Nepal Holiday Pt 3 – Hazaribag and the IPL

Having conquered Annapurna (well, the Base Camp!) we were pretty exhausted to be honest. Originally we had planned to go to Chitwan National park, which is kind of on the way back to India, but we'd enjoyed our one evening in Pokhara so much before the trek that we tempted ourselves into just staying there for a couple of days and then heading back to India.

Good choice!

We had lazy mornings in coffee shops. We sat around and read books. We laughed at people getting caught in the afternoon thunderstorms. It was, to use one word, relaxing. Just what was required!

People who know either of us will know though that we can't do sitting around for too long. So one day we decided to take a canoe out on the lake that sits next to Pokhara. We bought some of the now infamous pastries, some fruit and off we set....

Canoeing can be hard work. We made it look especially difficult! To start with we couldn't stay on a straight line. Plus there was a head wind. After 10 minutes I was knackered! We spent 3hrs or so on the lake, pulling in and out of the shore-line, eating our snacks, surveying the scene. It was good fun.

Some of you will know that Suzie used to be a bit handy with an oar in her hand. She was part of a crew that got a Bronze medal at the British Rowing Championships. Allegedly. I say allegedly, because I didn't see any evidence of it in this boat. Most of the time she just sat back and let me do all the hard work (more fool me, I guess). Don't be fooled by her pic on Facebook of her with an oar in her hand. It was the only time it touched the water!

Anyway, we called it a day after a few hours, partly because I was definitely slowing down, but mainly because we could see the afternoon storm approaching and boating on a lake is definitely more fun with the water beneath you rather than dropping onto you!

The next day we visited the Mountaineering Museum, which was pretty awesome actually. Loads of memoirs of the people who first conquered the tallest mountains in the world. You see some of the equipment that the first people used and you just think “How the f&^k?”. We were freezing at 4000m, with modern sleeping bags, loads of thermals, etc. Those people are seriously impressive, if I had a cap, I'd be tipping it to them.

Oh, and if you do happen to be in Pokhara, make sure you go to the Tibetan restaurant there. Absolutely fantastic. And Tibetan bread? Wonderful stuff – made a brilliant change to the flatbreads of India :-)

Unfortunately every holiday has to come to an end eventually. We had train tickets booked from Gorakhpur on Tuesday night. Those of you with good memories might remember I've been there before – it was one of the stops on my last trip back from Nepal. Last time though we just turned up hoping to catch a bus to Hazaribag and had to wangle our way onto a train. This time I was a bit more prepared!

Unfortunately we had to catch a bus to get there. Two buses actually, one to the border with India, then another to Gorakhpur. 6Hrs, we were told. We left at 7.30am, we arrived around 4.30pm. Quelle surpris! To be honest, I was getting a bit worried towards the end of the journey, trying to add up the rest of our trip in my head. We were getting tight for time. When we finally made it to Sunauli I started to relax. Far too soon as it happens....

You see, when Suzie arrived in India she'd spotted something she hadn't noticed in the UK. Her visa, although a multiple entry tourist visa, said if she left India she had to stay out of the country for 60 days. We'd been out for about 12 days. For those of you who's maths GCSE was a few years back, I can confirm that 12 is definitely not 60. It's actually quite a lot less.

So we went onto the Internet. Lots of people with the same problem. Lots of people saying it's not a problem any more and they're getting the thing fixed. Don't worry about it. Someone posted about a week ahead of us that they got through fine. Nice.

Except we didn't get through fine. They kicked up a bit of a fuss. We should have gone to the Indian Embassy (that's in Kathmandu by the way) etc. etc. Apparently we'd have to pay there for a letter of approval to get back into India. Hmmm. Or, we could just pay the officer at the border and he would pass on our payment for us. Of course he will ;-)

I hate admitting that we paid this, but we did. We had to. Suzie had to come back into India with me. We needed to get our train. She was due to fly out of Kolkata on Sunday. There wasn't another option. Sometimes things suck. That's life. Anyway, we got into India. We got to Gorakhpur with plenty of time and caught our train. The rest of the journey to Hazaribag was surprisingly pain-free to be honest.

