A stop in Tansen on the way to Janakpur
October 12, 2010
Yesterday Tanja and I woke up in Bardia at 4.30 am and arrived in Tansen at about 5pm (Hilde had to go straight to Kathmandu to get her visa to India).
The most urgent affair after 5 hours on top of the bus (between Butwal – or Bitwan? – and Tansen I couldn’t get on the roof, and inside it was terribly hot) was a nice cold shower to regenerate my muscles and fix my hair. I wouldn’t have minded some hot water, as Tansen is at 1372m above sea level and it’s not very warm. But you do what you can.
Shower done, we went out for dinner. We had momo (tibetan dumplings) in a nice little restaurant. And went to bed soon. At 6pm it’s dark and because there are no street lights, at 7pm it looks like it’s deep night. In any case the hotel closes at 9pm and there’s not much to do around town, so we didn’t mind to catch up some sleep.
Second Day in Tansen
This morning we were up at 6, because our room faces the road and the walls are so thin that you can hear all noises coming from outside. With the first cars and trucks (that use the horn any minute, to alert people they are coming), we also woke up. At 6.30 the guys at the reception woke up too and turned the TV on, with such a high volume that probably everybody in the street woke up.
It’s nice to wake up so early. At 11am we had already been on the hill above Tansen, and it looked as if the day was super long. Before we got to the hill we stopped to have a coke because the coffee we had for breakfast was so light that I didn’t have the caffeine I need to on through the day. In the shop where we bought the coke the lady was watching an old movie with Silvester Stallone (in English, I don’t think she understood anything) and I would have stayed there with her to watch the move drinking coke and eating chips. She would probably have enjoyed it too.
But we had to go and we continued to the top. From there you should be able to see the Himalaya, if it’s not cloudy. But it’s very
Later on we walked back to town. Very pretty. It’s up the side of the hill, an up and downs of tiny alleys, with many tailors and shoemakers (I tried to fix the boots again). Very pleasant indeed.
We spent the afternoon in a café for foreigners, with prices slightly higher but still low, with a nice courtyard with tables and trees, toilet paper in the toilets (!! quite unusual here in Nepal). We had a nice coffee (filter coffee, of course) under a tree. Then dinner with a veggie burger and at 9pm we were in bed.