Until next time Nepal you lovely country! 1/3
Back to our regular early bed time of 9 so we were up before 7. Travelers' Inn wasn't bad! Hot hot water for a shower, towels, and soap for $6. No power but they let us charge stuff downstairs and we still had wifi in our room. I guess my expectations have changed. As we were talking to a shop guy, another dude came by and gave us good luck by putting a orange carnation petals on our head. We hit up Helena's again for breakfast. Rooftop view, wifi, and we had a great breakfast of banana lassi, ham and cheese croissants, and eggs on rösti with the last of our Counter Culture coffee. Mmmm. We met a Brit and a French dude who were discussing their Annapurna trip. We couldn't help but overhear and help them out. Funny that's where we met Evan who gave us all the tips. That's the best way.
It was 10 so we headed for the bus lot to get our night bus tickets to Kakadvitta- a probably shitty border town of India. A short 30 min walk and we found the insanity of the station. We walked past riot police and burnt tires (probably from the protests on New Years according the the UK guy it was nuts). Maybe it's a good time to be leaving? We bought our tickets for $25 for 3:00. We wouldn't have made this bus yesterday even if our flight was on time. We booked it back to Thamel to get out shit done.
When we got back Andy called his cargo dude. We shipped back our wooden sculpture and some other goodies that would have taken up too much room in our bag. The dude said to Andy "I know your from Hollywood" to which he replied "oh yeah? Which movie?". "300. It's a very smart movie". How fucking funny. Andy's been told he looks like Gerard Butler before but never from a Nepalese man. Haha!
Enough time for one let stop to get some art. We sat down w the art store owner and he busted out so many pieces. They were all fantastic and we found what we were looking for. Super stoked! Andy and I did well negotiating as partners- good cop, bad cop. Just in time to grab our gear from the hotel and be on our way.
Along the way Andy found the last one of a sign he was looking for (we have been looking everywhere) AND we got to hold tiny puppies! We reached the bus lot early enough for two plates of buff momos for $1.5. Mmmm. Some kids started talking to us, asking where we are from and our age (they guessed 50 and 40). They are so cute. I think they practice English in school and get excited to use it on foreigners.
The bus was supposed to leave at 3:30, its 5:30 and we are still trying to get out of the city between accidents and rush hour. I wonder if this is included in the 15 hr estimate for the ride. Heh. Doesn't matter, Xanax will solve the problem. We saw a woman puke out the window of the bus across from us. That was so nasty- didn't need that.
I can't wait to come back to Nepal and do more trekking. This really is a wonder country to travel through. You fall in love w it even w all the issues. Hopefully next time they will have gas and make it a little easier on the people. Fucking India. This is a bad time to stick it to them. They are trying to recover from a major earthquake remember??! On to the next leg of our journey. I can't believe we've been traveling for 5 weeks and still have 4 to go. Plus, we are still talking to each other which is amazing in itself of being around each other 24 hours a day.
The ride was nuts. The driver was going so fast down the dark roads. I love my smart husband, but sometimes he needs to keep his knowledge to himself. They put a full gas tank in the back of the bus in the trunk. Apparently there's no air release so he continued to tell me how dangerous it is and how it'll be instant death. Then he talks about the sheer cliffs on the other side of the road that we'll be passing. I don't need to know this shit. I prefer to be ignorant sometimes. Here we go for 15 hours!