Pokhara, White Water Rafting, BUS FIGHT!
Trek is done, and rafting has begun!
I didn’t want to leave Tatopani, could’ve stayed in the little village longer, just sitting and looking at the scenery! We took a local bus back to Pokhara – about 1.5 hour ride…
Local bus
I was sooooo happy to see a heater again that I had to take a picture of it😂 You bet it was on non-stop while I was in the room.
omg, a HEATER!!!
Pokhara is a cool little town, but for whatever reason, I didn’t take hardly any pictures of it:/ But these are the ones that I did take, from the hotel…
view from hotel
pokhara pano
view from hotel
seatbelt!
The next morning, we left Pokhara and went on a local bus to a place on the Trisuli River between Pokhara and Kathmandu to go rafting:)
i love the flags!
ready to go!
yes, helmet.
excited
floating
babu😔
Babu = Nepali for son/younger brother/grandson. The kid was 15, and he is working at the rafting company, no school. They were really nice to him though, and he’s learning english, so I don’t doubt that’s the best thing for him, given his situation that was explained to me.
using their pully to get hay across the river
kind of baby + our cool guide (not baby) + just a baby😔
lock in feet please
paddles up!
beach break
The locals pan for gold on the river bank, and after rafting, it looked goldie on my pants😀
goldie looking flakes on my pants
Rafting was scary and fun… and cold! But, I warmed up quick afterwards BY EATING DAL BHAT.
After rafting, Harry and I walked up to the highway and waited to wave down a local bus to bring us back to Kathmandu. It was about a two hour ride, and I guess the bus driver was tired and testy… because he totally GOT IN A FISTFIGHT WITH ONE OF THE PASSENGERS! This is a picture I have from the bus – I was sitting in a tiny seat directly behind the driver, and the other people are piled into the not-actually-seats space in the front of the bus.
bus passengers (sardines)
As I am sitting in the seat behind the driver, he starts screaming at a guy who is standing just inside the open door of the bus. And they are screaming back and forth at each other. Then it stopped for a few seconds. Then they started screaming again. All the while, driver is still driving. And then, while driving, he is huffing and puffing and decides to take off his jacket. I knew that meant a fightfight was going to happen😂 And then, a few minutes of screaming later, the driver slammed on the brakes, put the bus in park, jumped out of the bus, slammed the door, and ran around the bus to the other side faster than I’ve ever seen anyone get out of a vehicle. Insane. So then he and the passenger are both off the bus for a few minutes, then the driver comes back (no passenger), turns on the bus and starts driving WILDLY in lots of traffic, and then he starts getting into an argument with one of the guys that was working on the bus, the ticket-taker. Sheesh.
While this is all going on, I didn’t know anything they were saying to each other; I just knew that they were really pissed off. So, Harry told me afterwards what the fight was about – As we were arriving in Kathmandu, a passenger on the bus wanted the driver to stop so he could get off. But the driver refused to stop because it would just be an extra stop he would have to take. The passenger started yelling, and the driver didn’t back down, and it all just escalated from there (as it will do when testosterone is involved). When the ticket-taker was yelling, it was because the driver accused him of not being loyal and supporting him😆 I was happy then because 1. they didn’t also get in a fight 2. because we got off the bus soon afterwards and 3. it wasn’t America, where the dudes would’ve shot each other.
Excitement, excitement on the local bus😃 That night, my last masala tea😩
masala tea
After staying in Kathmandu for the night, I left Nepal the next day. The Kathmandu Airport has a unique security screening process… they have one line for men and one line for women:
kathmandu airport security – women only line😂
And for whatever reason, 75% of the people flying were men, so they had this lonnngggg line and had to wait forever, and I just walked right up and went through security😂 I have no idea why it’s like that, but it benefitted me that day!
I took pictures of some mountains from the plane; I’m not sure which mountains they are:
from plane window, flying out of kathmandu
not sure which mountains?
Miss you, Nepal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ll be back!
Next up: Sri Lanka!
Coming Down (from masala tea addiction)
At the Ghorepani hotel, there were quite a few characters.
Everyone staying at the place sat around the wood burning stove for heat and spoke english to each other in different lovely accents… French, Chinese, Indian, Nepali, Belgian, Korean, Kentuckian+Texan… There were 3 Korean men who, although they didn’t know very much english, were hilarious.
They hired two porters and a guide for their trek because they brought so much stuff with them… They brought all of their own food from Korea, to be cooked and made for them… At first, I thought it was crazy and wasteful, but then they started sharing the weird stuff they brought with everyone, and it turned awesome😄 They had dried octopus (it still looked exactly like an octopus), snake skin/meat(?), snake skin dried in some kind of sweetness (korean beef jerky?; the sweet snake skin/meat was pretty good!)