Hazaribag, as you'll have gathered over the previous 6 months (yep, that's how long I've been away, do you miss me? :-p) is not a Mecca for tourists. There's nothing to do. It's hot (40C at the moment) too, so walking around in the day isn't really an option either, so we kept our activities to a minimum!

Had a fantastic meal in Mirci (chilli in Hindi). It's a vegetarian-only restaurant, but fantastic. Thanks to Efren for taking me there before! We had a couple of morning walks around the Jheel and Suzie got to try some Indian breakfast foods – Chole bhature. Imagine a flakey pancake and some curry and you're most of the way there!

We also took a stroll up to Canary Hill for the sunset. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy so we didn't see the sun actually set, but Suzie did get an introduction into the life of a celebrity in India - must have had twenty photos taken of us by random people! We'd also decided to do a bit of home cooking. Chicken curry to be precise. Buying chickens in India is always an experience, so I thought Suzie should get to see it for herself. Unfortunately, to see these things you need to take your hands away from in front of your face ;-)

I'm not going to lie – the curry was a bit of a disaster. You see, when you buy chicken here, you buy a chicken. Not a chicken breast, not some wings or legs. A whole chicken. It's alive when you pick it. Of course, the swift separation of it's body and it's head tends to take care of that. Most people in India don't cook for just themselves. It's normally a big group of people. With that being the case, buying a whole chicken isn't an issue. I therefore asked for the smallest chicken the guy had. He picked one. Did his stuff, bagged it for me and off we went....

When we got home I looked at what we had. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a chick that we bought, but it can't have gotten through puberty, or whatever chickens go through, yet. If there was meat on it, I think it got washed off when I ran it under the tap! What was on there was ropey to say the least. Not our finest meal of the trip!

On Friday we caught the overnight bus to Kolkata. I have to say, this was easily the best bus journey of the whole trip. The bus was good. Comfy seats. The road, NH-2, is brand new, runs from Delhi to Kolkata and is quick. We did 400km in 8hrs, including getting out of H,bag and into Kolkata and a stop for food. That's lightspeed in India! The journey got us to Kolkata in 8.5hrs, so we arrived by 6am.

Amazingly our hotel let us check in there and then – brilliant. Shower, bit of a nap, then off for breakfast. Having done a lot of Kolkata on our first visit we had a lazy morning, followed by a great lunch in Bar-B-Q. Ignore the name, this place was really good Indian food. No idea where the name comes from!

Then it was IPL time. We met some of the other VSO volunteers and caught a taxi to Eden Gardens. The game was Kolkata Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings. Big names like Brett Lee, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Jacques Kallis on show!

Ridiculously they won't let you take cameras into the ground. 95% of Indians have mobile phones. Most phones now have 2-5 megapixel cameras. Pretending that no-one is taking photos is sticking your head in the sand. Unfortunately I had my camera with me. You'll have to leave the battery at the gate I'm told. With who? On that table over there. Will someone look after it? No. Awesome. Thanks. Can't I just promise not to use my camera? No. Stupid. Stupid IPL. Why do you not want me to take photos and advertise the events for you? Just dumb.

Anyway, rant over! Unfortunately the game wasn't a classic for the neutral. Brett Lee (playing for Kolkata) had an amazing game and after 4 overs Chennai had 9 runs. Not 90. 9. Nine. Ridiculous, I've seen England score faster in test matches! Anyway, they got to 120, which was probably 30-40 short of what they needed. Then about 5overs into Kolkata's reply the heavens opened and the match was abandoned. Kolkata winning on the D/L method.

So not the barnstorming game we'd hoped for on our last day of the holiday, but still a great experience. The crowd was great fun, especially the never-ending Mexican wave (8 loops, never seen anything like it. Probably would have been more, but there was a wicket which had everyone cheering!)

