Yesterday was a long and warm day. I understood afterwards why the trip with the bus took so long. First it took us about 1,5 hour just to get out of Kathmandu because of the overloaded roads and all the traffic. Then it was up and down over ridges and valleys. I was happy I had chosen the bus company I travelled with, because they had air-conditioning in the bus, and that helped a lot, while all the local buses, and many tourist buses didn’t have one. Sure it was some amazing views, but I know for sure as well that my mom would never want to ride in a bus on o road like that. Almost no railings and people just drove like crazy (according to my “Swedish standard”).

  More than once did I wonder what the heck the bus driver was thinking when he was over taking a truck in a corner, but then I thought that it wasn’t the first time he drove on that road, so then I stopped being worried. I guess I could say that my Swedish “take it careful in traffic”-mentality was a bit strong in the start, but then faded away. I dropped the number, but I think I saw about five or six busses or trucks that had been in accidents in some way on the road. So I don’t think my worries were totally wrong. Well, I arrived to Pokhara as planned, so everything went fine and I’ll post some photos from the journey along the Prithvi highway later on.

  Off the bus into the world of Nepalese taxi. Well, we can just say it’s a challenge to get a taxidriver to understand that you don’t want to go to the “Lakeside”-area (which is the super-touristic area just at the lake Phewa Tal) but to another totally non-touristic area. So the taxi driver just drove away after I said where I wanted and then I understood by all the hostels/hotels/restaurants and so on that he was going to Lakeside. So I had to stop him, and once more explain through the help of some map prints I made back home in Sweden where I was going. Then slowly he understood where I was going, but he didn’t knew the way, so I had to guide (??) him, even though I never been to Pokhara before. I guess I had good use of my map-reading skills since I was younger. After a while I arrived at Urban Development Training Centre, UDTC, where everybody was a bit surprised to see me. First some thought I was the replacement for my contact, who is in back home in Germany right now, but then hopefully I managed to explain for them who I was and why I was there.

  They showed me to the guest house where I now sit and write this. I was so tired that I almost crashed on the bed at once. The bus trip was more energy consuming than I thought, and I can confess that I wasn’t the best on drinking water all the time, so a small headache was my own welcome-gift to Pokhara.

  After a few hours they came and knocked on the door and I was taken to Jaya Shrestha, who is one of the two contacts that Gunnar has here in Nepal since the SIDA-course one year ago. It was nice to finally meet him, and we sat down and talked for a while. After that I went over to the cafeteria where they had prepared dinner for me.

  The UDTC-campus consists of several buildings, among them a hostel for people who come here for courses they are giving, some guest houses (where I stay in one of them), and a cafeteria, and some more houses I don’t know the function of yet. They are not fully funded by the Nepali government, so they have to give courses to gain funds as well. The location is just beautiful. To the north I see the high mountain peeks, which are higher than 7500 meters. I have to get to know the right names of the peeks another time. The cafeteria is, in a way that some Swedish politicians would love, “outsourced” to a family who runs it. I just have to tell them when I eat and they prepare the food for me. We have to sort out all the payments later I guess, because right now my Nepalese language skills isn’t the best, so my best help there is one of their daughters who speaks some English.

  Yesterday after dinner I walked back to my house in complete darkness, at it was a power cut, which is very common here. Over the hills to the east I saw a lightning storm and it just felt amazing in a way to be in such a totally different environment. Also yesterday was the Nepalese New Year, but I didn’t had the energy to go down to the tourist area just to party. I crashed in my bed quite early. I know I might have missed a great experience with the New Years eve, but I just didn’t had the energy and after Kathmandu I honestly am a bit tired of all the touristic areas.

  Today I’ve just relaxed. I’ve studied some more about Pokhara in my guide book I brought with me, and after lunch I took a short walk in the neighbouring area just to get a look around. There are not so many tourists in this part of the city, but I saw some at least. Nowadays I’m used to that people look at me, because they do. Well, if I were a Nepalese citizen here in Pokhara and saw a white two metre tall weird guy walking around on his own with a camera hanging over the shoulder, I would look as well. Some children greet me with “Namaste” (Nepalese for “hello”), so I greet them back, and then they laugh a bit and look even more at me. Jaya said he would give me a paper with some basic Nepalese phrases and words, so I can start to get under the surface. Just by knowing something more than “Namaste” can make a big difference when making contact with people.

  Ah, yes, I don’t have such good access to internet from now on. Only during office hours what I understood from it yesterday, so I’ll update here when I can.