BOB'S VILLAGE

Today Bob, the manager of the motel, took me to Puma, the village he comes from. We started at 5.30 in the morning, me, Bob and Bob's driver. We drove on the Kathmandu road for a couple of hours then turned off to another town, Besishahar. It was 50 kilometres on a not so good road. We did pass a big dam which produces hydro-electricity, Nepal's second biggest. At the town we had lunch and waited for the jeep to turn up....it was supposed to be 15 minutes.......it arrived two hours later. It was full of supplies and in the dual cabin were 8 people, and on the roof three. We set off up the mountain.


I have never been so scared in my life....terrified. The road was a goat track, complete with goats! It had holes and ruts, but the worst part was that there was a sheer drop at the side of the road. Several hundred metres straight down.I would have liked to take pictures but my hands wouldn't release the door to get my camera out of my backpack. I didn't take a breath for nearly 30 minutes. It went up and up, winding around the mountain.


We stopped and visited Bob's village. First we had lunch at a house where volunteers stayed.It was a huge lunch, really enjoyed it.Also tried the local alcohol for the first time. Awful. Stopped at half a glass.....thought if I had more I might offer to ride on the top of the jeep on the way back. Then we had a look through the village.It was quaint,real National Geographic stuff.And met Bob's mother.Also visited the local primary school. Absolutely amazing. They were very welcoming. They brought me out garlands of flowers and posed for photographs. The playground was small but what views! About 35 kids here. They did have a reasonable library thanks to donations from overseas organisations and volunteers.




After that up the hill on a mountain pass. Very narrow. Lucky I had that alcohol to make me brave. The path had a sheer drop at the side. I felt dizzy at times. There was a small temple on the trail. Temple of the virgin. There was always water there. The villagers sacriced chicken here every year. Not sure why the connection with the virgin.

At the top we reached another school, Jana Jyoti, at the village of Baglungpam. One where Bob used to teach. This was amazing. 1800 metres up on top of the mountain, the kids where in the playground playing soccer with a view of the Himalayas behind them. How woud you like to do playground duty here?




Our jeep wasn't there yet. Bob said are you up to a 2 hour walk? Apparently we could walk back to the town in two hours. I thought "Yes yes yes!" We don't have to go in the jeep. So we set off along the road. However after 300 metres we branched off onto a track. Bob said he'd take my pack as the track wasn't as good as the one we had come up along. Great. I just wanted to hug the ground. He was right. We went straight over the edge of a cliff. Straight down across the cliff face. I would not have thought it possible. There were steps and it didn't seem as scary(maybe the alcohol) but it was straight down.

Bob heard a jeep and took off running! We reached the road below us. There was a jeep. Half the windscreen was covered in mud. The driver looked 15 and my door wouldn't close properly.I thought I was dead. We ended up with 8 in the cab and about 6 on top. After a stop to pick up sacks of grain and more passengers we arrived in town just after dark. 4-wheel driving in the Himalayas.......

In town our car was blocked in by a van.It took an hour pushing the van back and forth to move it so the car could get out. We arrived back at Pokhara at about 10.30.