Ride to Pokhara
We woke around 0630 after 8h sleep. I had a little soreness from the long downhill hike in my calf muscles.
Today, we have no more hikes but only a ride to Pokhara, because of the long slog that we did yesterday all the way to Sidhing.
After breakfast we set off in an old Mahindra 4WD at 0855, seated in the cab while other passengers were on the deck behind. Sidhing isn’t big and I imagine it wouldn’t be easy to just turn up after a hike and expect to find a ride to Pokhara. Perhaps it could be worse in the afternoon.
It took 1h10 on unsealed roads that were rocky in parts, muddy in others and also a stream crossing. That led us to a good stretch of country roads that had a checkpoint. All the people on the deck behind had to hop off beforehand so that we could drive past the cop with an empty deck. We stopped and waited while they walked the five-minute stretch.
It surprised me that the cop has never noticed this happening several times a day, a 4WD with lots of luggage but few passengers followed by a group of pedestrians on a country road.
We continued on the road until close to the city where we joined a highway. At that point, some passengers on the deck parted company with us and the remainder joined us in the cab. Apparently, it isn’t legal to ride on the deck on the highway so we had 8 people including the driver in the cab.
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- Our accommodation at Sidhing.
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- View from our accommodation at Sidhing.
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- Loading up for our drive.
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- The terrain before we reach sealed roads.
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- The terrain before we reach sealed roads.
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- Our fellow passengers at different times.
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- Scenery on the way to Pokhara.
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- Scenery on the way to Pokhara.
Back to civilisation
The 4WD dropped us off at Harry’s Guesthouse where we said goodbye to Sital and Suzan, offering a tip each. It was only 1140 but we managed to get into our room.
After a short rest, we walked to town and found a nice café for lunch. We were both glued to our phones over the long lunch. I had had weak and bad internet for the entire hike while Boo had absolutely none!
In the evening, we treated ourselves to a massage each. Prices were negotiable and some places offered a discount of 40% off the menu price.
We finished the day with the much-awaited in-house Korean dinner of Kimchi stew.
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- Lakeside Pokhara.
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- Lakeside Pokhara.
Edit: A couple of months later, the output of Suzan’s work came to us in the form of a promotional Youtube video for the company. We were so happy to have the memories of this adventure and hard work captured for us, free-of-charge, in the form of moving pictures. The trip is also sold as a 9-day trip starting and finishing in Kathmandu; hence the title in the video.