Day 16 - Day tour of Pokhara

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I woke up early at 06:00 and did some blogging until the arranged breakfast time of 08:00. Nice buffet breakfast before stating our tour at 09:00. It turns out that the un-named guide from yesterday was not our guide for this day tour and in fact, there was no guide. It was just a driver taking us around to designated sites, very similar in fashion to when we hired a driver or taxi for a day in Bolivia and Ecuador last year. He limited English and it was quite amusing at times as we tried to make him understand what we wanted.

Overall the Pokhara highlights tour was pretty underwhelming compared with what we had seen during our trek. The first stop was Devis Falls which didn’t even compare that well with no name falls we had seen in the mountains. After looking at them, we walked up and they had a small garden and some amusing headless figures you could stand behind to take the plac e of the heads. Sadly we found that much more interesting and fun than the falls. After that we walked across the road to the Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave. We walked down a big gaudy outdoor spiral staircase decorated with gods etc on the walls but as we got to the bottom there was a chaotic traffic jam of people, mostly trying to get down and a few trying to get out. Vicki decided she didn’t want to get involved and so did everyone else. Mitch and Krissy could tell I still wanted to go in so Mitch came back and went in with me. Just as we got back, the floodgates opened and we walked in quite easily and the cave continued downwards until reaching the bottom where there was a small corridor which we walked into along with a long line of other people. However, the line was very claustrophobic but kept moving so we continued to a bigger cave which was dripping continuously with water and appeared to be propped up by bamboo scaffolding. Made me think it wasn’t a good idea to stay down there too long so we made an exit back the way we had come. By now the number of people trying to get seemed to have increased significantly so we were glad we had timed it well. We had spent almost 20 minutes in the cave and Krissy was near the top waiting to lead us back to the car. All I can say is that it was experience but not worth going out of your way to see.

We then drove through the Tibetan refugee area of town and the driver wanted to take us to a carpet place there, but we insisted that we did not want to go there. I had been on enough of these shopping diversion to know that it was just an opportunity for the driver to make some extra money from sales kick-backs and none of us had any interest in buying a carpet under a hard sales pitch.

The driver then wanted to take us to Fewa Lake but that bis actually near our hotel so it made more sense for him take us there last so that he could then leave for the day. This was one of the funny momenst where it took a lot of explaining before he understood what we were suggesting.

So we drove for about 40 minutes to the next attraction which was another cave, Mahendra Cave. This time we all went in and the cave split to the left and right. The right looked easier so we went all the way in and could hear a man chanting/singing. When I got to him, he stopped singing and asked me where I was from and stated ranting about wising me luck etc so I just high-tailed out not wanting to be involved any further. We got back to the junction and I saw the exit sign. The youngsters decided to go in first as it was very dark. Vicki decided to just go out through the entrance but Mitch yelled back that it was OK so I went in but couldn’t see a thing. Mitch and Nick came back and lit the way for me and at the end we had to use our hands to climb out. Once again, a bit of fun but not an essential thing to see.

By now traffic had increased and it took another 30 minutes back towards our hotel to see Seti Gandaki gorge. This had a viaduct filled with rushing water built over the actual gorge which was quite deep but very narrow and again a pretty minor diversion. I think we spent about 10 minutes there altogether.

It was now about 11:30 and we had all had enough and told the driver to take us to Fewa Lake which was the last item on the list. Vicki decided she was more interested in getting another massage so she walked back to the hotel. The rest of us tried to get a row boat for an hour but they trying to get us to hire it for a day and in the end we decided to get some lunch and try again later when perhaps it was less busy.

We walked down the shopping street again and found a nice café/restaurant called Fewa Fusion with a view to the lake and we had a very nice lunch. After lunch we went downstairs and next door was the Funky Fried Ice Cream Rolls. I’ve had these in Cambodia and Peru, where they make the ice cream on the spot using an ultra cold metal plate and ice cream mix and mix in chopped fruit with other toppings to finish off. We then continued up and down the shopping strip, making a few more purchases before Mitch decided he had had enough as well and went straight back to the hotel. Krissy, Nick and I decided to finish the original tour schedule and we donned life jackets and negotiated a 500 rupees deal to get a private boat to see the small Barahi Temple island. It started to rain on the 5 minute journey across the water and we spent 20 minutes there before returning.

We then walked back to the hotel and Krissy and Nick also went for a massage while I went back to our room where Mitch was already resting. It was 17:30 so we decided we would meet around 18:30 in the lobby for dinner.

Vicki messaged that she wasn’t that well and decided to rest at the hotel and get room service. Mitch picked out the Moondance Restaurant back on the main road and we had a very nice meal before having waffles at the Belgian Waffle place that Krissy and Nick had discovered the day before. Well and truly stuffed with food, we returned to the hotel to pack for tomorrow’s bus trip, back to Kathmandu.

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Comments

[shubh Narayan Shah]

Nice Article
We can get more https://www.everythinginnepal.com/pokhara-facts/