We imposed on Ang to allow us some extra sleep time in Kathmandu after our nighttime forced march. All the ride shirts we had made were completed (embroidered, no less), so we bade farewell to the city at about 11AM in a bus packed with all of our luggage, camp equipment, and a “staff” of 8 Nepalis. Oh, and I do mean PACKED! Nepalis included Ang, his cousin and camp manager Lakpa, camp helper Phurba, cook Sarouj, his daughter Joyti, Namlo staff Aruna and Sarada, and her sister Sumona.( The spellings of all these names are totally suspect!) Turns out that we had possibly the ideal KTM visit during the Dashain Festival – low traffic and pollution, with relatively uncrowded tour sites and restaurants. The bus ride to Pokhara was uneventful, except for the 7 hour duration. Upon arrival, those not already flying back to Kathmandu immediately changed their plans to do so. One note on bus travel – after two weeks’ cycling in Tibet, it felt really disconnected to be in a bus and unable to interact with people along the way. Didn’t like it …
Our Pokhara hotel was great; A/C, pool, good location, quiet, beer and food poolside. It was a slice of heaven, especially when we knew things would get quite a bit more ”basic” in a couple of days. As a result, most of us changed our plans so we could spend our last couple of nights in Pokhara rather than going back to Kathmandu before flying out of the country.
