Tuesday, April 28, 2015

POKHARA

This was a long day. We ran out of water in our bathroom overnight and felt more aftershocks. Many small ones overnight. It's easy to get up early because of jet lag so I was awake befor 4am. We packed our duffle bags and backpacks, leaving extra non essential stuff at the KGH. 
We had to walk to the end of the street because it was too narrow for our van. The porters carried the ruffles for us. They can carry up to 200 lb for 10 hrs according to Binoy, our guide, so two 30 lb bags is relatively easy. 
Our van picked us up on a very dusty street after waiting a bit. I'm not sure why. 
A Hindu priest came along and put red dots on our foreheads along with marigold petals as a blessing for our trek. He also wanted some money so I gave him 10 Rupies. I think that might only be about a penny but he seemed happy with it. We took Ag about 9 am on a 6 hour drive to Pokhara. We got there at 6:30 pm. We had heard that 100 buses were taking people home to India and peasants back to their villages leaving Kathmandu. We also heard a rumor conflicting reports about the road being blocked with a landslide. Here is a small one. 
It only blocked our lane. It doesn't seem like drivers pay much attention to the lanes anyway. 
I don't know for sure about the 100 buses, but the 'bus stop' Binoy said had 5,000 people when it usually should have 500. 


Bus patrons. 
We were stopped in traffic where the road divided and one lane went off toward India. 
We walked on past all the cars and over the bridge to eventually be found by our driver. 
Our driver picked us up across the bridge at a cafe an hour and 1/2 later. 
We made it to Pokhara and it is great!  It has a great shower, electricity, toilets that flush, and Internet that works. We are in the lap of luxury. We went for supper and had water buffalo meat appetizers called mo mo. 
Vegetarian masala. Lots of curry. 
I don't remember the name of what I had but it was good and it wasn't rice! 
Tomorrow morning we hike up to a Hindu temple in the morning then take off and drive up an hour to a trail for real hiking. 
I've got to sleep. It's beautiful here. I posted a couple videos on FB Columbus medical mission team. 




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