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The only through road beyond Pokhara, the Siddhartha Highway (Siddhartha Rajmarg), points south: a slow, uncomfortable, but occasionally rewarding journey to the Tarai. In 160km the highway traverses four major river drainages, negotiates countless twists and turns, crosses many landslide paths, and often claims a tyre or an axle. Six hours would be a fast run. Although it's the most direct route between Pokhara and the Indian border, give some thought to going via Chitwan if you're travelling by bus. Cyclists, however, will enjoy the variety and light traffic. From Pokhara, the road labours 800m up to a divide before descending to Naudaada , a little-used alternative starting point for treks into the Kali Gandaki/Annapurna region (minibuses from Chipledhunga in Pokhara shuttle up here every half-hour or so). An old Kaski fortress guards the pass from the hill just to the east. Entering the Amdhi Khola watershed, the highway wriggles tortuously across the side of the valley, purposely avoiding the flat, straight valley floor - in a country so reliant on agriculture, you don't put a road through the best farmland. After the bazaar of Syangja , the valley draws in and the hills rear up spectacularly in places. Signs of erosion are evident everywhere here: these hills are geologically very unstable, and slough their topsoil like a thin skin. Public buses stop at Waling , a nondescript wayside that owes its existence to busloads of hungry travellers. Beyond, the highway ascends gradually and then begins its descent to the Kali Gandaki, first passing the access road to the huge new Kali Gandaki "A" Project . The $450-million, 144-megawatt hydroelectric diversion, due for completion by the end of 2001, is the largest and most expensive project ever undertaken in Nepal - and like it or not, it's now the finishing point for rafting trips on the river. The Siddhartha Highway crosses the river at Ramdi Ghat , the site of many caves, before climbing almost 1000m to its highest point. A few kilometres beyond is the turning for Tansen , the only town of note in this area. From there it's an hour's descent to Butwal and the Tarai. This last forty-kilometre stretch is particularly prone to landslides and so is often in dreadful shape.
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