Tuesday 6 November 2007

Day 44 – Kathmandu – The Beginning of the End

Monday 29th October 2007

Having stayed up for the hike we were disappointed that the clouds hid the sunrise and our hiking guide was verging on mute. What was pitched as a 2.5 hour hike kept us away from Kathmandu for over 7 hours and when I returned to find a refreshed and happy crew who had not gone on the hike I headed to bed fuming and in the worst mood I have been in on this trip so far. After failing to get any sleep I headed back out and found a group of OzBusers heading for lunch, having no idea where anyone else was at this stage, including my sensible girlfriend who had not gone hiking but had gone to sleep, I joined them and after a few drinks and a steak I felt my mood lighten a little but I was still not the happiest bunny in the hutch.

I returned from lunch to find the lobby buzzing with excitement around my girlfriend and another OzBuser huddled over a piece of paper, my girlfriend looks me in the eyes and says “I’m not getting back on the bus”. The prospect of long drive days on rickety buses back through India has proved too much, as we are doing all that driving just to catch a flight a group of people had decided to stay in Kathmandu and enjoy what it has to offer and then rejoin the group in Thailand. Now this initially started at 5 out of 38, by the end of the day there will be 11 out of 38, 8 more will decide to brave the friendship highway themselves to reach mount Everest base camp, others will fly to Kalcutta to rejoin the group and fly to Bangkok with them from there, in total 27 will leave not be on the bus when it leaves for India on the 31st of October and even after my previous diatribe on the topic I will end up as one of the 27.

With plans afoot the news of the impending departure of many is broken to the rest but never ones to let this get us down we did the usual and hit the pub, a little place called Tom and Jerry’s provided cocktails and pool and we danced and drank the night away, all our troubles a distant memory, 5 extra days in Kathmandu now beckoned, with white water rafting, trekking and bungee all on the agenda.

The question that sticks in my mind as I fall into a drunken sleep is if over 70% leave the trip is it not the trip that has left them…

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