ASIANOVERLAND.NET  SYDNEY TO LONDON DAY 90/2: NAGARKOT TO POKHARA, NEPAL

In the morning of Day 2 of our 1980 Kathmandu to London overland, the Himalayan views we expected and hoped to see of Mount Everest from Nagarkot were not as spectaular as we had hoped, due to clouds, which only confirmed to us that we had to travel through Tibet next time. 

We stop again at Bhaktapur for another quick look at some of the temples featuring ancient and erotic art – 

I had to wait in Kathmandu anyway for the Bugs Bunny, so I studied some of the Bhaktapur  temples, and had a gentle walk back to Kathmandu, where I haven’t checked out of the Blue Star Hotel since arriving 3 weeks ago at the end of the London to Kathmandu overland through Iran.

Until my overland east on Knackers, Top Deck always stayed at the Withies Hotel, but Top Deck changed hotels very late during our trip, and we stayed at the Blue Star Hotel, a much cleaner hotel, but with nowhere for the Deckers to be stripped down and cleaned. We found a yard at Bhaktapur, where we were able to park and work on the buses. The crew would spend much of our time in Kathmandu at the Bhaktapur yard with our buses preparing for the next overland drive back to London, and usually go to Durbar Square, Kathhmandu after work for our meals and refreshments.

Meanwhile, Gary Hayes was driving Knackers all day west to Pokhara, with beautiful views of the Kathmandu Valley and the Himalayas to the north.

Our Day Book reads :

“19/9/1980 Day 2 Gorgeous meandering roads. feels like we’re in a goldfish bowl – kids galore.”

The road between Kathmandu and Pokhara is terrible, as it’s still late monsoon season, and there are many landslides on the main road. Landslides are very common in Nepal, and often close the road completely, requiring drivers and crew to find innovative alternative routes, like obscure ferry crossings in remote parts of Nepal. Fortunately, the road was no worse than the road we passed over a few weeks ago on the eastbound overland, so it was passable.

Pokhara is one of the most beautiful places in the world, based around Phewa Lake, with fantastic vies of the Himalayas, especially Annapurna. 

Pokhara is used as a base for hikers who want the wonderful views of Annapurna and more accessible mountain hikes than Mount Everest, which is more difficult to organise and climb, not to mention, more expensive.

Our stay in Pokhara is at the Hotel Green Lake view, on the edge of Phewa Lake, a wonderfully hospitable hotel which welcomed and hosted Top Deckers for years.

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