Long bus ride back to Kathmandu

Ride to Kathmandu

We woke at 0530 for breakfast at 0630.  Harry had ordered us a taxi for 0700 to take us to Pokhara’s bus station for our 0730 bus back to Kathmandu.

At the station, our bus was nowhere to be seen.  Locals are helpful and when they see the colour of our bus ticket cover, they may shout out to us … “Your bus not here yet; coming!”

But as buses started to leave at 0730, we were getting a bit worried.  We found the person responsible for our bus company and waited close to him.  Our bus pulled up around 0745, having departed from somewhere else beforehand.  We loaded up and left around 0750.

What surprised me during the wait was the view of the hazy mountains in the distance.  They look so big compared to when we saw them from Sarangkot, even though they would have been closer from Sarangkot.  Some things just don’t make sense.

The mountains looked surprisingly big from the bus station compared to from Sarangkot.

The first stop at 1000 for breakfast, was too early for us to eat again.  We waited till the second at 1240 where we repeated the vegetarian buffet which we had on the outbound journey.  Boo and I shared one plate as we could have filled the plate as much as we liked for the both of us, and it would still be less than what some of the local men eat.

The road today felt worse as we were seated right over the rear axle.  Traffic and roadworks were worse too and we got into Kathmandu at 1620, taking about 50 mins longer than our outbound journey.

To avoid congested roads, we alighted at a different place from where we had boarded last week. We took a taxi to the Flying Yak Hotel which felt luxurious after some of the places on the mountain.

WhatsApp problems

On the ride, I started having problems with Whatsapp, a very key communication tool with family and friends around the world.  I got slapped with a one hour ban due to possibly violation of the terms and conditions.

I got additional bans, usually for about an hour, every now and then for about four days until I got through my first day back in Malaysia.

The timing seemed to coincide with my changing from my Indonesian SIM card to my Malaysian SIM card, both on roaming.  With my WhatsApp account attached to a New Zealand SIM, and travelling to so many countries, it probably triggered some alert.  The problem didn’t seem to occur while using hotel wifi.

The best momos in Kathmandu

Our guide Sital owed us an included meal from the hike because we had finished up about half a day earlier.  We weren’t fussed as to whether he would keep to this obligation but he did.  He scootered to our hotel at 1730 and walked us to what he considered the best momo shop in Kathmandu.

We started with a plate of steamed chicken momos and then two plates of fried chilli ones.  The former were good with a good flooding of chilli sauce while the latter were awesome as-is.

We finished the day with a spot of shopping.  On our lists were some hiking pants, sandals, a puffer jacket and a puffer vest.  We both managed to get everything, although some items the next morning.