The next day Suzie's flight was early in the morning and, after a day spent in coffee shops checking emails, I got another overnight bus back to Hazaribag to get back for work on Monday morning. It was really bizarre trying to get back into the swing of work again - the whole holiday was an amazing experience, too many highlights to choose from!

So now it's back to the grind. The good thing is that I came back refreshed and full of ideas for the 2^nd half of my placement. I've got 11 weeks until I'm back in the UK for Mr Paterson's wedding and I'm going to be really pushing Srijan in that time. We've got a load of really exciting new projects to work on and I'm really positive that we're going to make some good changes.

Hope everyone's well, wherever you are. Take care and see you soon.

Holiday pt 2 – Kathmandu and the Himalayas

I left the last blog post at a pretty low point. We'd just reached Kathmandu and had been sat in the back of a falling-apart old coach for 17 hours. We were tired. We were hot. I'm sure that I've looked better... definitely needed a shower. Ah, the joys of travelling, right?

We found a hotel and managed to restore a hint of respectability to our appearances. Unfortunately we didn't have much option but to head straight back out and try and organise our next steps – we needed to get to Pokhara the next day and start our trek as soon as possible.

I have a confession to make here. Normally when I go “travelling” I don't do luxury. I do things the way the locals do if I can. It's more fun. It's cheaper. It generally leads to more of those random experiences that make it all worthwhile. However. I refer you to the 17hrs we'd just spent on a coach. We were now left with two options:

1. A 7hr coach journey starting the next day at 7am.
2. A 25min flight leaving at 2.30pm

Yes, the flight cost almost 10 times the cost of the bus. Yes, it's cheating. Yes, it was bloody worth it!

After getting things organised, we had a quiet afternoon and then an absolutely fantastic meal in a Nepalese restaurant near our hotel. Well, the atmosphere and the starter was fantastic anyway – the main struggled to live up to that (much like my half-marathon run in August – peaked too soon.....). Oh, and seeing as she got so excited by the mention in the last post, I should point out that Kez funded this meal too. UK pounds go a bit further out here – so thanks again Kez!

With our morning blissfully free of coach journeys, the next day we headed into the “old town” part of Kathmandu. We saw some more temples (this is India after all) and lots of pigeons (felt like going to Trafalgar Square in the 90's!).

From there, it was time to grab our stuff and head to the airport, stopping en route to grab some cakes which made a fair few people in the airport jealous as we scoffed them down for a extremely unhealthy, but brilliantly tasty lunch!

Now, I've been on a lot of flights in a lot of countries. That's not meant as a boast, it's meant to show that I'm not exactly new to air travel and therefore have seen and experienced most things in an airport. However....

Our flight was called for boarding. We headed out into a bus. Nothing unusual about that. They hooked our baggage on with a trailer, which seemed kind of amusing (not sure why – it was actually pretty reassuring as we could see our bags!).Off we set, out towards, and then alongside, the runway. A couple of minutes later and we turn a corner to see a line of small prop planes. Cool I think, haven't been on one of these for a long time!

Then we drive round and past them. Hmmm. Not on those then. We're heading towards the runway again. We turn left, away from the airport and all the planes, running parallel to the runway again. And we keep going. I can see there's nothing ahead (except Kathmandu, which we can see a mile or so away). We get to the end of the runway, go past it, then turn right, down into a ditch below the level of the runway, along that the width of the runway and then appear back up on the far side. At this point, considering we're (allegedly) in an airport, I can no longer see a single plane. We've been driving for 10 minutes and are now driving back in the direction we've come from, but on the far side of the runway. We keep going. Past the point we started, the airport drifting past again to our right. After 20 minutes I'm beginning to wonder if we'd have spent less time in a coach if we'd just driven to Pokhara....!

