We loaded up the last of our things this morning into our tightly packed bags and headed off on foot towards the tourist bus park. The streets of Lakeside were quiet, cluttered only by the odd person wandering around selling baked goods and taxi drivers offering us their services. We found the right bus park with little trouble and were stunned by the sight that was there to greet us. There were tourists everywhere! And the buses actually looked as though as they weren't being held together with hope and prayers. People sat around, civilised, drinking tea and awaiting their departure time. The tourist buses were in a league of their own when compared to the dreaded local buses we had become familiar with.
Not wanting to hang at the dusty bus station we found a small cafe nearby to enjoy a coffee and some sweet pastries while our departure time approached. We chatted to the owner about his dreams of becoming a tour guide before 7:15am came and it was time to leave.
We threw our bags into the boot of the bus (a luxury when you're used to them being on the roof or in the aisle) and climbed aboard. Apparently the seat numbers on your tickets mean very little so we were directed to two seats in the back row. The front of the bus was filled with locals while the back was filled with tourists like us. It was a strange feeling to have only enough people on the bus to fill the seats and no goats or chickens in the aisle. It was even stranger when, only two minutes after our scheduled departure time, we hit the road.
The bumpy road threw those of us on the backseat up and down and round and round as we made our way out of Pokhara. Thankfully we had the scenery to distract us. The mountains looked like they had been painted onto the perfect blue sky and we were sad to be saying goodbye to them. Despite being told our bus would stop only for breakfast and lunch we did make a few unscheduled stops to let people on and off. But, in comparison to the local buses that stop every few metres, we were making good progress.
At our breakfast stop we had some fried rice and momos then, at lunch, some vegetable chowmein. The ever winding road was long and hot but bearable. As we approached Kathmandu though the windy road became clogged with trucks and buses that were struggling with the heat and hills. Progress slowed significantly and the heat seemed to increase proportionally so when we crept into Kathmandu we were well and truly ready to be off the bus.
The locals on our bus were lucky enough to be asked where they would like to be dropped off. This annoyed us greatly as our bus wasn't meant to stop at all, the locals took forever to get off, and us Westerners weren't given an option. This meant that we, along with the other clueless tourits, were dropped on the side of the road rather than at a bus park. Thankfully this happened to be close to Thamel and we recognised the area so we fought off the taxi drivers and walked into town.
We found a suitable hotel quickly and settled on a triple room for us and Anando to share. Hotel Cosmic had wifi, hot water and some power all of the time so we were happy.
Back in the streets of Kathmandu we thought we try and grab a few things before Anando arrived. When we first arrived in Kathmandu from Kolkata a couple of weeks back we saw Kathmandu as a relatively peaceful place where even the touts seemed mild. Today, after having come from beautiful, relaxing Pokhara Kathmandu was a nightmare. After scowling our way through the streets for a while we gave up and decided to head straight to K-Too, the steakhouse we had visited last time we were here and where we would be meeting Anando.
We made it after getting lost, snapping at a beggar and doing loops of Thamel's backstreets. We had a soft drink to cool down and a poor excuse for a nachos. There were about ten corn chips scattered over a plate with small lumps of salsa on them. Lame! Anando turned up right on six though so we didn't have to wait long to fill our bellies with true deliciousness.
All three of us ordered steak and beer and, even as the rain came and we had to move indoors, we enjoyed every morsel. In fact, we enjoyed the food so much that we even ordered chocolate cake and apple momos to finish off the night.
We grabbed a few bits and pieces around town before heading home to test out our new accommodation. It had been a long and stressful day but it was fantastic to have the three of us all in one town and ready to tackle such an epic adventure together.
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