We left Kathmandu and headed for Pokhara, the jumping off point for Annapurna treks, via tourist bus. Tourist buses in Nepal are not the fancy, comfortable, air-conditioned luxury liners that they are in Taiwan. They're not even the intensely uncomfortable, new, air-conditioned budget mobiles of Japan. They are squeaking, shuddering, cramped, dusty affairs that hurtle along ill-maintained mountain roads passing and being passed with abandon. On the up side, they do only cost $6 for a 6 hour ride, and we got serenaded by some village boys who knew almost all the words to an unending folk song. We spent half a day in Pokhara poking around, watching cows and buffalo stop traffic, and reorganizing our packs before heading out the next day on our trekking adventure. The adventure began when we boarded yet another bus--a
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