Tansen (Palpa), The Terai

We had nice small local busses from Lumbini to Bhairawa, change and to Butwal and third change before getting a bus to Tansen. The busses varied from crowded to overloaded; our last bus was small and filled with people, sad boxes full of chirping chicks, some goats and enormous bags of salesmen-stock. The aisle between the seats had a one meter thick layer of ricesacks, and over them dozens of people squatting - we were lucky ones with our seats.

Tansen is a pretty mountain town mostly covered by clouds. It felt really good to leave behind the boiling weather of Lumbini. Though walking up and down the steep streets make you sweat anyway.
We first settled into Hotel The Bajra but a did a quick checkout after making closer contact with bedbugs and a body full of bites.

Our next stop was White Lake hotel, which was luxurious with backup electricity and wifi in their lobby. On our stay there we also wittnessed a Nepali wedding which is a day for women to excessively dress up in their most beautiful sari (preferably shining with gold), jewelry and make up.

Wedding crowd

All around Tansen is mountains and forest so it is also an idealic place for walks.

Tansen seen from Shreenagar Danda

Tansen used to be a capital of the Magar kingdom and has been semi-independent until 1950's. You can still find a lot of ancient paved paths crossing around the mountains under leaves and plants. In the city is also the house of the former (local) king. It has a four meter high gate so that he could ride out every morning on his elephant to check his subjects.

A nice thing was the small sweetshops and vegetarian local foodplaces. We mainly ate Daal Bhaat (all-you-can-eat rice, lentils and spicy veggies) as evening meal and had 30 cent chowmein (veg fried noodles) and snacks for lunch. They sell lots of veggies deepfried in gram flour, like onion/coleslaw balls, vadai (donut) and samosas (spiced potato). In India we already witnessed the sweet tooth of the people and here again the glace broke from our teeth tasting syrup doughballs, halwa and barfi (nut- and milkfudge).

We also got the first experiences of the future - there were a few thunder/rainstorms blasting at nights, ripping literally the roofs of shacks around us. We cosily watched it all happen from behind our window; the streets became rivers, trees wildly shaked all blossom out of their heads and the sky behind the mountain flashed beautifully from black to white. The monsoon (rainseason) scheduled for starting in June is getting closer.

A slight inconvenience has been strikes - there is a general strike from Maoists around Nepal. This means that the only most couragious kiosks and restaurants are staying open with police and hotels. This is also concerning public transport so we needed some luck with our next planned bustrip to Pokhara.