Life off the Truck is a little more relaxed, so we woke up around 7:30 this morning to a view stretching out over the mountains. I took some pictures, but they can never pay justice to the magnificent view over the valley and on up into the mountains stretching far behind. The hotel was excellent, staff charming and efficient, food very good, and hot water for our showers and warm beds! This morning the sun was out and thankfully, all our clothes were dry. We were all cheered up and happy to be on our way. We left about 9:30 and were just getting happy with our “downhill” trek, when Ragu, our guide, turned up the hill and for the next hour or so it was pretty steady climbing on a mixture of dirt tracks and narrow tarred roads. We passed through some beautiful pine forests where we had to be careful that a tree didn’t fall on our heads as 3 guys were in the midst of felling one when we passed. We passed the military camp and hear the bullets being fired seriously hoping it was target practice and not “tourist” target practice! So, we smiled ever so sweetly at the officers guarding the perimeter and said “nameste”. We climbed up a tower to a lookout point and became the object of photography by a Nepali couple who were also visiting the tower. The only thing was, they were so tidy and clean, and the woman even had high heels on and a beautiful colourful sari. I felt really grotty in my trekking boots, convertible pants, and sweat soaked t-shirt. From this point, the trail started down hill, and we trekked down the terraced sides of the mountains, through areas of corn, potatoes, and rice growing (although this doesn’t start yet, the farmers are getting the terraces ready). We passed little villages, communities of houses, and many schools. I think school is compulsory till about age `12, and free to that point, but literacy is still a major problem. We passed cows, goats, chickens, ducks, and of course dogs. The children we passed were always excited to see us and gave us beautiful smiles and big waves. The odd one asked “give me chocolate”. Adults were chatty and always friendly. We came across a “low cast” wedding in one little village; we watched people building houses, and we saw others going about their daily chores of washing, preparing food, and cooking and sweeping. Occasionally we would pass a piece of land where chicken shit or cow shit, or some other fertilizer had been spread by hand on the fields and terraces, but generally the aromas were sweet with the country air and foliage. We sat and ate our packed lunch in the middle of a terraced field. The dogs soon joined us but then the landowner came along and chased them away because he was trying to grow cabbages and he didn’t want dog shit all over them. I guess he wasn’t scared that we would do anything to hurt his crops, but admittedly we were sitting on an unplanted terrace. As we approached the valley on our dirt track, the villages became a little more plentiful and slowly turned into the town of Banepa and before we knew it we were in the main street of a large town and in the middle of a political protest. They had laid out “bodies” of certain dignitaries as a symbol of the people they were gunning for. Ray and Ant thought they were real bodies, so that was good for a laugh! We walked through that then our guide suggested we take a local bus as the last bit of our hike was along a busy highway. So after 5 hrs 57 mins since we left the hotel we thought the bus experience might be fun. It was quite tame, and about 10 minutes later we arrived in Dhulikhel where we are staying overnight at the Dhulikhel Lodge Resort another nice hotel with a beautiful mountain view and just off the main street, again on the edge of a mountain. We arrived about 3:30 and had till 7 to relax before dinner. The time passed very quickly and we went to dinner and were in bed by 9:30. The electricity is so erratic – it’s a huge problem here. Most places have generator back up but our hotel room was plunged into darkness shortly after we got back from dinner for apparent reason – we really can’t work it all out. The TV of course was toast from the last power outage around 4:30. Can you imagine trying to run a business? No light, no phones, no visa, no computer – its quite horrendous. The Maoists are threatening violence, the parties can’t come to a decision or a new leader, and all the people want is peace and to have an opportunity to live a good life.
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