Today we will take a flight from Pokhara to go back to Kathmandu. The hotel staff already informed us that there was a 2 hour delay and that the flight would depart at 11h55 instead of 9h55, so they were going to take us at 11h00 to the airport which was on,y 3 minutes away from the hotel. There we checked in our luggage but were told that there would that there was a further delay. So installed ourselves on the terrace where we could watch the incoming and starting planes. After a while an official came up and tried to explain something about security. We told him that we had all checked in our luggage, but that is not what he meant. In the end he pointed to a bag downstairs and said check. The bag was mine! So i went down to the customs and there a men showed me a word on his I-pad "Antlers". I could 't help it but i started laughing. So my bag was opened and the customs guy explained that he had seen something in the x-ray machine. They rummaged through my bag but they could find anything illegal. My hairbrush drew a lot of attention as well as my brace, but otherwise nothing but some dirty bike clothes and other stuff. So they told me Ok and the bag was closed. The rest of the team had a good laugh at the "Antlers" story as well. So we saw planes taking off and coming back for other passengers and figured out that ours which was Buddha air should first land after we could take off. Well finally we took off at 14:45. First we had to climb through the clouds but then we had a magnificent view of the Annapurna and then of the Everest mountain range. As Martin gave me his seat at the window, i took a multitude of pictures . That wasn't easy as i was sitting under the wing, but i hope that there will be a couple of good ones. 25 minutes later we touched down at Kathmandu where our contact person from Spice Roads was awaiting us. We were driven through the chaotic traffic to our hotel and agreed to have dinner outside the hotel as we all wanted to eat something different Dahl bath. First we did some shopping and then got to the Yeti bar on the 5th floor for a drink. When we met with our guide, we went out and walked a shirt distance at a true Nepali restaurant where they served yes yes yes Dahl Bath. The restaurant was located in an ancient royal palace and was beautiful. With the dinner came also a spectacle of local music and dance that we all enjoyed.
After dinner we had our goodbye drinks as Lizy and myself are travelling back home tomorrow. We all agreed that it had been a truly wonderful trip and excellent company. Ka ho and Anna asked if they could do another bike trip jointly ! We will be in touch. Then we went to have some sleep, since we had to get up in the middle of the night to catch our flight to Istanbul in the morning.
Today was our last day cycling. But we started with a bit of hiking around the Begnas lake. It was a steep climb at times. Unfortunately the mist prevented us from a view on the lake and on the Annapurna mountain range. We walked through small villages and were distributing the last of our balloons to the small children that we encountered. At one point there was a toddler who wanted a blown balloon. I gave it to him but in no time the balloon popped with a bang and every one stared laughing at the kids' puzzled face. As we set out early we arrived around 10h30 at the guest house where we received Nepalese tea and were going to have lunch as well. At that time we could sea the lake as the mist was somewhat clearing, but Annapurna and the other mountains stayed in the mist. We did small strolls to take pictures of the surroundings. We had a surprises when we discovered several huge spiders hanging between the bushes and trees. They were certainly 8 cm big with black and yellow colours. Quite imoressive. We met with 2 travellers from Israel who had done a trekking in the Everest and were planning a next one to the Annapurna. After lunch we started biking back to Pokhara. After a steep climb, that MC , Danielle and myself did in the van and we started when the descent began. The road around the lake was reasonably quiet but the highway to Pokhara was very busy. Traffic was dense and chaotic until we got back at the hotel. There a group picture was taken and we said thanks and goodbye to Sauros and Purna our biking guides and to Rasj and Babu our drivers. After they left we all had a drink. That concludes our beautiful cycling adventure in Nepal. Tomorrow we are flying back to Kathmandu and we have already been informed that we start with 2 hours delay due to the weater conditions.
