Monday May 18, 2009 - The Last Resort

Up around 7:30 and ready to leave at 9:30 am. We drove through the crowded streets of Kathmandu out through the country towns we had passed on our trek, Bhaktapur, Bunepa, and Dhulikhel. Then we started a beautiful mountain drive to our destination at The Last Resort. The drive was absolutely spectacular as we climbed up and down along the green-field lower slopes of a canyon, with a water-deprived river. We arrived at our destination around 2:30. Everyone was anxious to book their activities: bungy jumping (160 m) swing; rafting; canyoning; kayaking. I thought it might be fun to kayak, but no-one else was interested.....and when I saw the video, I decided I wasn't experienced enough anyway. Having said that, water levels are low and neither the rafting nor the kayaking would have created any problem. We had a late lunch then literally sat around chatting until dinner time. Had dinner, then chatted some more. Anyway, it was a tame evening to the point we came to bed around 9:30 - but it did look as if some might be set for the night. There are two Dragoman Trucks travelling in tandem until we split somewhere past Lhasa. One goes to Istanbul and the other (ours) to Xian. Dan and Zoe are now on the other Truck - Archie - which they have named "Suzette" after Dan's mother, and we have a new crew, Tamar our leader who is Swiss and about mid 30s, and Ian our driver who is English and about early 40s. Our Truck is still Daphne. The Last Resort is quite unique. It is built on the side of a canyon and you get to it by crossing the gorge on foot over a narrow suspension bridge, off of which is the bungy jump. High above us are some villages and the story is that it used to take the villagers 2 days to walk around the gorge to get their produce to market. The chap who built the Lodge, and Bungy jump, allows villagers to use the bridge, thus cutting their travel time down to about 2 or 3 hours. Its a great story. It reminds me a little of the story in Three Cups of Tea, the story of Greg Mortenson who built a bridge and a school for the people of the village of Korphe in Pakistan. Our tents are unique too. They are erected over beatufiul stone pads and inside space is about 10 x 10 or more and probably 7 or 8 feet at the highest point. There are 6 windows on 3 sides. The tents contain 2 beds, a table, and a stand which has a base to put your bags and some where to hang your clothes. Quite cosy and unique. There are probably tons of bugs too, but I'm not thinking of those!!