Eventually we reach our plane. It's tiny. Two rows of seats, one on each side of the plane, maybe 20 seats? Fantastic. I can see the cockpit from my seat. The 8-yr old me suddenly reappears and I get ridiculously excited by this! The cabin isn't pressurised, so they have to give you sweets to stop your ears popping – awesome!

The flight was a bit bumpy, but 25mins is 25mins and you can't argue with that. Suzie might disagree – don't think she enjoyed it too much :-)

When we reached Pokhara we were expecting to be met at the airport by our guide (confusingly called Susan – probably not how he spells it, but there you go). Instead, Suzie somehow spotted a taxi driver with a piece of paper the size of a business card with “Timothy” on it. Eyes of a hawk, obviously.

We were a bit worried as we'd had a hotel booked for us and had done no research. We shouldn't have worried. The hotel was perfectly fine – newly built and just what we wanted. We dropped our bags and set out to explore.

Pokhara is in the foothills of the Himalayas. Now, most people think of Everest when they think of the Himalayas. Don't. Pokhara is nowhere near Everest. Apparently these Himalayas are quite big....What Pokhara is near though, is Annapurna. Annapurna I is the 10^th highest peak in the world, measuring over 8000m and we were going to climb it.....

Yeah right! Not only do you need to have a ridiculous amount of training (and equipment) to do something like that, but also while Annapurna might be 800m shorter, it's harder to climb than Everest. Lower success rates, higher fatality rates. We were only going to Base Camp (a still-not-shabby 4100m up).

So, Pokhara, beautiful setting, by a lake. Lots of restaurants and bars, not much else! Really nice atmosphere though. We had some great food and a couple of beers anticipating not too much of that over the next 8 days!

The next morning off we set. 10 years ago you'd have actually had to walk from Pokhara, but now there's a lovely twisty road through the mountains – fantastic scenery. After 1.5hrs we reached the starting point of the trail. One last chai before we set off, much to the amusement of some local women!

There is a point on the Annapurna trail called Poon Hill. It's not actually on the main climb to Base Camp, but off on a side loop. It's famous for it's sunrises and I do like a good sunrise, so that was on our itinerary. It's also only 8-9hrs walk from the starting point, so Day 1 was a leisurely 3 hr walk. Felt a bit lazy to be honest! Thankfully it was a wonderful place to stop, by some waterfalls, so we got a bit of photo opportunities. We also had the first (of many) Dal Bhats. Literally this means “Lentils and Rice” and for most Nepalese they eat it a couple of times a day. I've got to say, it's pretty good, but I like a bit more variety in my meals!

Next morning started with a beast of a climb. 3000 steps apparently! Beginning to wonder if this is such a good idea.... Later that afternoon we arrived in Ghorepani, which was to be important for a couple of reasons on this trip.

First, it was where our love affair with German Bakeries began. For some reason, the Nepalese have decided that German Bakeries are what people want (much to the consternation of some Austrians we met later on!). We decided to give it a go – Strudel time! From that point onwards every town was basically rated by the availability and the quality of their German baked goods. Obsessed with food? Moi? ;-)

Secondly, our guide had to leave us at this point. He said there had been a death in his family. Sometimes you have to be skeptical of this sort of thing, but I genuinely believed him – if he was lying he's wasted as a guide and should go into acting. This did leave us in a bit of an awkward position though – we'd paid for an English-speaking guide and a porter. Susan spoke good English, Lal, our porter, didn't. Oh, and he was partially-sighted too. Excellent.

I should say for the record here that Lal did an excellent job, considering it's not one he's trained for. We only got lost once and then not really (Suzie and I rushed on ahead and went the wrong way – difficult to blame him!). He got us to Base Camp and did it with a smile on his face. Of course at the time point we weren't sure how things would turn out....

The next morning we woke at 4.30 to catch the sunrise. It's a 45min walk from Ghorepani to Poon Hill. The walk takes you to about 3100m above sea level. Unfortunately Suzie felt a little bit unwell on the way up – we weren't sure if it was mountain sickness or not. Would we be able to make it to Base Camp – another 1000m up?

