Pokhara II

Namaste! I have just returned from my second visit to Pokhara which was fantastic! Our journey started out early Thursday morning where we caught a local bus from the bus park. After alot of haggling, we got our bus fare down to 180 rupees. Instead of riding in the bus, we went for the much more fun option of riding on the bus. On top of all the buses in Nepal are shallow metal cage type things to store bags, people, or even a herd of goats. So we climbed up the ladder and situated ourselves for the 7 hour bus ride. I can not emphasize enough how much better it is to ride on the top of the bus. You sort of feel like you are on an amusement park ride though a medieval countryside. The Nepal countryside is probably the most beautifl thing I have ever seen. Everything looks so ancient. I kept expecting a triceratops or a pteradactyl to come out from the hills. Also on the roof you get 360 degree panoramic views of the country which are breathtaking. Especially now, Nepal is incredibly green and lush. It is much more tropical than I had imagined: banana trees, palmish trees, everything blanketed in green. Also riding on the roof, you get the Nepali wind in your hair and face which is one of the best parts. Most of the 7 hour wild ride to Pokhara we shared the roof with an old Nepali vegetable farmer who had enough burlap sacks of potatoes, cabbage, and beans to feed the Nepali army. We whoops and yelled the whole ride while he took naps nestled in his sacks of lettuce. We shared our chocolate with him once he woke up from his nap (how in the world he slept up there I dont know!!). He was very curious about our snacks and cameras and thought we were quite strange I think. Riding on the roof of the bus is like flying sort of. It is like in the omni-max movies how they fly through the grand canyon. You get the best views of villages, the terraced green fields, and the staggeringly large hills. Finally, after 7 hours of riding on the bus we arrived, all thoroughly aired out and covered in dirt. I wiped my face and it was literally covered with grime. Also we all looked like lobsters from sunburn.
The next day we were up for more adventure so we decided to rent motor bikes!! This turned into a huge fiasco. The four of us who were there got motor bikes in the morning and after a 1 minute "lesson" were off! Pokhara is a much better place to learn how to ride a motor bike than in Kathmandu. It is actually much easier than I expected. But, the first disaster struck about 5 minutes into our adventure. Every single one of us ran out of gas. Amie and Christine got split up from me and Matt too. The motor bike rental guy had pointed in the direction of the petrol station, but that did no good. We asked about 20 Nepalis where the gas station was, and we got 20 different answers. We shold have fully realized this before trusted every Nepali we met, but the thing with these people is that they never say "I don't know." So I am pretty sure no one we asked actually knew where the gas station was, they just pointed to where it maybe was. After 3 hours of waiting by the side of the road the motor bike rental guy came and broght us some petrol. We met back up with the other two and were off for the country!! We rode for about an hour on bumpy gravel roads and through the rice fields. Disaster number two: Christine's motor bike ran out of oil. After a very frustrating two hours we finally got Christine another motor bike. And we were ready to cruise so we headed up into the hills! This was so spectaclar! Probably one of the best things I have done. We were winding though monstrous hills, green everywhere, tiny mountain huts, braking for chickens and pigs in the road, stopping to look at fantastic water falls and clear moutain streams. All the while the most fresh mountain air was blowing on our faces. It was motor biking through the hills that I actually got a good scale of how truly rugged and hilly Nepal is. And how small I am compared to these "hills" (which I think are more like mountains). The canyons were so huge, the water falls massive, cliffs jutting high into the sky. After about 8 hours of motor biking we were exhausted! It's surprising how tired you can get from sitting on top of a bus and sitting on a motor bike. Sore too!