4th of May, 2023.
And it happened again. I have no notes, and very few recollections about my hitchhiking day back to Sonauli. I know that I have to walk quite a lot to get outside Pokhara. And that a lovely couple picked me up first. But their names and until where they drove me, I cannot remember. I know there was a truck at some point. I definitely arrive to the border by truck, that I can remember.
And it is dark. I start walking. I am considering to just camp somewhere. It is the beginning of a village or a town, I don’t know. And there are some empty roads. And it is dark. I am walking, alone, into the darkness, back to India.
It is a small town called Nautanwa. I first talk with the members of a family, who are sitting outside their house. It takes them sometime to understand everything I am saying. And when they do, they don’t seem very keen to help me. But there is this man in a bicycle, just cycling around while I am explaining everything, and then someone translates to him what I am asking for. He leaves quickly, for a moment; while I am still waiting for an answer from this family, he comes back and signed to me that I should come with him. We stop a few hundred metres ahead.
A lovely and beautiful lady comes out to the door, smiling. She reminds me of a Bollywood actress. Her name is Priya and this is her house. There are a lot of young men around talking and translating things to her. She keeps smiling. Then she just signs me to come inside.
Some of the boys can understand a bit of English, and one of the young women too. They are all super sweet and seem truly happy (and most surprised) to see me. I think that the expression in Priya’s face is actually disbelief. But in a good way, like as she cannot believe in what her eyes are seeing.
Priya rent rooms for all the youths. They are Ashok, Abhishek, Vishal, Ramesh and Rinky. They sleep in a separate part of the house, where they can also cook. I also meet Priya’s two super cute sons: Viray and Viraj.
Priya’s husband, Kaushal, arrives soon, and he is a very serious man. In the opposite of her and everybody else, he seems very suspicious about me. Perhaps he’s just worried about his family. But he strikes me as a good man too.
We sleep under the stars again, on the rooftop, which is amazing! In the morning, Priya prepares breakfast for us, which is awesome, and after taking some more photos with everybody, and the kids, Vishal takes me, in a motorcycle, to a place where I can easily hitchhike to Bangladesh. Yep! That’s my next destination. So, I have come back to India to actually go to Bangladesh. Well, at least I thought so…
10 Years Around the World 