Tansen is little more than a hundred kilometers from Pokhara, but it's 6 hours away by bus. We made a stop here on the way south because we read it was a nice place to get away from the tourist trail, plus it's a convenient place to rest on the way down to Lumbini.
But we did not expect it to be so darn photogenic! It's a beautiful medieval town, hardly known and thus, authentically Nepali.
The hilly village is really cute, but in many parts, it's hard to walk or take a bike because the streets are so darn steep!
But it seems to be no trouble for the kids and grannies.
And in case of emergencies, there are porters who can carry anything and anybody. In fact, we saw someone carrying an old man just like in the first illustration.
I tried this girl's mushroom basket on my head, it wasn't heavy, but there were only 3 bags of her stuff left.
The village is also known for its colorful looms; they specialize in this kind of cloth used to make traditional Nepali hats.
Like the one the guest house owner gave Henri.
We met other travellers over noodles, and together we formed a trekking team to go to Ranighat Durbar, "the Taj Mahal of Nepal," the next day.
We set out at 8am, thinking it would be an easy hike; but it turned out to be a 5-hour walk going to Ranighat, and 4 hours to hike back because we took a different route from the one the locals knew.
It was a killer hike. Sometimes I swear I had out of body trances because I was in so much pain. We still hadn't fully recovered from Annapurna. But, even though it was exhausting, it was still a beautiful experience and a perfect way to meet people from nearby villages and to be with fellow adventurers.
It was hot and the way was difficult. Just when I began entertaining thoughts of throwing myself off the cliff, we found the river; and on its banks, the ruins of Ranighat Durbar.
It was not what we had expected. It wasn't the "Taj of Nepal" architecturally speaking, it got the title because a governor in the early 20th century dedicated it to his dead wife.
Still it had a haunting allure, especially because of the river flowing next to it.
We had little time to relax, and we chose to do it by dipping our toes in the icy cold stream.
I had just enough time to inspect the toe that died in Annapurna.
And then it was time to go back, we didn't want to be stuck in the trail after nightfall.
This way turned out to be harder than the first because the road was nonexistent. We had to crawl through the small space you can see between the bush and the drill. Scary stuff! And after, we had to walk up 70° of sand. We had calves of steel after this day!
And the walk never seemed to end.
At one point, we became lost and walked 30 minutes off the track. We had to double back, and when we reached Tansen again, it was pitch dark.
We were back by 7pm, but since Tansen's streets go up and down too, it was still punishing on the legs. There was a power cut when we arrived and Henri clung to me like a old man on the way down to the guest house. I was so relieved when I saw the light of the living room!
I guess everyone was happy.
Even the resident crazy dude.
Two days later, we were at it again. We were not so happy that the sky was smoggy on our first transcendental trek, so on our last day in Tansen, we joined Pierre and James to go up to the first town with a viewpoint, just to see if the peaks of the Annapurna are visible at last.
And they were. It was the perfect farewell to Tansen.
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