The Baba Adventure Bus

We're in Pokhara Nepal in the Lakeside district. In Kathmandu we tried to get tickets on the Green Line Bus but couldn't get tickets for the day we wanted so they recommended the Baba Adventure Bus and held up a brochure of a new looking blue bus. I was skeptical but they assured us that it was the same quality as the green line. So the next morning we took a cab at 6 am in the rain to where the bus leaves. Sure enough there was a line of bright blue busses along the side of a busy street. The cab driver put us out across the street and I paid him and started across with our bags .. Then we saw the barrier in the middle of the road! Ha! Out in a busy street with full bags dodging cars etc looking for a way across. Susan found a section with a rope strung across instead of a solid barrier. It was a big step across the rope and into a lane of also busy traffic. All the cars and motorcycles honking and us trying to get across best we could. Oh yeah, this is the adventure bus! Thank goodness that was the end of the adventure except for the standard road adventure which didn't seem so personal while riding in a big bus. Some things were very different here... There were nice seat belts laid out neatly on each seat which we used and the road that was so bad last year has been repaved and mostly smooth and wider. Still scary steep drops off the sides with no guard rails. But...Wow some infrastructure progress. The roadside food during the 7 hour trip was not so great but the scenery was interesting and the fresh bananas were good. Getting off the bus a man was in the middle of the crowd of cab drivers all yelling taxi sir at the bottom of the steps. He held up a sign with our names on it. I pointed to him and yelled yes and he grabbed our bags and we were off to the guest house. Almost a choreographed exit!

At the guest house the road alongside that was dirt and gravel last year is newly paved also. We wonder how much has been done on the mountain roads that were encroaching on the Annapurna circuit last year. But we won't see that because we are staying lower in the Poon Hill Annapurna Base Camp area this year. We meet with a porter tomorrow and leave the next day for about 10 days of trekking.

We met with the waiter Himal whom we met last year here in Pokhara. We took him to lunch today and he treated us to dinner at the place he works here in town. We had no idea he was going to pay and we probably ordered too expensively. We will make it up before we leave.

It is hot and humid here so we'll be happy to get into the mountains. Also people are saying that it will begin to get cooler soon.