And 9 BOTTLES OF SOJU. People tasted it and said it tasted like rubbing alcohol… The biggest one who knew a little english said, “National drink of Korea! Very special!“😂 Yes, sir!
Here they are at the top of Poon Hill the next morning… they brought fake oxygen masks, four or five different signs to take pictures with, and one of them had a sign proposing to his girlfriend!😍
3 crazy koreans + mexican in taiwan + indian + moi
Notice what’s in my hand… masala tea of course. I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I prefer masala tea over coffee. Addicted. Harry ordered it for me everytime we stopped… And now it’s gone😢
That night also included an Epic Blanket Battle between the hotel owner and me over whether or not two blankets was, indeed, warm enough for the night, instead of my requested three or four. In the end, Harry secretly helped me get a third blanket, and although I was still cold, I survived and was able to sleep a little bit with three😚.
random lederhosen guy👍🏼
Watching the new day’s sunlight reflect off the world’s 7th highest mountain, Dhaulagiri, was amazing. Using my not-fit-for-trekking boots to go back down to Ghorepani from Poon Hill was not. I fell twice on the snow/ice.
these boots do not like snow and ice
The boots are super warm, but they have literally no tread. So, Harry and I went back to the hotel to gameplan. The rest of the day, on the path we were supposed to take, it was going to be a few hours of downhill on ice, and he could tell that I really didn’t want to do that. A girl who had been on that trail already told me there was nothing extraordinary about it. So, Harry suggested a different route, with only a little snow and ice. I WAS SO GRATEFUL FOR HIS HELP. I would’ve been stressed for hours trying to go downhill on ice in my boots! So, off we went towards Tatopani, which ended up being totally amazing and beautiful.☺️
lovely
farm land
not a bad view from their yard
(masala tea time)
mountain fried rice:)
When we stopped for lunch, I don’t know what happened, but HARRY DECIDED TO TAKE A NAP!? Unacceptable. (this is also the only time that he DIDN’T eat dal bhat for lunch… I thought he might be sick, so I checked to see if he had a fever… I think the no dal bhat and napping are related, but I have no way to prove it.)
Sleeping will not be tolerated. Jamjam, Harry!
And the mules in the yard next to the restaurant patio were napping too!?
I SAID – SLEEPING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!
No one listens.
beauty
Nepali traffic jam cam (aka silly western girl freak-out):
It doesn’t matter who or what you are, we all walk the same path. The sound of the bell and the hooves click-clacking on the rock is musical🎶.
orange trees below
sweetest oranges ever
still behind Harry😄
Soooo, walking up and down these mountains is hard enough with just my little pack. We constantly saw people transporting stuff like this:
these women are all ~60 yrs old
They have dried leaves in the baskets. It looks heavy, but is it?
this shit was HEAVY
Harry made me put it down really fast because he was afraid I was going to drop it… that’s how heavy it was, just to pick up! Let alone, walking up a mountain… let alone, being a 60-year-old woman!? I bet their neck muscles are really big.
THEN WE SAW MONKEYS.
nepal gray langur monkeys (I guess they like high altitude)
hello, friend
The scenery the rest of the way down to Tatopani was amazing…
temple on the edge
not ready, Harry
out of 5 pictures he took, this was the best one:/
amazing view from temple – worth the climb I’m sure
we’re going down there.
bridge walkers
kali gandaki gorge
crossing the gorge (harry, u should totally make this your facebook profile)
gandaki river
To this adorable little village in Tatopani just in time (my feet hurt and had blisters😆)! According to my iPhone app, we walked 8 miles and went up 104 flights of stairs. The day before, my iPhone was dead, so I couldn’t record how many flights of stairs we went up, but it was at least 400.😅
archery tournament!
We stayed at a place called Old Kamala Hotel, and there was still no heat, but it was sooo much warmer there than 4k feet higher; I was elated!
(masala tea time)
view from room
view from room
comfort
hotel, from the river
dhaulagiri mountain?
pano
hot springs too
omg, HUGE lemons!
please let me pick one…
always smile
Always smile… even after you accidentally kick a kid’s soccer ball over the cliff into a chicken coop😳.
harry always gave me this for dessert… so nice!
smoke in air, river in background, lone flower thrives
(masala tea time)
waiting for dinner
relaxing
night falls
End of trekking… bittersweet.
Next up: Rafting!
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