Back in Pokhara

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Once we arrived back in Pokhara, it was decided that we'd walk about an hour to find a nice hotel. I was EXHAUSTED. We dropped off our bags, showered, headed out for drinks, dinner, and more drinks at this cute little place called the Busy Bee. I killed two birds with one stone by enjoying banana mango smoothies with vodka and rum. Get those nutrients! This place also happened to have the shortest picnic tables of all time. There was about 3 feet of space between the bench and the table. This was officially the first time that I've felt short in Nepal. The must have built the thing for Yeti (he's a big guy you know).

We headed back to the hotel and plowed through a bit of the wet bar there as I fought sleep with all my might. Failed. I fell asleep on Paul and woke up in the middle of the night fully clothed and on top of the covers. I woke up way earlier than necessary to the chipper, wide-eyed girls ready for a full day of action. Myself, not so much. I headed next door for a bit of nap until we decided food was an amazing idea.

The girls headed back to Kathmandu, while the rest of us stuck around for an additional day. We navigated the Lakeside strip and came across this rooftop restaurant with views overlooking the lake and surrounding mountains. The views could have been better, as there were quite a bit of clouds settled in the valley, but it was still much nicer than being in the city. I enjoyed a tasty breakfast of a toasted cheese sangy, salad and chips before heading to a second hotel, as the first had no rooms available that evening.

We opted for a lazy day consisting of resting, taking advantage of the clean Western toilet on numerous occasions (no one was interested the Charpi facilities in the village), watching American college football (who would have guessed?), and a bit of shopping as evening approached. Steve somehow managed to have quite the hangover, and spent the day nursing himself back to health.

Lonely Planet pointed us to this restaurant with the most original name in town- Tea Time Bamboostan. It wasn't much different than the other places we'd visited, but the name was cool. More tasty sangys, chips and salad. Eat those veggies while you have the opportunity!

We headed back to the hotel for an early night with Western cover songs blaring into our windows. Somehow, we all managed to pass out in less than a couple minutes and I slept like a rock on the luxuriously soft bed (aka, it consisted of slightly more than a blanket over a piece of plywood). Such luxury!

I arose first thing the next morning, showered, took one last advantage of the fancy toilet before heading out to breakfast along the the lake alongside all of the flies in the country. The food was some of the most delicious I've had since I've been here, but the flies landing all over it tended to gross me out a bit.

There were Tibetan Refugee women outside of the restaurant area who roped Steve and I into purchasing some Tibetan jewelery. I am certainly no pushover, but hell, they were good at what they did! I'm not trying to be the one responsible for a day of poor sales! On this note, Paul, Steve and I have been discussing heading to Tibet on a tour at the end of November for between 1 and 2 weeks. Pretty much the only way to get into Tibet is on an organized tour, as they seem to be extremely stingy with the visas. Let's do it! This way, we'll have an opportunity to see another country, an unobstructed view of Everest from the Tibetan side, and driving through the Himalayas will provide us with some up close and personal views. Can't even begin to imagine what that would be like. Still much planning and discussion to be done, but hopefully this one will pan out.

We were able to score a fancy pants van for the ride back to Kathmandu- that big guy looked almost new and was much more comfortable than the van that took us to Pokhara. That and you could fit about 20 people on top of the vehicle alongside the large luggage. Means lots of room for the lucky ones inside! The entire way back, the van kept stopping to pick more people up. If the road leading out of Pokhara was any indication of what the journey would be like back, we might as well have travelled on horseback. The back of the bus was so bumpy, we were continuously flying out of our seats, and as everyone knows, the back seats are saved for the white people. I really can't be bothered, as that's the most fun place to be, just pray we don't get rear-ended and everyone's happy. We were once again treated to ridiculous Nepali beats that were even more difficult to drown out with the ol' Ipod. So incredibly cheesy. There was another spicy noodle stop (no daal bhaat for me thank you!).

For the majority of the journey, we drove alongside the beautiful ice blue river down in the valley below. No trash! However, this time around I wasn't as fortunate as I usually am during a bathroom pitt stop. With absolutely no form of shelter from the road and passing vehicles, one lucky van with a bunch of people on top caught me mid-action and stared me down. No, I did not wave at them.

We noticed the aftermath of a few extremely nasty truck crashes along the way. Hey, it's bound to happen with the combination of complete disregard for lanes and high-speed catapulting down curvy mountainside roads. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

Back into the lovely, smoggy, dirty air. We were stuck in a traffic jam back in the valley, meanwhile I am snotting all over the place. I have a cold. Just when I thought the waterfall had stopped, those roadside noodles had pushed me over the edge and started it up all over again. I single-handedly went through an entire toilet roll during the journey. And once I was out of paper, I turned to a T-shirt for solace.

Daal bhaat wasn't too bad that night. Since I was a bit on the hungry side, I was even able to get down seconds, though the next morning I wasn't as lucky. I had tasty chocolate biscuits with my name all over them. That sounded much better than spicy curry in the morning. Two packets later, I am full and happy.

Why won't this pain just go away once and for all? Some days, the antibiotics work magically and just when I think I'm cured, my infections return with a vengance. I am so exhausted. We're waking up early tomorrow for health check follow ups, and my rock bed is a-calling!

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