We had high hopes of getting out of here today, because our organizer had banded together with the company of another group to charter a flight for us to fly the 30 minutes to the mountain airstrip at Juphal. Our flight was supposed to take off at 8:45 this morning, and we’d be on our way.
Alas, when we woke up at 5:30, we could hear heavy rain, which only got heavier. We packed our bags and went to the airport anyway, but we knew this was just an exercise to let the tourists feel the locals were doing something. Sure enough, the only airplane flying anywhere was the large one flying on instruments back to Kathmandu, and after 4 hours waiting, we went back to the hotel, whose front lawn was now a swimming pool.
More bad news. With more people arriving and none leaving town, our hotel was now fully booked and we had to move to much less comfortable digs. Lunch was pretty basic (dahl baht = lentils and rice for Marcia and boney chicken for me) but probably still better than what we’ll have in the mountains.
Nepalgunj is definitely not a place to be stuck for 3 days (and let’s hope it’s only that). The name apparently derives from the local word for the traditional crop grown in the area – marijuana. The town itself is a dusty, now muddy grid of streets that serves the local farmers and border posts. One traveler suggested the local hotels conspire with the airlines to delay travelers, though they can’t have arranged the torrential rains.
Delays aren’t such a big problem for us, since we have plenty of time at the other end (unlike most other parties who are on a fixed schedule to get back to work). If we have to wait out a late monsoon, we’re better in a humble hotel than in a tent – or an airplane. We do worry, however, that these rains could mean deep snows on the 5,000 meter passes in the mountains. But if so, the snow may still have time to melt or pack down in the week before we get there.
So for now we just wait.