Blogs from Pokhara, Nepal, Asia - page 2

The final day had just a 1-h hike. After that, a 4h bus ride took me back to Pokhara. I have some video's, but this site won't let me upload them. Imagine 5 or six flower pots with fake flowers and a shrine on the dashboard. A very happy driver in a bouncy chair behind a big wheel, and a tall bus, to go trough rivers and stuff. The bus was very shaky and overtook other buses and vehicles where it could. Oftentimes just driving beside the crumbling asphalt, we finally saw after the first 2h. During that time, we just drove over cobbles, rocks and rivers. Hairpin turns and paths that you would not expect a bus to be able to make. The first part also had some nepali/indian music that was turned off when ... read more

We got to pokhara by bus again. It's not the most comfortable way to spend your vacation. Another 9 or so bumpy hours later, we turned into the pokhara bus station. Had an interesting conversation with an Austrian lady, that was doing anthropological research here, about the effectiveness of local medicine practices. She had great trouble getting them to be specific about their trade, treating her like a tourist, even if she spoke Nepali to them. She stayed in Nepal for 10 years in the 80/90s. Apparently, Kathmandu used to have asphalt before the earthquake. Also, there is a huge chance of a bigger earthquake happening soonish. Indicator for that was on 9.3/10 if I remember correctly. (9.7 otherwise). She was also a disaster relief manager and had all released vant permits and paperwork, to set ... read more

We rented 2 scooters today. Good price (800 each) Put too much fuel in (650 each), drove around town and to Mahindra cave+devis falls. Both are mostly a tourist trap, but if you go there with this expectation, it's fine. Had some trouble climbing the way up to the (Japanese sponsored) world Peace pagoda. The scooter gave out halfway and would not restart. In the end, we asked someone passing by on a motorcycle. He found a manual Kickstart option and operated it, while his wife handled gas and clutch. One minute later a very happy me rode onward into the sunset :p After retrying the hill via another road that is. Overcoming a rainstorm and a 10m stair-walk/run, I arrived exactly early enough to see the place in the right light and sunset.... read more

Yesterday we got up early to be dropped off for a 7am bus ride from the jungle to lakeside Pokhara. We travelled by tourist bus, which meant allocated seating and a bottle of water. Passing the non tourist buses this seemed so very fancy as the locals crammed into minibuses, sitting under a broken air conditioning vent with my ever present trekkers cough seemed a small price to pay - as was the $7 for a 6 hour drive. The westerners next to us and myself got in trouble a couple of times for opening the windows, we were to enjoy that aircon! The drive meandered through misty mountains, small by Nepalese standards but lovely. Random houses on the other side of a roaring river, with thr occasional bridge seeming to be put in place for ... read more

With everyone having a full bill of health we caught the 6:30am bus to Pokhara. We’d heard all sorts of horror stories about this journey with people saying “they nearly died” and it taking anywhere from 6 hours to 14 hours! We must have been lucky as for us it was one of the better ones! Loads of space, steady pace and none of us felt our lives were in danger. We got there around 2ish and noticed that it was a much quieter atmosphere. There is a big lake in Pokhara where we could see people rowing boats and we’d been told it’s great to swim in. We had a walk towards the town with a Norwegian lad called “Christopher” who was on our bus. We didn’t have any accommodation booked so went in search ... read more