Towards the mountains
We had decided to chuck the 5 hour bus drive to the trekking start point and hire a taxi. As we loaded into our taxi at 09:00 the morning of the 20th, Janine noticed that the dogs we all wearing marigold necklaces and a red spot between the eyes. Our hotel owner told her that it was the Hindu dog festival - day 1 of 4 days of festivities to follow.
The 3 hour drive was very interesting. Local Hindu custom allows for locals from every single roadside village along the way to set up a road block and demand contributions towards their festivities! Very organized, licence plate numbers get recorded and sometimes receipts are even offered! Our poor taxi driver had to dish it out in excess of 20 times! Sometimes the road blocks were just a bunch of terrorist children exploiting the system. On arrival in Besisahar we climbed on the roof of a bus to take us the final 5km of gravel road to Khudi - and so we were finally set to begin our trekking around the Annapurna Ciruit.
The 3 hour drive was very interesting. Local Hindu custom allows for locals from every single roadside village along the way to set up a road block and demand contributions towards their festivities! Very organized, licence plate numbers get recorded and sometimes receipts are even offered! Our poor taxi driver had to dish it out in excess of 20 times! Sometimes the road blocks were just a bunch of terrorist children exploiting the system. On arrival in Besisahar we climbed on the roof of a bus to take us the final 5km of gravel road to Khudi - and so we were finally set to begin our trekking around the Annapurna Ciruit.
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