I mentioned German Bakeries earlier. Obviously they won't be everyone's cup of tea. What will be? Literally, a cup of tea at 5am when you're standing in the cold waiting for sunrise. The guys running the tea stall must make a fortune. Rs80 for a cup of tea – probably cost them Rs5 per cup, if that!

Sunrise was spectacular though. Some days it's apparently cloudy. Not for us. Perfect visibility and truly spectacular. Pics of this sort of thing never come out the way you want, but I hope some of these give an idea of what it was like.

The next 3 days went a bit like this:

Day 3 – walked for a stupidly long time. Everyone we told what we were doing said “really?” with a look of disbelief, but we had a timetable to keep to and we made it. Arrived in the guesthouse at 4pm. At 4.05pm the heavens opened – timing! German Bakery rating – 3/5, good strudel, rubbish choc cake. Two Israeli girls in Guesthouse look like they're having as much fun as a Liverpool fan at a Premier League Champions party....

Day 4 – walk up a slope, down a slope, up a slope, down a slope, up a slope, down a slope, repeat until you can see Macchupuchre peak. Stop. Be in awe. Spend evening listening to French couple singing Nepalese songs they've been taught by their guides. No German Bakery :-( Israeli girls are following us. Still look miserable.

Day 5 – Head up valley to Macchupuchre Base Camp (3700m). Israeli girls are only other people in our guesthouse – what did we do to deserve this?

MBC is just below the snow-line. It's therefore pretty cold. We were there by midday, which meant a lot of sitting around, but heading up to ABC wasn't on the cards as we didn't fancy staying there for the night (even colder!) and we were still worried Suzie might get hit by altitude sickness again. At that point she was ok, but no point risking it!

So at 4.20am we're up again. It's bitterly cold, but off we set. It's 1.5hrs to ABC and we want to be there for sunrise. After 15mins we're walking on snow, up a valley. It's pitch black initially, but slowly, as the sun rises behind us, the mountains to our right begin to be bathed in a gorgeous pink light. It's spectacular. Honestly, my photos can't and won't do it justice. We later heard of someone who's been to Base Camp eight times before. He said it blew him away this particular morning.

I know I joke and brush over a few things, but I can honestly say this will be remembered as one of the most spectacular events in my life. That's not something you get to say everyday. Truly breathtaking.

We got to Base Camp and set up to take photos. We'd been there for about 10mins when suddenly Suzie felt ill again, so rather than take any risks we headed back to MBC for a big bowl of porridge and some hot chocolate! Celebrated with some Toblerone. Swiss Alp chocolate eaten in the Himalayas. Perfect!

From there it was back down the mountain. I say down - considering our aim was to descend there was an awful lot of climbing! Met some guys who had been to Everest Base Camp – one of them did it wearing a pair of plimsoles. Loon. Australian, obviously.

On our penultimate day we stopped in Jinju, which has some hot springs, which definitely soothed some aches and pains! Then it was to Pokhara and a well deserved beer and some nachos. And a hunt for a German Bakery ;-)

Originally we'd been thinking of heading to Chitwan National Park from Pohara and spending a day there before heading back towards Hazaribag, but we were a bit knackered to be honest and thought a couple of relaxing days in Pokara would be good for us (you know, a holiday or something!).

So if you want to read about Pokhara, Suzie's time in Hazaribag, or our trip to see an IPL match in Kolkata, you'll have to read the next post. Congratulations if you managed to read all of this one. Bit of a mammoth one....not unlike an 8-day trek in the Himalayas or something!

Nepal: A Tale of Buses, Bakeries and Bodily Functions

Warning: This blog post contains references to some events that may disgust some people (Carl and Ronnie should be fine as you both seem obsessed with my toilet habits...). I fully advise not reading this while eating your dinner!

