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Published: November 26th 2009
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Pokhara
Our trip to this city west of Kathmandu started when we surprisingly met the American couple we had befriended previously on the rafting trip in the street outside our hotel the night before we were going to leave. They were also considering visiting the place so we agreed to meet up the next morning at 8am to get a tourist bus (no trains in Nepal); nicer to travel with friends. However, 8am came and I knocked on their room's door only to find that they had changed their mind; they had read in their guide book that Tourist buses leave around 7am, with none after that point (it takes 7-9hrs to get there). Not wanting to chance it, they remained until the following day.
We, on the other hand, being used to guide books not always reporting all the facts and knowing that SOME form of bus would be going, left in a taxi for the bus park: we were not disappointed. Our driver dropped us literally next to a 'micro-bus' (mini-bus) - one of many privately run buses that for around £3 make the same journey as a tourist bus (and for the same price) but as
we discovered, were considerably more comfortable with leg room and softer seats. After waiting for an hour for the bus to fill up (quite normal) we headed off to our destination amongst various calls from the tout from the open window to try and fill the remaining 2 seats as we left the city.
The journey itself was hair-raising to say the least. The roads, as mentioned in an earlier blog, are not in the best of nick and when you have a boy-racer for a driver, swerving to overtake on winding roads it felt a little like white knuckle ride. I had to close my eyes at points as the road edge came all too close to the side of the bus, with a sheer drop to a raging river beneath me. Thankfully though, we made it to Pokhara unscathed (although a little deafer from his music) and were pleased with what we found.
We had met a German lady on the bus who had stayed in the area many times before and volunteered to act as a guide to the centre of town and show us a good guest house. As we walked along the 'High
Street' all I could think was “Where is the traffic and all the tourists?” Pokhara is the second biggest city in Nepal and after days of narrow streets honking horns and more tourists than you can shake a stick at, it was amazing how different 2 places can be. There was a much calmer atmosphere and less pressure from touts for trekking etc. and you could see the mountains!The Annapurna range was shiningly white and quite amazing being viewed from street level. We began to relax straight away.
Our hotel was lovely, being set back from the road and any late night music as well as being nearly half the original asking price after some haggling :-) As it was early evening when we arrived, we decided a quick exploration on the layout of the main areas would be a good idea before the sun set. The same merchandise stared at us from shop windows as we had seen in Thamel, but the wide street and more considerate bars made strolling fun. The only down side was that nearly all the restaurants were charging 'tourist' prices for food; we soon found a nice local place though for breakfast and
dal bhat. An early night rounded the evening off nicely.
As this section of the trip was supposed to be relaxing, our first day out would be to see the 'Peace Pagoda' that stands on a hill overlooking the city. As Pokhara is bordered partly by Phewa Lake (the second largest in Nepal) we had to first walk round a side of this before making our way up the hill (400m at least). Now, we thought we had worked out the was from our partial map, through the wooded hillside, but when the path began to fade and we stumbled upon a woman and her fierce dog we gave in and asked (again) for directions - we were soon back on it. It took about 2hrs to get there and the stupa itself was quite something: large and white, with a tended flower garden to one side. We circled the building and went to the viewing point for the mountains (one of the reasons we climbed up in the first place) but unfortunately were met with only clouds. As we has started out that day we could see it coming in but though it would burn off - no
such luck. The lake was impressive though and our return route (on another CORRECT path) gave us a wonderful encounter with rather large spiders!
Another tourist attraction called Devi's Falls lay on our way back. The noisy and deceptively 'steamy' falls is actually where a river descends into a large underground cavern with some interesting holes on the rock made by erosion. A nice little pit-stop on the long walk home, although it seems the side-track cost us avoiding the rain which decided to fall on us after leaving the site. We instead took shelter in a café and ate momos while watching the rain fall on the lake - very pretty.
Our second full day was designated as a 'rest day', so we had a late morning and went for a walk around the outskirts of the lake. It was a 'rustic' past, past boat jetties and women doing their washing, but nice to look back onto 'lakeside' from a different angle. Our afternoon was spent in a little lakeside café called 'Pumpernickel' where we drank tea, ate chocolate cake and read. A perfect day!
On our return to the room that evening I decided to
check the time of our upcoming flight to Bangkok, only to discover that it was 2 days earlier than we had both thought it was! That meant we would have to cut our time in the lovely Pokhara short if we were to also complete sight-seeing in Kathmandu before leaving Nepal.
The next day was therefore our last day, and we chose to spend it with a picnic on a hired paddle boat on the lake. After a quick stop back in the room to make up some peanut butter sandwiches, we walked to the lakeside and hired a boat for a very reasonable nrs400 for 4hrs (about £3.30). Warren and I took it in turns taking the lead in 'rowing', as Nepalese boats are mainly steered and propelled from the rear with one oar. We circumnavigated the length of the lake, taking in inlets and watching people learn how to kayak - relaxing. After a couple of hours we stopped to have lunch and read while still floating on the lake and were rewarded also with a brief glimpse of the mountains though a gap in the clouds. On our way back to shore we passed the small
island that houses a small temple which is in itself a tourist attraction (and a goldmine for the boat operators). It was a colourful building partly hidden by trees, but less than tranquil for a place of worship.
Once back on land we decided we needed to rest our aching paddling muscles - tea at Pumpernickels! This was followed by packing and our last ever dal bhat at the local café The next day we caught another micro-bus back to the capital - less traumatic this time - for our last day before moving on to Thailand. By great coincidence we met Lada, our friend from India who crossed the border into Nepal with us, who had just returned from Pokhara after trekking in the Annapurna mountains. We exchanged stories and he gave us some info on diving in Thailand and Indonesia and we gave him some tips on the trek to Everest base camp. We spent one more day in Kathmandu touring some of the old sights including some impressive pagodas before packing up ready to travel on to our third country of the trip.
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Sophie
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This what.....?
You can't leave us in suspense like this....... this what......? Loving the blogs! Keep them coming, it's great to hear what you are doing. Love SOph xx