Pokhara 25/05 - 31/05

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We caught the bus headed for Pokhara and the journey wasn’t the most comfortable! It took all day (and it was raining) but when we got to the hostel we were very happy. Jaap had organised a room for us at the place he was staying at previously and had the most horizontal person running it - Susheel. He went paragliding in the day and had a few rooms at his guesthouse with a rooftop to die for. We were higher than most other places, it had a beautiful view of Lake Phewa and behind was just smaller guesthouses and then jungle. Safe to say we set up camp here on a few occasions!

Our time in Pokhara was spent mostly doing nothing as we thought we deserved a break from all of the exercise! Pokhara itself is the biggest city in Nepal (apparently) with the suburbs spreading out far and wide but the lakeside itself had an entirely different feel. It was much quieter than Kathmandu, almost with an island vibe going on. There were shops and stalls selling all sorts to passers by, travellers walking by dressed to the hilt in Nepalese gear with the odd dreadlock here and there. Jack felt very at home with his new founded long hair.... We had a regular breakfast spot just below the hostel that was awesome, a regular dinner spot opposite that and a regular shop to buy the cheap spirits from next to that one. For all of these reasons “a few days” could easily turn into “a few weeks”.



We did do a few bits and bobs though. We did a HUGE wash with all of our trekking gear. We all spent a day on the lake where we hired a boat with 2 dodgy paddles and had a swim. The water was a beautiful temperature and pretty clean actually. We had a great view of all of the paragliders flying over a mountains edge by the lake and all of the surrounding mountains that we were in the middle of a few days earlier. We went to an outdoor cinema one night that used a projector. The film was great but the view of the sun setting in the valley just behind was the cherry on top. We obviously had to go shopping too! The standout buy was a Nepalese coloured waistcoat that Jack had bought for our friends wedding coming up. Char enjoyed a browse around the clothes shops and we both bought outfits of baggy trousers and colourful tops. All of this however had to come to an end soon enough as we still had Kathmandu to return to and sort our lives out before heading out on our final European leg of the trip. We said goodbye to Tommy as he was heading to Australia and the next day we got on another bus for Kathmandu.

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