A few weeks ago, my friend Efren, a fellow volunteer, told me he was going on a trip to Nepal for a couple of days and did I want to come along. I thought it would be a good first trip in India, especially having someone to go along with, so I said yes. Obviously this was the wrong answer....


Wednesday

18:00 – I make my way over to Efren's house to meet him and Mila (another volunteer) where we have dinner. Our bus is due to depart at 10pm

21:00 – We are just about to head for the bus station when I realise the battery for my camera is still in the charger back in my flat. I peg it back to my place on Efren's bike and rush back with time to spare. Ironically at this point I'm thinking the trip could have been a disaster if I hadn't remembered....

22:00 – The bus leaves Hazaribagh, basically on time, it's supposed to be a 6-7hr journey to Patna.

Thursday

06:00 – Only an hour or so late, we make it to Patna. It's freezing and we appear to be in the biggest coach park in the world. All I can see in every direction is buses. There are about 20 rickshaw drivers trying to overcharge us all at once. Amazingly, economic theory doesn't apply to rickshaw drivers....the fact that there are 20 of them and only three of us doesn't result in them lowering their price to try and win our business – they all seem to feel that a tourist is only worth taking if they can screw them out of some money....

Bus hrs: 8; Toilet breaks: 0

06:30 – Some haggling and a rickshaw journey later we're at the train station. Not because we need a train, but because we're hoping to get some breakfast. No such luck – everything appears to be shut. We grab a coffee and head to the 1^st class waiting room (the one benefit to being white – no-one suspects you of not having enough money to be in there!) where we make use of toilet facilities. Not normally a detail I would add to a blog post, but my reasons will become clear as we go on...

Bus hrs: 8; Toilet breaks: 1

07:30 – Back to the bus station and on to a new bus, this time heading to Rauxal. This is the Nepalese/Indian border where we intend to cross. Estimated time – 7hrs.

13:00 – We stop for some lunch. I go to get off the bus. My mobile is no longer in my pocket. I know I had it at the start of this bus trip, so I figure it fell out of my pocket. After roughly 30mins of searching the bus, we have to finally admit someone has picked it up and taken it. Bugger. I'm beginning to sense this trip may not go so well....

18:00 – We arrive at Raxaul a few hours late. More obnoxious rickshaw drivers. Never mind, we get to the Indian immigration office, get our passports stamped for exit and head on to the Nepalese side. Here we're surprised to get charged $30 for our visa – lack of investigation on our part in fairness. Also, because we're quite late we have to wait a while for them to open the office again and then fill in all the forms by candle-light as the Nepalese government has imposed 12-hr power cuts due to the excessive cold weather....

Bus hrs: 19.5; Toilet breaks: 1; Stolen mobile phones: 1

19:00 – Sat in the ticket office, we manage to get the last three seats on a bus to Kathmandu. This is due to take us 8hrs and leave at 8pm. When it arrives, we're crammed onto the back seat of the bus (five seats – six people). I'm by the window, which doesn't shut properly so I have a constant freezing wind swirling round me the entire journey. Sleep is limited to say the least.

Friday

07:00 – Bus again takes a couple of hours longer than intended, but we eventually reach Kathmandu. Plus, it just pulls up on the side of the road and refuses to go to the bus station. Cue a lot of angry passengers, but it's difficult to make a driver do something if they don't want to. After some angry exchanges we force the mate of the bus (guy who handles the money) to pay for our mini-bus trip to the bus station.

Bus hrs: 31.5; Toilet breaks: 1; Stolen mobile phones: 1

Luckily Nepal is a bit more alive in the morning than India, so we get some breakfast and coffee. It's pretty good, but very cold! We have a bit of a wander round to try and find an Internet cafe and work out where we are and where we'll stay tonight. This is when we notice the bakeries.....Nepal loves baking! They are literally everywhere, selling cakes, doughnuts, sweets, it's like mini-England! I feel happy – Nepal is going to be good :-)

12:00 – After a bit of confusion we manage to get to an Internet cafe, work out where we need to be (Thamel – an area of Kathmandu) and get there. We find a cheap hotel and check in, have showers, then head off out in search of the best way to get to Dhulikhel – our trip for the afternoon.

