Blogs from Sarangkot, Pokhara, Nepal, Asia

After a day of delayed gratification and an evening of enlightenment; I arrived at Pokhara under cover of darkness. In the hard-scrabble field/ bus station. There was little to see but dust under Nepal's dim, fluorescent lighting. So I grabbed the first taxi driver that was willing to take me for $4. I'm staying at the KC Hotel in Damside. The 'other' side of the the tracks. $6 a night gets you a huge 3-person room with a bathtub nearly as decrepit as Tom Denson's was in Ocean City, Md. Big double-bed and a single to put my suitcase on. Desk, wardrobe and lots of outlets. Breakfast included. Large terrace overlooking a placid lake. The water's edge is so close to the hotel that I might be able to see myself in its mirrored surface if ... read more

Today we woke up early and checked out of our hotel in Kathmandu to do a trek through the Himalaya mountains. Our guide for the trip, Dave, met us at the hotel and took us to the airport. After waiting in the airport for over an hour for the flight we got on this great little plane run by Simrek Airlines. It holds about 20 people and flew us to Pokhara (another city which is the gateway to treks on the Annapurna mountain range. The flight took about a half hour and we sat on the right hand side of the plane in order to see views of the Himalayas. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so we didn't get that much of a view, but we did catch some great scenery of some of Nepal's many rivers ... read more

Die letzten Tage in Pokhara waren sehr sehr entspannt. Der erste Eindruck, dass Nepal deutlich weniger anstrengend ist als Indien hat sich also zum Glück bestätigt! Nepal gefällt mir also bisher sehr gut! Hier scheint man auch viel weniger zu handeln, was auch irgendwo Nerven spart. Man hat eher den Eindruck dass es einen festen Preis für alles gibt und wenn man den nicht zahlen will, auch kein Problem... In Pokhara selbst gibt es außer einem sehr entspannten See nicht so viel und wir haben die letzten Tage vor allem damit verbracht, die Wanderung vorzubereiten. Nicht nur Ausrüstung etc. sondern auch Permits, ne Karte usw. mussten wir noch besorgen. Morgen frühstücken wir also entspannt, nehmen nen Bus an den Ausgangslunkt der Reise (Besishahar) und wandern dort los!! Alles in allem soll die Route wohl ca. 14 ... read more

Got to Pokhara 2 days ago to relax after our trek.... read more

Morning flight over the Himalayas today. Woke up at 5:30, completely oblivious that we were supposed to meet Ravi in the lobby at 5:45. He told us. More than once. But we apparently had a major brain fart and totally forgot what Ravi had said even though I heard him clearly and repeated it. At 5:55 when Ravi called our room to tell us it was getting late, I realized that Nabin's English was not as good as we thought. The night before when he dropped us at the hotel he said six fifteen, but what he meant was fifteen to six. Big difference. So after Ravi called we rushed downstairs not realizing that we didn't need to bring all our stuff because we'd be returning after the mountain flight. So we threw everything in the ... read more