Mountain views in Pokhara

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We left Bandipur for Pokhara by a local bus. The driver was totally crazy - he drove far too fast around the bends (and there were many) and we were getting concerned for our safety when the bus stopped and nearly everybody got off and went onto other buses. The only people left were us - we were unsure whether the bus terminated there (though it was supposed to go to Pokhara) or whether everybody else got off simply because they didn't want to go any further with that bus driver. We were put onto another bus - this one had a much better driver but he insisted on playing rap music at top volume for the next 3 hours of the trip. Even the locals on board asked him to turn it down - which he did - though he crept it back up quickly each time. By the time we got to Pokhara we were over bus travel and couldn't get off fast enough. Too fast in fact as when I got to our hotel I realised that I had left my memory foam back support pillow on the bus seat. Despite the best efforts of the hotel staff we didn't get it back! Thankfully we had another (Jerrys') which I'm now using. I can't sit in buses for a long time without one.
Jerry's glasses had broken in Bandipur and when he opened his spare set they were broken as well. The first thing we had to do in Pokhara was to get them repaired. That we managed to do surprisingly easily though we had to go across the city to the local shopping area to do it. For $AUD10 he had new frames for one and new wing pieces for the other. The main attractions of Pokhara are the treks into the mountains and the mountain views. The main tourist area stretched around Phewa Tal, the second largest lake in Nepal, and our hotel was at the end of this long strip of shops and restaurants. From our hotel window we had a great view of the snow capped peaks though half the time we were there they were lost in the clouds. The area was very quiet after Kathmandu and there wasn't a lot of pressure from shopkeepers. We found a lovely restaurant where we ate most of our meals.
Our first day we walked from our hotel along the shore of the lake. The lake was covered in lilies and was full of a weed which was being harvested, via twisting it around a long pole, from dozens of tiny wooden boats. Above the lake were terraces of rice paddies and rice also grew right to the lakes' edge in many places. It was very pretty and we walked for a long way - when we were tired we waved down a bus which took us back to the edge of the city where we walked back to the hotel via the long row of shops. That evening it rained very heavily and the streets turned into streams.
However next morning the rain had washed away all the misty clouds and we had a fabulous view of the mountains in all their splendour. The sun rising over them changed the snow to a palette of pinks and blues. It was stunning, though by 8am the mist had come down to shroud them again. We caught a bus out to tiny village of Begnas Tal and Ruptus Tal. They were villages on the edge of two more lakes (Tal meaning lake). We walked along the ridge between the two lakes - we could see for miles and every so often the mountains would come out from the clouds. A great walk which we thoroughly enjoyed. Lots of stone pathways and steps and very friendly local people. The houses weren't traditional for the most part and they paled in comparison to Ramkot.
Another quiet day followed - reading, using wifi (our hotel had it so it was great to catch up on some Aussie news) and just enjoying the lake views. The following day we hired a motorbike and rode it out along the lakeside again, going much further then we had a couple of days earlier. We had to turn around eventually as the road was flooded. We went back through the city and out the other side, planning to go to the Peace Pagoda which was set on a hill above the city on the other side of the lake. It was however too steep and slippery for the bike so we didn't get there. The pagoda is a Buddhist stupa so we weren't too worried about not seeing it. On the way back we stopped at a waterfall - it would have been more impressive if you could actually see it properly - the viewing areas were totally overgrown with vegetation which stopped you seeing it! So often that is the case in these countries - they have great sites which are not maintained and eventually not worth visiting because of it.
Woke up next morning to a fabulous view of the mountains so quickly hired a taxi to drive us the 40 minutes to the viewing point at Sarangkot where we had fabulous views of the Annapurna Range and down the valleys towards them. The highest mountain you can see from Pokhara is Annapurna 1 at 8091 metres, but it surrounded by many others nearly as high. The one which looks the biggest (and only because it's the closest) is Mt Machhapuchhare - which means 'fishtail' in Nepali - at 6997 metres it dominates the city. We were really pleased that we had such a great view of the complete range as that afternoon the rain came back. We were on a boat on the lake when a thunder storm blew in - we were wet and cold by the time we got back to the hotel. It continued raining all night and was still pretty wet the next day. That evening we had dinner with Petra, my niece from England, who had won a trip to Nepal through her job with STA Travel. It was wonderful to catch up with her news and to hear about her life in England with Ben. She was glowing with happiness! I just hoped that the weather improved for the remainder of her trip. We had stayed longer in Pokhara then we originally intended because we wanted to see Petra - but that wasn't hard to do as it was a very relaxed place. Next day we left by taxi for Tansen, though only 140 klms away, not an easy place to reach by public transport.

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Photos

Twisting the weed from the lake
This weed was dried and sold in the markets as a vegetable