Rafting and “roofing” it to Kathmandu…

We took the convenient option of a rafting trip between Pokhara and Kathmandu so that we could leave from one and return to the other. We weren’t to sure what to expect as the guy who sold us the trip told us it was a level IV river (you have I to VI levels in rafting, VI being the most dangerous).

We got dropped at the spot after another entertaining bus ride. As usual, the locals don’t enjoy much their bus trips, and there’s always someone to start the throwing-up-chain (a bit like that family guy episode) after an hour or so on the road. The bus is well equipped though, they give little plastic bags for everyone who needs any. The routine is then to knot your bag and thrown the sick bomb out of the window.
Unfortunately for a poor tourist traveller, this time the bag was not dispensed in time and her bus neighbour threw up all over herself (and everything else within a meter). This poor girl had an awful bus ride as she basically never stopped being sick for the next three hours…

We are now on the river bank, ready to set off on our boat (that seems to have had quite a few punctures) and tackle the great river!
The guide sits at the back, giving orders whilst the rest of us paddle…stop…paddle hard…stop…pad...stop! And so on for a few hours…
It got really funny when the four Bengalis rowing with us started taking the piss at the guide, with the two sitting at the back giving wrong orders in the rapids just to make things more confusing. They were also on holiday, very welcoming, and as it seems to be the norm, we got an invite for our visit to Bangladesh

Once the rafting over, it was time to take the bus to Kathmandu. Being a festival week, the transport gets saturated and when trying to get on a bus in the middle of nowhere with a load of luggage it gets tough to find a seat, impossible to find two! So we ended up on the roof. Sonia was delighted as you can see on this picture:

It was great but dangerous fun, and when night arrived, it got really cold. Fortunately, it only lasted four hours, and we got settled in Kathmandu before ten.

After a thirty dusty minutes walk we finally got to a hotel that suited our criteria (cheap, not too smelly and not too many insects)…
Kathmandu is a polluted and over crowded town, but features quite a few very nice and interesting temples and stupas, and the food is great. Most people stop there after a long trek so it’s quite lively in the evenings but unfortunately also very westernised. Getting the bus is fun as there are no official buses. The game consists in spotting one of the over crowded 10 seat vans, waving it down and making sure it is running in the desired direction. There are no bus stops, so the only thing to do is ask the locals which street to wait on. It can take time and obviously, you can get ripped off on your first attempt, or even worse, be dropped off the other side of town because you pronounced mu instead of mou… but it’s always an entertaining ride!

After two weeks in Nepal, it’s time to head back to India before hitting South East Asia and the good old Pad Thais. But first, we must make the long trip to Pondicherry consisting in a ten horrific hours night bus ride from Kathmandu to the border, another three hours to reach Gorhakphur and the train station (never ever sleep in the hotels opposite the station). Then it’s fourteen more hours to reach New Delhi. A two hour flight to Madras, and finally a little four hour bus ride to reach Pondicherry. Time to relax!!