Monday, October 19: The Long Road Back

This day was not too eventful. We spent the previous night at the same hotel that we stayed at in Pokhara before we went on our trek. We of course went up to the roof in the morning to watch the sun rise over the mountains. Mornings are the best time to look at the mountains for two reasons: the color from the sun is awesome and mornings are when it is the clearest.


After watching the sunrise we finished packing for the bus ride back to Kathmandu. This was not something we looked forward to. We were hoping that we could make the trip faster than the seven hours or so that it took to get to Pokhara. We also took a different bus company because the first bus we had was not very nice. This bus was better with one exception. One of the seats in front of us was missing its window. This was were two twenty-something European women were assigned to sit. They were not happy about this, but fortunately for them, there was a free seat in the front for one, and after someone got off on the way, the other was able to move. There was not a whole lot to do on the bus, so Phillip and I got a lot of reading done and dad took a nap.
The picture above was taken from the bus as we left Pokhara. This was pretty typical of what it looked like outside of town. One thing we found amusing was how many people we saw standing outside brushing their teeth. We also noticed this in Bangladesh.

We made it to Kathmandu in the middle of the afternoon without too much discomfort on the bus. Along the way we said goodbye to Shailesh. He got off at a small town that was close to where he lived. We were very pleased with his services. If anyone is interested in treking in Nepal, I highly recommend him as a guide, and I have his email address. One interesting even did occur as we entered Kathmandu. There appeared to be some kind of rally or parade. There were a lot of people gathered and traffic was stopped. It looked like most of them were under 30. Most of them then piled into the backs of trucks or jumped on motorcycles and had a mini parade. We didn't find out what it was about, but I think it was something political because many of them were wearing red. We had heard about Maoist rebels setting up roadblocks occasionally in Nepal and stopping all traffic, so I was a little concerned at first. Fortunately, nothing negative happened except that we were delayed about 15 minutes.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Kathmandu relaxing and checking out the rest of the Thamel area. We did not want to walk too far since we were all extremely sore still. Luckily by this time, Phillip's medicine was making me feel better. I hadn't been very sick the last couple of days, but I didn't have an appetite and my stomach felt a little weird. I had been eating what I could, but I'm sure between that and the treking I lost several pounds in those few days. Once I got my appetite back, I made sure not to worry about eating too healthy.