Craving the Calm

I think Nepal is conspiring against me, forcing me to have to come back to see the many things I wanted to see but was unable to.

My original plan was to do the Ghandruk trek over three days, two nights, but with my legs the way they were, I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it. So, next plan was to organise a transfer there, spend the night and do some smaller hikes around the village. I’d had a day of rest yesterday and spent it regularly trying to stretch my muscles out, so figured this was doable.

As predicted, Krishna had been able to organise accommodation, there was just one small glitch. The road to Ghandruk was closed due to roadworks and storm damage! Ghandruk was now completely off the table.

Plan C. Take a taxi to a similar village called Dhampus, spend a few hours there and then spend the next two nights down at Lakeside. I was looking forward to seeing a mountain village and soaking up the peacefulness of rural life.

Waking up though, it was pouring with rain. Yesterday when I rested, sunshine. 😑

By this point, I have just accepted Nepal is messing with me and was ready for Kedar to collect me at 9am. This is where Plan C went awry…

Pramilla’s older sister Prativa was visiting from Chitwan and while I was waiting for Kedar, Pramilla mentioned something about Prativa coming with me.

I looked at her blankly and said no, I didn’t know anything about that.

Sure enough, my host family had invited Prativa onto my trip. Ok, no worries, other than we now left half an hour later while I had to wait for her to get ready.

The trip to Dhampus was one of the most hardgoing yet. The roadworks were taken to another level with the heavy rain, so cars were sliding in the mud and it was every car, truck and motorbike for themselves, with everyone driving wherever they thought they could get through, even if that meant on the other side of the road or the footpath.

We had a tiny portion of good road, then we started up the mountain and this road was a form of cobblestones, only less smooth and completely uneven. We bounced so much, my watch thought I was running.

Every now and then, the rock road would disappear and then it became thick, sludgy mud that only a 4WD would go through, but somehow, our tiny taxi slipped and slided its way up through the mud.

One benefit of the road was Kedar needed to drive slower, so I could have the window down and take pictures of the amazing scenery as we made our ascent. I just had to ignore Prativa’s comments asking if I was cold.

I congratulated Kedar when we made it to the top and resisted the urge to hug him in relief.

It felt voyeuristic as I started walking down a stone pathway, as I was essentially there to look at people’s homes and lives. But soon, I was caught up in the beauty of the stone homes perched on the hillside, enshrouded in cloud.

Unfortunately, Prativa had no interest in the scenery and simply wanted photos to create a Tik Tok video. It was frustrating wanting to enjoy the quiet serenity of where I was, and constantly being asked to take her photo or slow-mo video.

Because my left leg was still a bit stiff, I was a little slow going upwards, but after nearly three weeks of chaos, it felt nice to be at a slower pace, albeit with the regular requests from Prativa.

We came to an open space that had some benches to sit at and presumably, take in the amazing snow capped mountain views, which we couldn’t see due to the rain. You could however, see the immediate mountains, valley below and the clouds in between.

I sat down at the bench and wanted to drink it all in and feel lost in the moment that felt a world away and another lifetime from home.

Instead, I had Prativa constantly interrupting me, wanting to borrow my sunglasses and then record her. Each time I sat at the bench trying to enjoy the quiet stillness, she would ask for more.

Eventually, I cracked. I handed her my sunglasses and told her to have Kedar do it. I thought that would give me at least one minute of peaceful solitude, but it wasn’t to be.

They stepped away, but started playing music to accompany the Tik Tok. At that point, I put my head down, sighed and admitted defeat. I had effectively just paid 5,000 rupees ($56) to be someone’s personal photographer.

We made our way back home and I packed my bag ready to move on to Lakeside. Just as I was leaving, Pramilla arrived so I was able to say goodbye to her as she had stayed at the orphanage the previous night to fill in for the manager.

As soon as I arrived at Hotel Blossom, my accommodation for the next two nights, I immediately knew I had made the right decision to stay. It had a sense of calm about it that I didn’t realise I was craving, along with a resident Labrador and Golden Retriever.

I didn’t stay long though as Jill, Sula and Salina were down at bar OR2K, so I dumped my bags and headed to meet them.

It was a lovely place overlooking Lake Phewa, but required me to go up three flights of stairs, then get down to the cushions on the floor. Once I managed this, I very quickly ordered a cocktail.

We played some card games, before they headed off and I waited for Dan to arrive, enjoying the time to just chill out.

Dan and I spent a few hours here, talking as if we had known each other forever. I went out to the balcony to enjoy the sunset view, before we moved on.

My first stop though, was to organise a chauffeur to pick me up in the morning to go to the Lord Shiva statue and Peace Pagoda. I made the ridiculous decision to be picked up at 5:30am, which Dan laughed at. He’s clearly not a morning person either.

With that out of the way, Dan took me to a beautiful bar that you would have not expected from the outside.

I had some amazing chilli mushrooms and a couple of Green Apple Fizz cocktails that I would love to create at home.

We moved on to another bar with a more grunge industrial look, but had an amazing live band playing.

It was well after midnight when we finally called it a night, but it had been a great evening to help make up for a more frustrating day.