After Bardia Adventure Resort, we were taken to the Mahendra Highway to catch a bus to Pokhara via Kohanpur, Butwal and Tansen. This is supposed to be a 16 hour journey.
The bus was already over an hour late due to a banda further west on the highway. We got on at 2.30pm. Soon after getting on we came to another banda (road closure by groups wanting to make their protest to the government) - this was only a 1 hour stoppage, so no problem. Then we stopped at a village, where the bus conductor spent a few minutes negotiating with a man who had a pile of bags of produce (rice?) and a dozen goats. There were already a few goats on the bus roof. After a bit of bargaining, the bags were loaded into the aisle of the bus and the goats were hauled onto the roof. One guy lifts the goat from underneath, another is hanging of the ladder at the back of the bus, he grabs a horn, another guy on the roof reaches down and grabs the other horn. If they both get hold then the goat does not seem to mind. The goats only complain when they are hanging just by one horn!
Next stop Konhanpur and some food (the usually Nepali Dhaal Baat combination). While we were eating, the bus was backed across the road and another 20 goats were loaded. Each goat is tied down with a short length of rope so they can't launch themselves over the side of the roof rack. After a bit of shuffling they got the goats all sitting down packed together - about 40 goats.
Another 120km to Arjun Khola, 10.30pm. Everything came to a stop. After a lot of asking and trying to understand what was going on we discovered that a bus on a side road had hit and killed a child. The mother was understandably distraught and this was a Maoist area (the intersection had a Nepal Communist Party sign). The main highway had been closed to all traffic (an "accident banda"). There were vehicles piling up on both sides of the closure. We ended up stuck all night - Phil got out of the bus and slept on the side of the road for a while.
Next morning we waited until 9am. There had been many "false starts" of the bus engine, thinking the banda was finishing. We gave up, put our packs on and walked through the banda to the town of Lamahi 2km further east and had a drink. We were hoping to find some transport further east. While we were sitting there a vehicle with about 20 Nepali riot police (in flack kackets, guns etc) went past. 30 minutes later traffic started flowing. We flagged down our bus as it came through and got back on.
25km further east we came to another banda. This one was a general protest stoppage in the district. It lasted until 12 noon. Another 20km to a further banda point, but this one was opened 5 minutes after we got there. There seemed to be Nepali Police actually doing something at these - "encouraging" the participants to reopen the road.
We had lunch/dinner (2nd afternoon) 40km west of Butwal, just next to the mis-named Mt Everest Hotel (see photo gallery). Got through Butwal about 5pm. The gorge north of Butwal to Tansen is very steep and the road winds up and into it - our first experience of looking out of the bus straight over the edge. At least we got to Tansen in daylight so we saw the scenery. More hours of winding road to Pokhara got us there at 10.30pm - 32 hours elapsed time. The usual problems with arriving late ensued, no-one knew where "Phil's Guest House" was (this had been recommended). As usual, you get taken to the taxi drivers favourite hotel..... We found something reasonable and booked in for 1 night, collapsing into a real bed.
Next morning a helpful guy went looking for "Phil's Guest House", which is actually "Phil's Inn and Store". It was only 300m away, so we moved in. Very nice rooms and hospitality.