14:00 - Stop at a street vendor for food – have some Momo, which is a Nepalese dumpling and is delicious. All memories of the bus journey hell is being irradicated by the Nepalese food ;-)

16:00 – Reach Dhulikhel, which is basically a hill-top about 1.5hrs from Kathmandu centre. It's got some good views, although they're slightly spoiled by the mist today. We sit around in a nice hotel having coffee (which takes ages to come and is over-priced, but never mind!) and admiring the location. Then manage to time our bus back perfectly and head back to Kathmandu.

It's around this time that I start feeling a little bit dodgy....my stomach is cramping a fair bit and the bus journey isn't too much fun.

20:00 – Back in the hotel and I figure I just need the toilet. It's not pleasant, I'll be honest, but I feel a lot better for it and we head out for dinner.

Bus hrs: 35.5; Toilet breaks: 2; Stolen mobile phones: 1

21:00 - I decide to play safe and just order some chicken soup with plain rice. It's very good food in fairness and the waitress is an amazing girl. She's probably 16, lost both her parents before she was 12mths and grew up with her grandmother. She speaks English, Hindi, Nepalese, Spanish and some Japanese. She's learning how to run her grandmother's hotel, has hiked to Base Camp and wasn't even working that night – she was just stopping by to help out! After dinner, back to the hotel looking forward to our first night in a proper bed for a while....

Saturday

01:00 – Uh oh. It's 1am, I'm wide awake with more intense stomach cramps. Toilet required. Squat toilets and no toilet paper are not a good combination when you have diarrhoea, just in case you were wondering....

Bus hrs: 35.5; Toilet breaks: 3; Stolen mobile phones: 1

06:00 – See 1am entry

Bus hrs: 35.5; Toilet breaks: 4; Stolen mobile phones: 1

09:00 – I wake up feeling like death. There's no way I'm going out today. Efren and Mila, bless them, head out and get me some bananas, rehydration salts and bread rolls. I spend the majority of the day in bed....at this point I would like to point out that the Kindle is the greatest invention of mankind!

15:00 – I'm feeling a bit better and determined to at least make it out of the hotel. Toilet break confirms I'm still ill though.....

Bus hrs: 35.5; Toilet breaks: 5; Stolen mobile phones: 1

I bump into Efren and Mila randomly out the front of the hotel and we go to a small cafe they've found. I then go to the Gardens nearby, which are gorgeous. I take some pics to make myself feel better. Back to the hotel – can't face having any dinner.

21:00 – Argh!

Bus hrs: 35.5; Toilet breaks: 6; Stolen mobile phones: 1


Sunday

03:00 – Same old story....

Bus hrs: 35.5; Toilet breaks: 7; Stolen mobile phones: 1

08:00 – Efren and Mila head out for some breakfast, while I manage to get out of bed and have a hot shower. I'm still not feeling good though, so we phone the VSO doctor and he gives us the names of some medicines to get. I take those and then buy myself a Nepalese jumper which is made of Yak's wool or something – it's like a great big hug :-) Feel a lot better now....

14:00 – Have some lunch with Efren and Mila before they head off to Nuwakot. They say they'll be back around 8/9pm. I set up shop for the afternoon in a cafe. Kindle paying for itself in the last two days!

20:00 – Back to the hotel to wait for the guys to return so we can go for dinner (no mobile so I can't contact them remember!)

Bus hrs: 35.5; Toilet breaks: 8; Stolen mobile phones: 1

23:00 – Wake up....I fell asleep waiting. Still no sign of them! Obviously can't contact them, but I'm pretty hungry so I head out. No option but a street vendor selling omelettes in a bun, considering the last couple of days I'm nervous, but don't have an option!

