I sprung out of bed at 6:09am realizing that had left my headphones in on my iPod, thus not waking me up at 5:30am. I was able to get ready in 10 minutes as Prakash was supposed to pick me up in 6 minutes.
When he arrived, we quickly jumped into cab headed for the bus station where a mini bus waited to ship us out to Gorkah, Prakashs' village. During the 6 hour drive, I finished my book "Damage Done," and ended up napping most of the way. When we finally arrived in the main village, we stopped for lunch and then quickly made it onto a bigger bus headed to another village within the Gorkah region. This bus ride was the scariest ride of my life. We were driving along dirt roads that have been carved into the side of the hills. *They only call them hills because they are over shadowed by the Himalayas. But honestly these hills are as big as any mountain back in the East Coast USA. Anyhow, these roads were just big enough for the bus and were beyond bumpy to the point that we nearly tipped over on every turn. We got to one point in the ride where some rocks had fallen creating a mound that tipped us towards the edge and we would have to drive over them or wait. These guys wait for no one and nothing so he made an attempt. The first one scared the life out of me and Prakash said we should get off. Next thing I knew Prakash had already bolted out leaving me a lone with all the other people trying to get out as well. During this time the bus was still backing up and plowing into the rocks while not waiting for everyone to get off. Finally I was able to squeeze past a few people and jump out. Upon doing this I slipped and almost fell under the bus. Everyone was laughing at me. Now my heart is really pumping with adrenaline and this very moment is was the first sign of the unforgiving adventure(s) that would follow the next 3 days.
After the bus ride we had to walk for about an hour to the village where along the way packs of kids were joining us. They were so excited to see a foreigner and they also made the walk very fun. The entire time they kept asking for me to take photo's and pick them up and swing them. At one point I was carrying 5 kids on my body and all the locals were laughing as they brought me down to ground.
Once arriving at Prakashs' home, following a brief meet and greet with his family, he took me to a traditional village bar for some home made millet wine. The bar was a small room approximately 5x9x6 (W/L/H) and inside we crammed 7 men on two bamboo beds. It was packed. We were also accompanied by spiders the diameter of a tennis ball, one small and dim light, dust everywhere (which I am incredibly allergic to) and all the guys were chain smoking cigarettes. This room alone, minus the millet wine, was intoxicating. The millet wine was terrible, it tasted like grain flavored water with a strong alcoholic aftertaste. I could only drink 3 glasses and by that time was just where I needed to be. It was a lot of fun interacting with the locals, talking about their lives, America, my trip, and the upcoming trek.
I finished the night at Prakashs' eating a home cooked meal with his family and then hitting the hay early. Tomorrow was to be an 8 hour hike to the next village.
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