At Besi Sahar, the surfaced road comes to an end. We climb down from the roof of the battered off-road bus; from now on, we must rely no our own two feet.
This is the Nepal trekking and trading route around Annapurna, one of the highest Nepalese mountain (8091 m above sea level). However, Besi Sahar is not so much the first mountain settlement on the route as the last town, at the edge of the civilized world. There are fewer native inhabitants then Gore-Tex-clad tourists, who in turn are outnumbered only by self-styled guides and hotel touts.
In Besi Sahar, even children know there is more money to be made from tourists then from transporting goods into the inaccessible mountains. In spite of that, however, dusty tins of food, Chinese lanterns, and kerosene leave the town on the backs of porters and pack mules on their way to remote settlements.
Until recently caravans traveled all over the country, as the first drivable road in Nepal was only built in the 1950s, connecting the capitol Katmandu with the rest of the world. Before then the entire kingdom was still in the Middle Ages. Flintlock rifles were considered modern weapons, smallpox was the work of the gods, and glasses were believed not only to improve sight, but also to reveal things not normally visible.
Even today, there are many places inaccessible by road, that is why Nepal is the best place for trekking