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The View from the Veranda
This is the first thing that we saw this morning...The Annapurna range After a harrowing train ride, absolutely terrifying night bus, and long, but beautiful bus up here from the border, we have finally reached Pokhara!!
The Indian railway was...an experience. We had Air Conditioned class tickets, however it's all relative. The journey was only 600km...yet it somehow took 21 hours!!! Argh, by the end of it we both wanted to gauge out our eyes. At one point we thought of getting out and pushing the damn thing. It probably would have been faster. As it was, we stopped at EVERY tiny little stop for at least 20 minutes (this being the express train...lord only knows what pace the mail train travels at!) and the driver decided to take a six hour nap in the middle of the night so we literally didn't move at all, then.
Once we got off the train at Gorakhpur (where we needed to catch our bus) we were incredibly sleep deprived and starving...but the only food we could find at that hour were a bunch of Lays potato chips and some Thumbs Up cola. On to the bus - well, let's just say, there were no assigned seats. People were packed in like sardines,
piled on top of one another, and all the aisles were full. Some people rode on the roof. Thank god we got on early enough to get seats. We went along a really sketchy dirt road that no one else seemed to use...and the driver kept picking up more and more people and making side deals with everyone. We definitely thought we were being smuggled across the border or something. It definitely did not look at all legal. We did get to the border town (Sonauli), however, and in one piece, at that!
We stayed the night in Sonauli on the Indian side of the border because we didn't want to walk across the border in the pitch black of night. The only hotel there was described in our guidebook as a "concrete bunker" and after sleeping the night, even under mosquito nets, Heidi woke up with mysterious bumps all over her arms. We're pretty sure they're from bedbugs (yummy!) so we're going to take all of our stuff to the laundry here. (We're both fine otherwise).
Compared to getting to the border, actually crossing it was a breeze! The officials were incredibly nice and very easygoing. The
Nepali side issued our visas in less than ten minutes. From there we hopped on a minibus to Pokhara (after a nutricious breakfast of chocolate wafer cookies...gotta love street stall food). The bus ride was incredibly beautiful. The views were just breathtaking as we wound our way through the Himalayas. The southern part of the Himalayas is almost rainforest-like...it looked like we were driving through the Congo or something. The bus went through a bunch of small towns and we stopped for lunch at a very nice little restaurant that all the locals went to for some dal bhaat. It is "the" Nepali meal, apparently: lots of rice, onto which you pour a sort of lentil soup, with spicy potatoes and green bean curry and some bamboo shoots on the side. It was very satisfying after all the crap food we'd been eating.
The Nepali people are very laid-back and helpful. It's extremely refreshing after the Indian "in your face" hassling we endured in the cities. People here are quiet, nice, gentle, and don't treat you like a celebrity or an oddity (or a money-bag) because you are white.
It started to rain (and I mean RAIN) as
Rice Paddies
We saw lots of rice paddies and bamboo on the drive over...the picture doesn't do it justice as it was taken out of the bus window we got into Pokhara. Two little Nepali girls offered to help us find where we were (as it was pretty obvious we had no clue where on earth we were going) and dry off because we were soaked to the core. They led us back to their home, which turned out to be a Christian Children's house. There were about 15 kids who lived there, all different ages. They gave us tea, coconut biscuits, and some mango, and helped us find a taxi. Their hospitality was incredible and just what we needed at that point.
Once we did find the main strip (where all the hotels and trekking shops are) we found a delightful little guesthouse for an amazing price. Our room is on the third floor and it has a private bathroom and there is a veranda which overlooks the lake and the mountains - all for a lot less than the regular price. Pokhara itself is nestled between three lakes in the middle of the Himalayan mountains. It serves as the gateway for trekkers to the Annapurna range, and as such attracts very outdoors-y, sporty travelers (lots of mountain climbers, paragliders, white water rafters). It is a
really cute little city, almost like Banff (but sans Americanos) and there are a bunch of really good restaurants.
We woke up to amazing mountain views this morning, which was nice after a night of rain. It is really nice to breathe in the fresh mountain air - there's so much pollution in Indian cities...it is just pristine and beautiful here. So far we have been relaxing and wandering around the Tibetan craft stores. You can rent row boats to take out onto the lake as well...something we plan on getting to very soon. We had breakfast this morning at a really cute little cafe that had seats outdoors in a back garden which looked out onto the main lake (Phewa Tal). We will probably be here for about a week before we start over towards Kathmandu...that is if Heidi ever leaves...she plans on settling in for good as it is right now. We're only sort of kidding.
NOTE: We have finished adding pictures to our last post, so be sure to check back on that.
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emma
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i heart nepal
you know, there is an expression about nepal and india... that india is only an acronym for "i'd never do it again" and nepal is "never ending peace and love". india is great, but nepal is heaven. glad you like my "hometown" of pokhara.