Blogs from Pokhara, Nepal, Asia - page 51

I had my fill of adventure with that bike trip so for the remaining time in Kathmandu we took it easy. The day after was spent on the rooftop of Helena's cafe-- we stayed there basking in the 70 degree sun, listening to the energy of the city below, imbibing San Miguel beer, and nibbling on tuna sandwiches, chips and salsa, chocolate cake and coffee (all for less than $10 US) while leisurely taking in a good book (yes I read-- well ok, it was Time magazine-- alright, People magazine-- it was a pamphlet handed out by one of the tour agents on the street). So though we weren't willing to brave the outer parts of Kathmandu, we still wanted to experience a little more of Nepal before heading to India. Our original plan was to ... read more

Hello everyone! This is Tim and Leslie blog time! (the other entries were from the girls--great job, eh?) Since our first glimpse of Mt Everest out the airplane window we've been enchanted. We're in Pokhara on slower computers so unfortunately photos will have to wait. First of all it's been really great to have our adopted daughter, Rebecca, along---she's easy going with a great sense of humor (and not afraid to "try" new foods--you'd be proud Gary and Elaine!) --which every traveller needs in a 3rd world. We can't brag enough about her photographic skills--watch for more (a future journalist for sure) After negotiating, haggling and promising our next born, we secured a guide and 2 porters at a reasonable rate ---we're all healthy (knock on wood and stay away from the fish balls--another story for ... read more

I came back from the trek on Friday night and only wanted to get some good rest. I didn't think it would become such a long rest, but well, sometimes it happens. On Sunday we were very energetic and walked up to the "World peace stupa" on a hill above Pokhara. We walked through the forest and got lost a few times, luckily the forest was full of children (on holiday) and they rescued us a few times... The views of the Annapurna region were fantastic, and we took the short and steep way down, taking a boat to cross the lake back to town. We had some other small plans but then the weather changed. First it became cloudy and a bit coldish and we waited for the sun to come back. Unfortunately it didn't, ... read more

After 5 weeks away from my epilator, there wasn't much choice left, I had to throw my legs at the mercy of a local wax-man. Waxing is done here in multi-service barbershops, all offering all sorts of hair cuts, shampooing, shaving, waxing and also massages. Even though it took quite a long time to prepare the wax, it was unfortunately a low quality wax or maybe the wax-man wasn't very experienced. Whatever it was, my hair wasn't impressed from this hot sticky brown liquid, and it stayed firmly attached to my legs. And then a solution was found: a pincer. And so I sat there for about half an hour and my hair was extracted, removed, epilated one by one by the dedicated guy. Girls, you've got to try that one day! To complete the experience ... read more

After the trek we wanted to take it easy for a while so we stayed in Pokhara for a week. Most of the time we just slept and ate. Pokhara is a good place for doing all that, at Lakeside, where most of the tourists are staying, there is lots of good restaurants and decent hotels. Uncle Monkey was playing in Busy Bee during several evenings so that's where we sat, listening to live music. After having spent such a successful trek and getting used to the good will of the nepalese people living in the mountains, we made a mistake of trusting the manager of our hotel. He promised he would arrange anything we needed, which he did, but not so well. When we wanted to rent a good and new motorbike, we got to ... read more