Tansen

We had a shortish trip from Lumbini to Tansen. The trip took us from the low plains back up in to the hills as we climbed from 80m to 1500m. There were still strikes going on and we had to stop several times at road blocks made by the protesters. At all but one stop we were waved through. At the final road block there was some discussion as to we should be allowed through but through some sweet talking from our guide Rajev and driver Navin we got through. The advantage of the protests were that we were the only vehicle on the road which meant the trip was quite quick and a lot safer without having to worry about a truck coming around a blind corner on the wrong side of the road.

Tansen is a hilltop town, much like you would find in Tuscany. The temperature was a lot more suited to us Kiwis so we were quite happy to arrive.

After lunch we walked down in to town to explore a little. We saw a palace that had been built by an exiled minister in 1923, this was then later gutted by fire in 2007 by the Maoists after they threw out the Nepali King.
We also visited the towns major Hindu temple.

As we walked through the streets we came across lots of friendly children saying hello and asking us where we were from. Some of the kids were playing cricket in the street so Kiwis being Kiwis we joined in a few games and had a bit of fun with them. On the steep walk back up to the hotel, which was at the top of the hill, we came across two women carrying an old pedal operated sewing machine. They were clearly struggling so Jim, Max and myself helped them carry it to the top of the hill to where it was going to be fixed. You could see on the faces of the two women that they were a little embarrassed by three men helping them out, but they were most grateful and we had done our good deed for the day.

As we were walking back from dropping off the sewing machine we could see down in to the opposite valley. It was getting blacker and blacker, as we arrived back at the
Hotel the wind hit, we were the treated to a spectacular electrical storm as we watched forked lightening streak across the hills and valleys.

This morning we are in the bus again heading to Pokhara. I've written this post in the back of the bus as we wind through the hills so I apologise for any spelling mistakes or typos !