10/21/08 - Day 0 - Kathmandu to Besi Sahar

Kathmandu Elevation: 4,300 ft

Besi Sahar Elevation: 2,493 ft

The bus ride from Kathmandu to Besi Sahar was much better than I expected in some respects, yet a bit uncomfortable in others.  I surprised by the quality of the roads.  I was expecting bumpy dirt roads for the majority of the trip, but they were paved and relatively smooth the entire way.  The mini bus we were riding on, however, was not made for tall people.  Luckily, Heather was able to take the window seat, which allowed me to stick my legs out into the isle (at least when there weren't people sitting in it).  I think at one point there were about 45 people on our bus, and it only had seating for 25-30.  I can't say that that aspect of the trip was completely unexpected though.

Also on our bus was Laurence, Rick, John, Terry, Martin, and Brian.  We were all sitting near each other on the bus and passed some of the time chatting with each other.

We had been told in Kathmandu by the travel agent we purchased our bus ticke from that the lodges were a 2 hour walk from where the bus dropped us off in Besi Sahar, so our originally plan was to grab our bags and get started that day.  While we hadn't learned this yet, it quickly became apparent that if you want to get accurate information from Nepalis, you need to ask several of them and then take the most common response because we quickly found out from Laurence that the first day's walk was more like 6 hours, not 2.  No one we asked in Besi Sahar was sure if there was a village with lodges 2 hours walk away or not (not surprisingly since they would rather us stay in their lodges), so we decided it was better to stay put for the night and get started in the morning.  Laurence was traveling alone, so the three of ended up getting a room together.

This owl was living in a house constructed from a Nepal Ice box (a Nepali beer) on top of the TV at the lodge we stayed in.  It was still a baby and couldn't fly yet, but it was getting really close.  I'm not sure what their intentions were for it once it does take flight.