One of the many Suzuki taxis, in good condition |
We had heard that the
mini-buses are fast and the journey is scary, but we were assured that they had
good brakes and then again it couldn’t be much worse than Bangkok to Cambodia.
Yes it was a little heart-in-mouth at some points – overtaking buses/lorries,
screaming round blind corners and seeing crashed busses and lorries by the side
of the road – but we were confident in the drivers ability. His accomplice was
constantly shouting out of the window at passers-by in the small villages in an
attempt to cram more people into the van, but all the seats were taken, so we
didn’t know where they would sit. It turned out that they put a wooden board
across the aisle in order to create another seat and we were upping the numbers
constantly as we continued our journey. Long the way I noticed a few white
vehicles drive by with huge blue letters on them spelling out “UN” but we never
saw what they were doing or where they were going.
We had stopped for lunch for a
half-hour and then carried on along the crazy, weaving mountain road. We
eventually made it into Pokhara at about half 4, 6 hours after getting into the
mini-bus. We jumped into a taxi with a friendly local guy who managed to tell
the driver where our hotel was and we pulled up outside the Hotel Orchid. It
looked nice from the outside, but we have been caught out before on first appearances.
But thankfully it was a right
nice gaff. Apart from the fact there was still no power. This was getting
ridiculous, but at the same time we don’t want to spend all day in a hotel
room. After the crazy journey into Pokhara James took a snooze to get refreshed
and I unpacked and began to settle in. With the clock approaching dinner time I
was looking to get out of the hotel and into town to find a good restaurant as
a pipe of Pringles for lunch is just not a proper meal. But James wasn’t
feeling too hot. A trip to the bathroom confirmed this. Oh dear.
I would be searching the streets of Pokhara to find a place to eat by myself that night for James would absolutely not be joining me. I picked up some more water and things on the way back and he was still in a bad way so I had a night in and caught up on some more admin (getting to Delhi, Christmas shopping, house-hunting, etc) as James spent most of the night wrapped in the duvet in the bathroom. By the end of the night I believe that most of his illness was out but I still braced myself for a nice of disturbances as James dashed from bed to bathroom. I crossed my fingers, placed the swing-bin by his bed and hoped for the best…
Table for one, please |
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