"Highway to heaven"

I had a very good night after little sleep. We had breakfast at 6:30am and left at 7:10 already with our porting crew for the next two weeks. I will tell you all the names, at the moment I remember maybe three. We had a big bus called ‘Prince’ and he was on long legs, respectively tires and with the journey we understood why. The first 1.5h constisted in leaving Kathmandu. Huge city, a lot of traffic and little rules. First comes, first serves, marked with a little toootooot. Many were leaving the city since tomorrow is a big hindu festival. The roads were already bumpy there but at some point we turned left and climbed up a ‘road’ and the trip really started. It was dusty at the point when a car was in front of you it felt like foggy november back home. Luckily we mostly had no car in front until our driver wanted to overtake one by a steep sideway and landed just behind him. Hahaha, well, he tried, and he was a very good driver. Lunch was at a very busy place with some other trekkers. The journey continued up and down, getting bumpier even if that didn’t seem possible. Approximately 2h before Sotikhola we changed bus so the local guys can do business as well. Those last kilometers were adventurous: next to a river they are only a couple of years accessible for cars. And they need to be 4x4 with excellent dirvers. Our guy knew almost every driver that crossed us and he stopped to have a little chat. Very cool. We arrived at the first lodge called Green Valley Lodge. That name represents quite well the look of that place. It is green, with palms and bananas and bambus. I didn’t expect tropical climate but that’s what it is. Wonderful. The bananas are heaven, i start to be like a minion. A propos, they sell fancy minion-bikes for kids in Kathmandu.
At the moment i am sitting on my bed, freshly showered and soon ready to go for diner. Tomorrow we gonna start the trek and I am very much looking forward to that!Read more