Pokhara!!

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March 18th 2011

Published: March 18th 2011

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EmuAbroad

On the road to Pokhara

The inside of out comfortable bus.

Again this entry is a bit out of date - we went to Pokhara 3 weeks ago now...
Anyway, we took a long weekend to Pokhara as the bus journey either was takes a whole day. So we left early from our hotel in Kathmandu on Friday morning to catch the 7am tourist bus to Pokhara. Since we had been advised to take the tourist bus, rather than the local bus this time, our journey was very different to our bumpy, cramped ride up to Langtang for the trek. There was no one standing in the aisles or sitting on us, and the seats were much more spacious! The journey took us just as long though as I think the tourist buses drive slower or something... We stopped twice on the way at roadside shops for snacks and to use the toilets, one of which we had to pay for (!) and eventually arrive in Pokhara at about 3pm. Getting off the bus we immediately noticed the higher temperatures and were also mobbed by taxi drivers and hotel owners trying to get our business. We decided to walk to our hotel though - which turned out to be further along the

Spot the mountain!!

The view looking down one of the streets going into Old Pokhara with the mountains behind.

lakeside than we had thought, and arrived very hot and tired about 45 minutes later. We spent the rest of the evening wandering more leisurely back along lakeside looking at the various craft and jewellery shops, and marvelling at the numerous bakeries (so many cakes!!). Later there was a storm with thunder and lightning and lots of rain, which was very dramatic. Luckily it cleared up the next day as most of the group had booked to go paragliding (I had opted out - mainly for financial reasons - it's very expensive!). So after wandering out of the tourist district to look at old Pokhara in the morning - the real town where the locals live (which turned out to be a much longer walk away than I had expected), I joined those who were paragliding and drove with them in the jeep up to the launch point. I was really lucky to be able to get up there even though I wasn't paragliding - the views were amazing (probably pretty similar to what you'd get if you did paraglide). I could see the whole spawling town of Pokhara (which is much bigger than I thought it would be), and

The Lake

A view of part of the lake (it's massive) with some of the boats you could hire.

the lake and the mountains.
On Sunday, our last whole day, two other volunteers and I walked to Devis Falls (a very deep waterfall where apparently a tourist named David and his girlfriend once fell to their deaths) and then on up a nearby hill to the World Peace Pagoda (a beautiful Buddhist monument with excellent views again of the lake and mountains). The walk was very pleasant through woodland and we spent quite a long time at the top, just sitting and taking in the views and the sunshine (we had met up with the rest of the group up there - who had decided to take a taxi - the lazy things!!)
That afternoon we all took boats out and rowed out to the middle of the lake for a picnic - it was great fun, and very relaxing... until a storm started brewing and it became almost impossible for us to get back to shore. The headwinds and currents were so strong that we stayed in the same place for at least half an hour, and it was starting to rain - it didn't help that somehow the two strong guys had ended up in the other

Lunch spot

A small shrine by the side of the lake where we ate pastries from the bakery for lunch on the first day.

boat (which got back to sure much faster). We did make it back eventually though - just as a boat was coming to help us.
The next morning we had another early start to catch the bus back to Kathmandu. This time our journey was even longer as we sat in a traffic jam for about 2 hours (you know it's bad when the engine gets switched off!) Much later in the evening we finally made it back to Godavari (after another 2 hour bus journey). I was exhausted but happy to be back with the family - they're great.

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