It took about half an hour to get out of Kathmandu and it's suburbs. After we left the dusty roads behind us the landscape immediately became beautiful. Unfortunately I was very tired and kept falling asleep and waking up from the bumpy ride for the first 2 hours. We stopped at a road side restaurant and had a big plate of Rice, Lentil soup and curry. This gave me the necessary energy to stay wake and enjoy the landscape for the rest of the ride. Along the way we realized (due to our amazing planning skills) that the starting point of the Annapurna Circuit (Besi Sahar) is a 6 hour drive from Kathmandu but also a 5 hour drive from Pokahar.
The bus ride reminded me of the trip across Sumatra. It was a much bigger bus and it was daytime but the traffic rules seem to be the same. Imagine a mountain road where it goes vertically up 3 or 400 m to the left and down the same to the right. No straight is longer than 150m but the road is full of really slow lorries that run up the hill in 1st or 2nd gear. Not a concern to pass these lorries in the corners, you only need to honk a bit before reaching the bend and hope that no one is coming from the other direction. It all worked and we only nearly crashed once.
Our plan was to go to Pokhara but while on the bus we decided to get of at Dumre in order to get from there to Besi Sahar.
Luckily we were not the only ones who wanted to do so and we had a bit of group when looking for transportation from Dumre to Besi Sahar.
Getting off the bus in Dumre we were hit by the hot and humid air of the early afternoon and were surrounded by touts that tried to get us on busses for ridiculous sums of money.
During our haggle the price went down from 1000 NRP to 400 NRP but once we saw the bus that should be taking us up the hill we decided to keep looking. There was literally no space in that bus. People were already stacked on top of each other and they tried to fit 8 tourists including 8 big backpacks on top.
As a result we took a Jeep for 700 NRP per person with a little more space. Also it turned out that all the touts that were fight for our business all belonged together and shared the profit.
From Besi Sahar (where the trek usually starts) we wanted to take another Jeep to save a day or two of trekking. We asked some guys and they would bring us to Chamje for 1500 NRP. We shared the Jeep with 6 Israelis who just finished their military service and went travelling.
The Jeep took about 4 hours up a really rocky cliff road through water beds across big lumps of rock and up and down steep gradients.
As sitting in the back of the Jeep became slightly boring after an hour or two we decided to go to the roof and sit on the luggage rack. This had the advantage of fresher air, better view and the fact it was easier to jump off in case the jeep would fall into the ravine. This time I was not as concerned as I was in Indonesia, so I assume I am getting used to this kind of stuff slowly.
When the Israelis got of in Syange a girl joined us in the Jeep and suggested to stay at her Guest house just outisde of Chamje. We happily agreed and each of us got a single room for free. The only condition was that we ate dinner and breakfast at the guest house. This actually was the case in many places we stayed. The rooms were free as long as you ate at the place.
After dinner we went up to the local pub and had a beer and something they called "local wine" which tasted like Soju. Also interestingly the Pub had the exact same menu as our guest house. I mean the same pictures and dishes and same prices - valid in all the restaurants in the town.
After reviewing the day, we all agreed it worked out pretty well, with connecting in the different places and getting a bed. It was a long day so falling asleep was not a problem.
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