1 APRIL 2023 SATURDAY - KHATMANDU TO POKHARA BY ROAD

Hotel Capital Boutique had arrangement with local bus contractors, where they had facility of pre booking seats in the semi luxury & luxury buses plying between Khatmandu & Pokhara. We booked 2 tickets in a semi luxury bus scheduled to leave from the main Bus Stand at 7 AM. Tickets in the luxury buses were not available.

On Saturday (which was also the first day of the Financial year 2023-24) morning, we boiled the half litre milk which we had purchased the previous day, mixed the instant coffee and enjoyed a strong Nescafe. After a quick shower we checked out of the hotel, took a cab and reached the bus stand by 645 AM. I noticed that the bus stand had around 10/12 buses all heading to Pokhara. After loading the bags in the bus, we half halfheartedly looked around for possibility of some breakfast. The choice was not much, so we settled for a cup of Tea. The driver of our bus assured that in about an hour into the drive to Pokhara, he has scheduled a breakfast halt, where much better options would be available. 

All the buses started at 700 AM sharp. As per maps the distance to Pokhara from Khatmandu by road was around 220 Kilometres. And the estimated duration of travel was 7 hours. Assuming halting time of around an hour for bio breaks, breakfast & lunch breaks we should be reaching Pokhara by 4 PM. Average speed of around 32 KMPH. This indicated that the roads were not in  good shape.

As long as  we were driving inside the city, the bus could not gain speed due to the narrow roads & the city traffic. Once we crossed the city limits the road quality deteriorated & again  we could not gain speed due to bad roads. In several places major road widening & related activities were going on. It rained during a part of the day, making the bus travel even slower through the muddy track. In a mountainous area when it rains the temperature drops suddenly. As a person born & brought up in Mumbai (where the climate is moderate through out the year) I found this a bit difficult to get used to initially. We were to face this situation a few more times during the course of our trek. Because of the bus travel, I was not keen on having a heavy breakfast or lunch. So Sridhar & myself settled for fruits, biscuits, lassi, etc. The 8 hour drive to Pokhara included a breakfast break, a bio break, a lunch break another bio break, in that order and we reached Pokhara bus stand by 4 PM, as promised by the bus driver.

The distance from the bus stand to Hotel Lake Star, where TTH had made stay arrangements for us that night, was around 2 kms. Alighting at the bus stand, we decided to walk it down to the hotel, after having spent the past 8 hours in sitting position inside the bus. On the way to the hotel, my olfactory senses detected a whiff of fresh Coffee. Like bloodhounds we followed the trail(!!) & reached a tiny but well maintained coffee house. After a breakfast & lunch consisting of only fruits, biscuits & lassi a good strong coffee was most welcome. Since both Sridhar & myself did not have any local currency, we exchanged Indian Currency at all the places. 

 

The Coffee house guys confirmed the way to Hotel Lake Star. We reached Hotel Lake Star by 445 PM and checked into our rooms. At the check in we met Vivek Kumar who was the Trek Lead appointed by TTH for our trek. Few members (including Sridhar & myself) were given accommodation in the adjoining building of the same hotel which went under the name Hotel Guru. 

 

A meet & greet session of the trekkers was scheduled by TTH that evening. Here we got to meet our fellow trekkers who would be participating in the trek with us. This group had 11 trekkers excluding the TTH lead, local lead & the porters. This group would be together for the next 9 days, helping each other, staying together, whiling away the evenings together, singing & dancing together, exchanging notes, telling stories.... The group was a mix of youth, middle aged & elderly persons. Doctors, Engineers, academics, finance and tax professionals, government officials, students.. The local expert was Shure who would be leading the trek. His son Choten was also part of the group. Apart from this the group would also have 4 porters who would carry the luggage offloaded by some of the trekkers. Though arrangement for night stay was made in Tea houses, Vivek handed over a sleeping bag to each member of the trekking party, just in case.

8 out of 11 members had a joint team dinner at a quaint eating place called Marwari Bhojanalay. The management of this hotel arranged a family cabin for our group. Conversation started flowing easily as the members got to know each other. Reaching the hotel after dinner we segregated a portion of the luggage which could be "left behind" & not carried into the mountains. Those opting to offload their heavy backpacks to be lifted by the porters split their luggage into further 2 parts, the bigger bag to be carried by the porters & the smaller backpack to be carried by the trekker consisting essentials like water bottle, poncho, medicines, extra layer, etc.

Click here to continue