Destination –
Nepal – Pokhara Lake to Kathmandu – could you show us the way out please?
Anyway, after
the trekking/meditation experiences, we reconvene and spend our days with long
walks, good restaurants and trying to sort out how we are going to get out of
Nepal. The catch phrase for this
country should be: “Nepal, hard to get in, harder to get out”.
We spent a lot of time talking to travel
agents and tour operators and they all seem to have different information in
relation to crossing to Tibet and mainland China. We are starting to go insane and decide to go
back to Kathmandu. The latest
information we had is that the group tours (read bunch of folk in a bus) have been cancelled but we can go on
a private tour (read just us in a nice 4x4). We confirm this in Kathmandu. So, a private tour it is. We choose
a tour operator and start the visa/permit process on a Monday morning, hoping
to travel on the Saturday. We also
change hotels to the “Fuji Hotel” where, for only 5 dollars more, we have a
generator and much prized electricity from 6 to 11.30PM, what a luxury!
After a couple
of days we change hotels again to “The Sacred Valley Inn”. It’s just across the road and we even have Wi-Fi in the room. Kathmandu has
suddenly turned into this huge and chaotic waiting room. We wait anxiously for news about our visa and
do a bit of eating and shopping, just for a change. On Thursday, 2 days before
we are scheduled to leave for Tibet we finally hear the confirmation that our
Tibet permit/China visa has come through, so, we are off to get some supplies
for the crossing. Keep on watching this space.
