Silk Route

Day 21 - Sat 5 Apr 08

Pokara -> Bandipur

Up at 05:00 to get ready for the taxi at 06:00, which appeared on time with no issues. There were no clouds around the mountain this morning, so some good photos. The drive out was uneventful, plenty of photo opportunities but the electric wires and the state of the roads meant getting good shots very difficult.

Got to Bandipur and the main street is pedestrianised, so had to abandon the taxi and walk into the village. Not bad as the place is tiny. Found our hotel a real find with great character - everything is made from wood. The rooms are higgledy piggedly and the staircase is triangular. Had a simple breakfast, dumped our stuff in the room and then headed out to find a view point.

The Annapurna range is across the valley and we sat and watch the clouds that had built up during the morning burn off (a little) - walked out to find a cave, but the path down was steep, and it just kept going down and down. Bearing in mind I'd seen a few caves already on this trip I veto'ed going down any further.

Back to the hotel to for lunch, and after that it up the nearby hill to get more photo's of the terracing in the valley. Back down to the village to do some dial up Internet (115kb) at 2r per minute! Just as I finished the rain started and the power was cut due to the storm!

Bandipur is a very agreeable place, and the Old Inn is a very agreeable hotel. It has very much the feeling of the Prancing Pony out of the Hobbit. It even has it's own version of Barleyman Butterbur, who flits around ensuring that everyone is happy. Had a power nap and came down for supper. Phil was chatting to Louise and Eric, two fellow travellers heading for Kathmandu. It seems that Louise has done a lot of travel. Have lunch together and swap traveller tails. There's not much to do in the village after dark, but we stay out until 10:20 (!) drinking. Everyone else including the locals have already gone to bed!