Kathmandu to Besisahar: Shaken, not stirred.

We awoke at 04:30am after another fitful night of sleep. At one point in the middle of the night, a man singing loud Buddhist chants in a drunken manner sparked the incessant barking of a dog and late night revelers shouted in the streets below, followed by a local establishment pumping out loud music at 5am. 

Our wonderful hosts at Hotel Buddha had packed us a take away breakfast box each and hailed us a taxi. This taxi driver knew which bus departure area to take us to, and there is a reason why I’m not calling it a terminal...He made the executive decision for us not to catch a big public bus but instead a smaller minibus, as he said the seats would be way more comfortable.

During my research regarding getting from Kathmandu to Besisahar I had read about the treacherous seven hour bus ride that was to be expected and the reality lived up to the stories. Firstly 21 passengers were crammed into a 15 seater minivan, some of whom were coughing and sniffing and the windows were all shut tight. Two poor woman in the seats in front of us started vomiting 5 km into the journey and continued vomiting for the next 7 hours.

Leaving Kathmandu we drove through slums without paved roads and some of the roads were in the process of still being developed, with the result that thick dust billowed around us . Almost everyone outside was wearing face masks and the entire scene was extremely unpleasant.

Once we drove out of the densely populated areas the scenery became more pleasant but the driver was “Mr Racing Car Driver” and the fact that I’m able to relay this story is a complete miracle!

We stopped twice along the way to stretch our legs and use the squat toilets. None of the rancid fish or deep fried food options looked appealing, but we had also lost our appetites due to the rough ride. As Josh described it, “ I feel shaken, not stirred!” 

Finally after 7 hours of misery and terror we arrived at Besisahar at midday and checked into the TIMS Check Post to have our permits stamped. I forgot to mention previously that we needed 4 passport photos to be able to obtain our hiking permits.

We sat at a sidewalk cafe for a few moments so that we could decompress after the journey and Josh needed to recover from car sickness. I could feel a headache coming on due to self imposed dehydration for the long drive.

We had placed our rain pack covers over our packs for the journey as the bags were all strapped to the top of the minivan roof with thin, frayed ropes. This had turned out to be an excellent decision as they were covered with a thick layer of dust.

As we’re started heading onto the trail we met a really friendly man named Rupes, who asked us to please come and stay at his tea house if we managed to make it to Ngadi 13 km away. He did a good sales pitch and we decided that it would be a good goal destination for the day.

Once we got onto the trail, we immediately started walking through quaint farming villages which were all very neat and clean with terraced fields growing a variety of crops. The local people we encountered were friendly and greeted us with “ Namaste” and the little children in particular were adorable and ran towards us shouting in glee with their hands clasped in greeting.

The path took us along a river, past a hydroelectric power plant and lots of small holdings growing food and farming goats and a few chickens. At about 5 pm we arrived at Rupes and Shanti’s rustic Hilton Hotel. The “garden rooms” had walls of haphazardly placed corrugated iron with huge gaps in them but it was nevertheless, very quaint.

As we arrived Shanti and her mother Bodsi welcomed us and made us feel at home with cups of tea and offers of homemade Nepalese wine which ultimately never manifested.

A very enjoyable evening was spent chatting with our hosts and Tomas from Slovakia who now lives in Denmark. Tomas is a delightful open minded, interesting and interested 24 year old who is doing this trek solo for many reasons, one of which is to help him decide on his career choices for the future, thereby embarking on an amazing vision quest experience.

Rupes proudly showed us his terraced farm out back. He is such a go-getter, running the tea house, farming and studying to be a guide all while doing other jobs too. From the yard we could see the high snow covered peaks of the tall Himalayan mountains up ahead.

Shanti cooked our dinner of vegetable curry and rice which was absolutely delicious. Most of the ingredients came from their garden, and we washed it down with  hot ginger tea.

We settled into bed early in our sleeping bags on a hard bed covered with an insect net, which made me feel better as we had found a giant spider in our room earlier.... and with that promptly fell asleep. A good first night on the Annapurna Circuit!