To Pokhara

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It was time for me to leave the ashram and head for Pokhara to meet Peter and Debu.

I intended to fly as there are sometimes all sorts of problems with roads being closed all over Nepal (bandhas), but when Guruji said that he would travel with me if I went by bus, I jumped at it. How many people travel around Nepal with their own personal guru!!!

All went well for the first 4 hours then - dreaded bandha!!! Two teenagers had been killed on their motorbike a few days ago and the villagers closed all roads in and out of Pokhara until the police agreed to pay a huge amount to the family. At this stage no one really knew who was to blame and the bus had already been torched, but that didn’t seem to matter. It’s a kind of blackmail that has been increasing over the last 6 months and the authorities are worried but seem to have no control. Roads will often be closed for any reason and with no warning and for anything from 30 minutes to hours. We had to wait for nearly 2 hours until they let traffic move again. After that of course there was a huge traffic jam.

We eventually pulled into the bus park in Pokhara and Pete and Debu were nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t get them on the phone either.

Luckily guruji was with me as I ended up staying with him at devotees of the baba who started the yoga ashram. They were very sweet but couldn’t understand how I couldn’t consume a kilo of rice and vegetables for breakfast! Give me a slice of toast any day.

Guruji, Darhna and I spent a day sightseeing which included boating on Fewa lake and visiting Devi falls. (see photos)

Pete eventually contacted me and the village had been without power so he couldn’t charge his phone to call me and the bandha was on again so he couldn’t get out of the village to meet me in Pokhara. Only 24km away but I couldn’t get to the village.

Three days later Pete managed to get to Pokhara and pick me up and off we went to the village.

His house is an “up market” village house with packed dirt floors and wooden walls with big gaps in. It is however two story, has running water (no going off to the nearest village tap like everybody else and a simply wonderful little back garden with the best view in the world -the Annapurnas!

Enjoy the photos, although once again they are all mixed up - sorry.

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