November 12 – Kumarwarti to Kathmandu

Today we travelled from from Kumawarti back to Kathmandu. It took 7 hours to cover only about 200 km. We have been on these roads before but this time we were climbing instead of descending & there was lots of slow traffic.

Our group had a hearty breakfast in the dining hall before starting the journey. The villagers presented each of us with a hibiscus flower bud wrapped in leaves as we boarded the bus. As the journey progressed, the flowers opened up into beautiful decorations. We will be returning here next week as part of our next tour and we look forward to seeing the villagers again.

There was a heavy mist in the air as we drove down the local roads. At that time of the morning the only traffic we encountered were farmers on their tractors and people on motorcycles going to their work.

Once we turned onto the main highway the traffic got much heavier with lots of big trucks and buses full of people intermixed with farm tractors pulling wagons.

Along the way we got small glimpses of locals going about their daily lives alongside the highway.

I finally got a decent photo of kids playing on the swings made from tall bamboo poles. We saw dozens of them all along the roads from Kathmandu to Pokhara.

Many of the people living along the highway have very little money and establish their own little business to support themselves. Some people sell food to the truck drivers. We saw a lot of roadside stops with small woodfired clay ovens.

Other people have little shops where they make decorations especially for the truck drivers to put on the outside and inside of their long haul trucks. The truck drivers are hardly ever at home so the truck is their home while they’re away from their families.

We stopped a few times along the way for bathroom breaks and fuel for our bus. There were lots of places to buy coffee & other drinks but no Tim Hortons. The drive through here is a wide spot on the road to pull over. We were often treated to an interesting view at our stops.

Some of our stops were in the middle of towns & others were in the countryside.

We arrived at our hotel in Kathmandu around 4:00pm. Everybody was road weary and ready for a little rest. Kalpana had arranged for a dinner at a nearby restaurant at 6:30pm. Catherine and I were still feeling pretty rough so we decided to stay behind. We were sad that we could not be with the rest of our group for the final evening meal but were pleased with a quiet dinner by the open wood burning fireplace in the dining room.

Tomorrow we have one last activity to mark the end of our trek/tour of Nepal. We need lots of rest as we have to be on the bus at 5:30am.

Cheers!