20th Febuary 2005 – Birganj to Pokora 12 hours

On the old worn out bus the following morning it was packed with luggage piled up in the aisle way. The roads were lined with the Army and Police with check points every few miles. After about half an hour we came to a stand still along with approximately twenty other busses and lorries. We were told that we were waiting for armed assistance that could travel with the convoy of vehicles otherwise there was a chance we would come under attack from the Maoist’s if we traveled alone. No one seemed to be too stressed about the situation; I am assuming the Nepalese have come to live with the threat and disruption the Maoist’s cause.
It’s impossible not to warm to the Nepalese people they have got such soft friendly faces and gentle mannerisms. The kids are adorable. Anyway back to the bus journey. It was start stop the whole way as we had to form convoys. For a substantial part of the journey the roads were bumpy dust tracks, mainly the ones that curved around the mountains with big drops either side. Even though the disrupted journey took twelve hours my first views of Nepal were spectacular.
Waking up in Pokora the next morning I was greeted with a view over the Phewa Tal Lake and the glow of the rising sun on the snow capped mountains of the Annapurna range.
Unfortunately over the next six days it was pretty uneventful as my stomach bug that started on the train out of India got worse so I was locked in the bog for most of the time. It turned out India had inflicted a bout of dysentery on me just before we left Kolkata. India is definitely reliable for some things. The only advantage of dysentery is that it does get rid of any excess fat around the arse area. I completely lost my appetite for days which has never happened to me before. I never lose my appetite, I love food.
Due to losing all of my energy we had to cancel our trek which we were disappointed about but hopefully we will return to Nepal one day. We did manage a few walks before we left one of them being the climb to the top of Sarangkot for sunrise where you get breath taking views of the Himalayas. Even though the spring temperature was great for walking in, apart from being a little too hot at midday, the visibility was not great that time of year. This meant there was a morning mist for quite a few days. We also visited a Tibetan settlement. The people were also so lovely and welcoming. They have been in the same camp together for many years and there is another generation growing up within the camp since it was established. They stick together to keep there religion and culture alive and strong.
Because of the ongoing problems between the Maoists and the King tourists are being scared away. Australia has even advised their citizens against traveling to Nepal. The Maoists aren’t interested in harming tourists the only thing they will do is apparently ask for ‘a donation’ if you come across them whilst trekking. It made me so sad to see Pokora so empty of tourists it was like a goast town. People’s businesses are going to go under if the tourist’s don’t start visiting again. Tourists are also being put off by the amount of transport strikes the Maoists have been calling as this makes traveling around the country extremely difficult. We didn’t hear people speak badly of the Maoists. Some local people we spoke to think of Nepal as having two governments.
Due to the transport problems we booked an internal flight from Pokora to Katmandu. The views of the Himalayas from the plane were meant to be spectacular so we had our fingers crossed for a window seat.
We needn’t have worried as the plane, which looked like baked bean tins stapled together, was so small everybody had a window seat. Unfortunately the visibility wasn’t great but you could still see the peaks of the mountains as we flew along side them the whole way.