bus kathmandu to pohkara

Finally we are leaving Kathmandu. Not a moment too soon, we feel. The pollution is beginning to cause breathing problems, and the constant traffic and noise and chaos is creating a feeling of claustrophobia.
7:30 am, and it's time to board the Greenline bus. We get on, and soon realise that their slogan "travel with a difference" means travel without suspension. The ride is long and spine jarring, but the monotony of the constant bouncing is broken by the view of the sheer drop down the mountainside which is causing white knuckle terror. One foot to the left and it's a long roll to the valley floor. Then the fact the the road rules of the city also apply on the treacherous mountain road adding to the terror makes the ride seem very long indeed. We stop for a 15 minute break, so everyone gets off the bus for tea and restarting their hearts, then it's back on for more sinewy Annapurna mountain road fun. I should mention that Green line buses have the best safety record for tourist land transport in Nepal, so it's worth the extra cost for the feeling that you may actually arrive at your destination with being put in a black bag first. As an added extra, lunch is included in the price of the ticket, and the bus eventually stops at a really nice mountain resort, with views of the river and the grounds.
Now, I feel I must correct a few of my own errors. I had assumed, naturally because of various media, that Nepal was a frozen mountainous country, with high winds blowing higher snow. This is accurate in the Himalayas, but in the valleys where most of the cities are, it is lush and verdant, with tress of many varieties such as banyan and banana growing over the hills. The hills of which I speak are actually quite close to mountains themselves, but they are covered completely with trees and farms cut into the hillside like steppes. Other than the subsistence farms that these hill people tend to feed themselves, corn seems to be the prevailing crop. Little houses are balanced on the hillside like four walled mountain goats, and one suspect the people maybe like mountain goats too, the hills are so steep.
As for the Himalayas, I haven't seen them. I know, how can I not, they are only the highest mountain range in the world. Well, we have come in the rainy season, and the clouds seem to hover at the top of the Annapurna range, which is just in front of the Himalayas, completely obscuring them from view. One can take a single prop plane over the mountains as a privately booked tour, but Air Nepal, which is Nepal's largest commercial airline has such an appalling safety record that European booking sites don't even allow the name to come up as an option when booking flights within Nepal, something about allowing you to book it through their site is tantamount to murder, so the thought of booking a flight in some little plane held together with spit and faith does just not fill me with confidence.
Back to the bus. Spine blasting, teetering hell, basically, but I must say that if your fear if death is marginally less than mine, you will not be disappointed by the truly breathtaking views of the mountains and the valleys, and as you likely will be holding your breath anyway, try not to notice the fact that your bus is passing other trucks in the rain on a single lane road into oncoming traffic, (take some muscle)relax(ants), and in between prayers to whom or whatever, and enjoy the ride.