Monday

08:00 – The guys didn't come back in the night. This concerns me. I'm supposed to back in the office on Wednesday and it took us 36hrs to get here. We were meant to leave Monday morning....stomach confirms still not 100% better, but I feel good myself, so it's off to get some breakfast, leaving Efren and Mila a note to let them know where to find me....

Bus hrs: 35.5; Toilet breaks: 9; Stolen mobile phones: 1

12:00 – Still no sign of them, I begin checking in with the hotel every 30 mins as I walk around Kathmandu....

...which, by the way, is a pretty nice city (or the Thamel area is). It's the tourist sector, so it's all the kind of shops you expect, but there are lots of nice cafes, restaurants and clothes shops. The people are lovely and friendly and I actually did enjoy just walking around there!

15:30 – They've been back at the hotel! They're in a cafe round the corner. I meet them – they didn't make it to Nuwakot until 8.30pm on Sunday, so there was no chance of getting back last night. They didn't exactly rush back this morning either though. I figure there's no chance of us getting back by Wednesday now, but never mind...

17:00 – Taxi to the bus station. Efren thinks it's going to be quicker taking a different route this time... so we're getting a bus to Pokhara instead of Raxaul. Our bus is due to leave at 7pm and arrive around 4am.

Tuesday

07:00 – Quelle surpris – we're a few hours late! Plus, I have severe stomach cramps....again! Public toilets in India aren't fun – but I don't have a choice....unfortunately though – nothing! I appear to have gone to the other extreme now, although given the journey ahead I think this is probably the better option! I try again 20mins later, but nothing doing then either....I do feel a lot better though, so we grab a bit of tea for breakfast and then jump straight onto another bus to Gurakhpur, this is supposed to be 6-7hrs....

Bus hrs: 45.5; Toilet breaks: 11; Stolen mobile phones: 1

16:00 - ….and of course takes a lot longer! We finally make the border of India almost 24hrs after leaving Kathmandu. We were hoping to be almost home by now – but we're not even close! After a 2km walk to the actual border (more rickshaw drivers refusing to give us a fair price...) we almost have a disaster at the Indian Immigration office when they ask for our registration documents, which we don't have....but luckily they decide to let us through. A quick bit of food and it's onto, yep, you guessed it, another bus...

Bus hrs: 54; Toilet breaks: 9; Stolen mobile phones: 1

21:00 – We arrive at Gorakhpur train station, but it's too late to buy normal tickets. Plus, there isn't a train to Koderma as we had hoped (Efren's plan – now I know why I prefer to organise my own travelling, or at least have a say in it!). So we have to get an overnight train to Hajipur. It's due to leave at 10:20pm....

Bus hrs: 59; Toilet breaks: 9; Stolen mobile phones: 1


Wednesday

00:20 – Two hours late and our train finally leaves, it's about 6hrs to Hajipur....

05:30 – We actually make up some lost time here (wonders will never cease!). When we get out of the station it's a short 10min taxi journey to Patna (yes, scene of the mobile loss...) and then we have another bus journey back to Hazaribagh.

Bus hrs: 68; Toilet breaks: 9; Stolen mobile phones: 1; Train journies: 5hrs

16:00 – Finally, finally, finally we get back to Hazaribag. 3 full days of bus journeys. In 7 days of “holiday” I spent over 3.5 of them travelling to and from Kathmandu and what felt like an equivalent amount of time on the toilet or in bed once I got there! 

Bus hrs: 78; Toilet breaks: 9; Stolen mobile phones: 1; Train journies: 5hrs

I have to say though, there were some amazing moments – little snippets of great scenery and some lovely people. I'm just glad I'm going to go back to Nepal in April with Suzie as I think to leave it like that would not be doing it justice....  

If anyone is interested in seeing the route we took - here is a map. Photos will be on Flickr soon....