Dispatch 9: Drive from Muktinath to Darbang

Badia and Nick in Darbang

Today, we woke up at 6:00am, packed up our equipment, had breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, and walked our bags down to the place just outside of town where our bus was waiting for us. The bus ride was even more turbulent than before, and we all hit our heads on something along the way. We found it strange how many people the bus stopped to pick up and drop off along the way, despite apparently being a bus hired just to take us down. We eventually made it to Beni, where we had a late lunch. We were met by another staff member from Prestige Adventure, who tried to order us the two cheapest things on the menu (rice and French fries, as if that’s a meal), insisting that we must only get one or at most two different dishes for the entire table. We pushed back and managed to get some protein into the meal. Afterwards, we carried on, completing the drive to Darbang. When we arrived, we had no hotel reservation (despite the tour operator having three days’ notice and a definite arrival date), and we waited around for awhile while our poor trekking guide worked to figure something out. After some time, we managed to snag four small rooms, and we spent the rest of the afternoon organizing gear, taking much-needed showers, and charging our electronics. We had a traditional Nepali dahl set meal and went to sleep early. Tomorrow, we will begin our trek to Dhaulagiri Base Camp.