Tansen

On the of 21st of March we took a deep breath and instead of making our return to Pokhara the same way we came, we decided to make a round trip with a stop-over in Tansen. All together we ended up making a more than 400 km trip in 6 days returning to our "home" by the 22nd.
We had a 6 hours ride in front of us with a wonderful serpentine along a gorge with an azure river climbing the mountain for the last 2 hours. We were warned that strange things can happen on the way having the festival of colors, one of the biggest Hindu holidays, called Holi, in Nepalese Fagu. We were a bit at a loss how to celebrate Easter this year, but our Nepalese friends made it sure that we did not have to suffer from lack of entertainment; traditionally Holi stands for celebrating colors and water. The former represents emotions, the latter welcomes the coming Monsoon and in practice colored water in smaller or bigger balloons is thrown on each other. Luckily we looked exotic enough to be let free by kids hijacking the highway by banners and stones at the village borders, but we had to give in on the mountain road. On the last 2 hours of our ride small settlements followed each other with raging youngsters collecting money and masking you in all colors, women singing and dancing - not less demanding, though without the coloring part. It took us some time before we understood why did I get a big punch on my back driving through one of the female cordons and next time we got through with 20 NRS and a handful of red powder in my face and a big smile from the guys. We agreed to take our Holi experiences as a substitute for Wet Monday...

By the time we arrived to Tansen the city was in full speed celebrating and Tomek also got some purple in his face, so we looked equally embraced by the local folklore, receiving welcoming comments from the receptionist when finally we found a place where we could wash ourselves. Clean and happy after stuffing our bellies we made ourselves lost in the steep narrow streets of Tansen to discover an absolutely non-touristic, medieval-like town and its' Newari architecture. To be fair, the place has a great charm and potential, but what comes to its historical heritage there is a lot to improve - especially in order to establish it as an attraction for visitors, as it ought to be.

On the 22nd after a morning walk and a good breakfast we took off to our last day ride, a gorgeous route to ride a bike; it is a good 5 hours trip if you are not in a rush through mountains with lovely small villages with amethyst color rivers, with awesome smelling evergreen forests, terraced valleys all through the way. We were soooo happy - no traffic and cordons whatsoever - that we decided to continue discovering countries on the bike; you get a great deal more out of a place sticking your nose out of the bus or car.