Lau, alikati agadi badhaidie hai. After a brief rest stop admiring the views, we continued towards Pokhara. It was a steep descent through a stone paved trail. Perhaps due to exhaustion, that stretch seemed to be even more challenging than the descent from Ulleri to Tirkhedhunga. After several crossings of the gravel road that ends near the temple of Bindhebasini, the trail entered the woods. There were many tourists headed upwards, apparently to spend the night at Sarangkot to catch the famous sunrise views. M and J maintained a relatively quicker pace. I was on the middle. All of a sudden, I saw a woolen cap on the trail. I instantly recognized it, it was M’s cap that he had bought in Pokhara after some tough bargaining. Ke gari khasaeko hola mora le, he was definitely not wearing it at that time. I soon caught up with them, and handed the cap to him. After a tough descent of an hour or so, we finally reached level ground at Sirse, right beside the lake. Lau ekchin araam garu, chiso pani khaau bhani euta pasal tira ke lagieko thiyo, the Canadians and Japanese were there as well. Soon, the group of Jethi and Mahili was there too. As we sipped on some soft drinks, the rest were planning to hire a boat to Baidam. We decided to proceed on foot. It was getting dark, and we made quick steps on the road that ran along the lake shore. A walk of half an hour or so brought us to the Baidam area. We were delighted to be back to civilization, at the same time we wished we could be trekking for longer. Well, it was impossible to have both. We were longing for a shower, hearty dinner, and a good night’s sleep. We, however, needed to take care of our return tickets before that. M and J had to catch their train from Gorakhpur three days later, and therefore needed to take a bus to Bhairahawa. I, on the other hand, needed to go back to Kathmandu. As we stepped inside a travel agency, we were informed that no tourist buses were available to Bhairahawa. I was also told that there were rumors of a transportation strike in Kathmandu in protest of the government decision to ban vehicles older than twenty years. The travel agent stated that, they were, however, selling bus tickets to Kathmandu for that day. KRAMASHA