Day 4 - The Annapurna Circuit begins

Quite a busy section, the bus ride from Pokhara to Besisahar...
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Our alarm clocks haven't really finished ringing yet, when Chakra knocks on our door. Wow - he is early! It is too early for breakfast, so we quickly finish packing and head out the door. Bharat Pajuli is already waiting with a taxi which is to take us to the bus stop. We are quite impressed with the obvious timeliness of our new Nepalese friends.

A view minutes later the puzzle is solved - our watches are running 15 minutes late for some reason. Or is there a time difference between Kathmandu and Pokhara? Hardly... it must have been an error on our side. The bus ride to Besisahar seems to be interesting to say the least. The vehicle is more than crowded, and sickness bags are the first item to be handed out to the passengers. Oh my... But as the ride goes on, we really have a good time. The scenery is awesome, and so is the road. Every once in a while the ride goes right through the middle of some medium-sized rivers. A couple of hours later we arrive in Besisahar. And first we are somewhat disappointed. Is that what the towns will look like along the trek? It is a dull place, somewhat like a miniature version of the touristy Thamel section in Kathmandu. We hurry to get past the first police check-point, collect the first stamps in our Annapurna Trekking permit and munch down a quick lunch. We are more than happy to learn from Chakra, that there would be another bus taking us as far as Kudi, which would allow us to make it as far as Ngadi on today's trek. Anything that allows us to leave this place behind is more than welcome! Something like two hours later we get off the bus in Kudi, which really is a tiny place right in the middle of rich tropical vegetation. Wow, this looks great! Now the trek can begin for real. We enter a metal suspension bridge and are impressed by the wild waters rushing down far below us. If we had known that we'd cross more than four bridges on some days we probably wouldn't have stopped for taking photographs at all. The following two hours took us on small paths through lush vegetation, meeting large numbers of sheep on their way to the nearest market - there was a religious holiday just around the corner as Chakra told us - and packed mules, and we crossed several small creeks. Yes, this definitely was how we had pictured the trek to be in the beginning, and we soon should learn that all the before mentioned should be following us on almost the whole 240 kilometers around the Annapurna Conservation Area.