Uds.
Esta mañana me levante, extrañando noticias, y queriendo saber por donde andan, estoy tomando unos mates con tortilla con chicharron, y como siempre, abro temprano el correo, para ver si tengo suerte. Todo muy lindo, muy especial, si no fuera que uds. con sus ojos ven mas cosas q nosotros, parece una sierra codobesa!, Pero me imagino que para uds. es una aventura increible, y me alegro, se los ve tan felices, aun en los lugares mas humildes, que da gusto verlos, y saber que estan bien. Conjuntamente con el Traveblog, me llegaron 4 mail de propaganda de N.Z. que me extrañó, pero con unas imagenes tan lindas en el video de c/u de ellas, que me encantó recibirlas. un beso para ambos, Mami!