November 10 – Pokhara to Kumarwarti

Today our group had a slow start. Everyone had the morning to themselves in Pokhara, with the option of going paragliding for a few hours as an additional cost activity. Catherine & I chose to take a pass on that one. We have had enough of high altitude thrills for a while but more than half of our colleagues were up for it! I look forward to hearing all about their experience.

Last night Catherine had the beginning of a sore throat so she decided to enjoy our comfortable hotel room this morning & rest a bit longer.

Kalpana walked downtown with me to find a local pharmacy to buy some non-prescription medicine for Catherine & then to find another shop for me to buy some new sunglasses to replace the ones that had broken the day before.

Our tour group reassembled at 1:00pm & we boarded the bus for a 6 hour drive to Kumarwarti where we will spend the next two days at the Barauli Homestay enjoying the local village & nearby Chitwan National Park.

Everyone in the group is having a great time but our energy levels are dropping off a bit as the past several days have been very busy. The bus ride today provided a bit of “recharge” time for all of us – despite the many bumps & swerves on the road.

Google maps predicted that the journey would take about 4 1/2 hours to travel about 170 kilometers but it took us 6 1/2 hours.

The first half of our journey followed the same road we took a few days ago to get to Pokahara from Kathmandu then we turned off the road to Kathmandu & headed further south.

The good news was that this new road was recently rebuilt (after the 2015 earthquake) so it was in much better shape, giving us a smoother ride. But the bad news was that all the vehicles started travelling much faster & nobody changed their desire to pass everything in front of them – so we witnessed numerous close calls with oncoming traffic.

Fortunately our driver was not at all aggressive in his driving. He was focused first on getting us to our destination safely & if that meant that it took a bit longer to get there then that was OK with all of us.

The last hour of our journey was in the dark & that was a whole new experience in itself. Everyone was still passing aggressively & visibility was way down. Fortunately it was not long before we turned off the main highway & started traveling down a local village road that had no other vehicles on it.

When we arrived at our destination there was a group of villagers there to greet us with garlands & tikas.

We went to the main dining hall & had a brief orientation followed by a delicious traditional supper on a large stainless steel plate.

After a long journey & a meal we were more than ready for bed in our little cottage. There will be lots of time to explore the village tomorrow.