After spending my last days in Nepal sick with the flu (but managing to still stuff myself on some pretty great Korean food) it was another long bus ride from Pokhara to the Indian border. We were heading towards Varanasi, so this time the border was at Sunauli.

If there was ever any doubt before, this trip confirmed that I loathe traveling by bus in Nepal. This time, instead of going to the local bus stand, we decided to book a ‘tourist’ bus like all of the other rich foreigners. Unfortunately, this seems to be another scam! The only difference between ‘tourist’ buses and regular buses is:

* tourist bus tickets cost more
* the tourist bus leaves from a ‘tourist bus stand’ which is actually just a dirt parking lot full of touts selling overpriced snacks
* the tourist bus loads up with tourists who paid overpriced tickets before going to the regular bus stand to cram the bus full of locals

Other than this, I couldn’t see any difference.

Arriving back in India was interesting. If I thought the eastern border with Nepal with lax, the southern border took the cake. On the Indian side it consisted of a painted sign saying “INDIAN IMMIGRATION” in front of a wooden table; the table was housed by a tarp and shared space with a snack shop. “Immigration” was one guy with a big ledger.

We caught a bus to the junction town of Gorakaphur, which I couldn’t wait to leave. It was crowded, dirty, noisy, with almost nothing of interest (to me at least). We got up early the next morning and caught a train to Varanasi.

After arriving back in Pokhara from trekking I developed a bit of a cold/flu and went to the pharmacy to purchase some relief.

It’s no secret that pharmaceuticals are overpriced in the West, but a recent trip to a pharmacy in Nepal reminded me just how much. Here is what less than $2 can buy: a bottle of CRUX cough syrup (which the pharmacist stated was good for ‘cough with slime’), 10 SINEX non-drowsy cold/flu tablets and 10 Strepsil throat lozenges.

They may not all be familiar brand names or have fancy packaging, but the ingredients are the same and they are just as effective. Note that these drugs were purchased in a tourist area; outside the ghetto I’m sure they could be obtained for even less. In Canada, these items would have easily cost over $20. I understand that R&D and marketing (especially the latter) play a role in the huge markup of these drugs in the West, but let’s be reasonable!

The ‘microbus’ (a small van that comfortably seats 3 to a row but whose operators squish 4 in so you can neither move nor breathe) ride to Pokhara was supposed to take 5 hours. Unfortunately, about 45 minutes outside of Kathmandu, traffic came to a standstill. It turned out a truck carrying onions had collided with a woman and killed her.

In Nepal, accidents like this do not just get moved aside and dealt with so traffic can resume. Crowds form, and nothing gets moved until things are settled between the victim and accused (i.e. compensation). So while I felt sorry for this woman, I was concerned that we were going nowhere for maybe days.

We decided to walk to the other side of the accident and flag down another bus that would be forced to return to Pokhara – as all the vehicles on our side were forced to return to Kathmandu – and it worked out. We unfortunately had to pay another NR300 each, but it was better than backtracking.

So we arrived late, opted not to take the ridiculously priced taxis from the bus station and hopped on a local bus to go to the Lakeside area. Pokhara has a really nice lake (well, relatively – I’ve discovered that North Americans have different standards for what defines a lake ) and is a good place to chill out and take care of last minute arrangements before a trek.

We got our trekking permits sorted out (NR2000 each), picked up some iodine water purification tablets (water in the hills is not always the safest) and picked up a bunch of Snickers bars and other snacks that we were told would jump dramatically in price as we ascend in the trek. With our British friend we met in Sikkim we celebrated with a steak dinner and beer at the Everest Steak House, as it would be the last bit of meat we’d have for a while.