Advertisement
Published: July 26th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Macchapucchre
View from the bus to Begnas Tal Thursday 23rd July
This was my last day before I started teaching properly so I went out of Pokhara to visit two other lakes. Pokhara has its own lake, Phewa Tal, after which the Lakeside district where I am staying is named, but about half an hour's drive away there are two more lakes close together which are much less frequented by tourists, Begnas Tal and Rupa Tal. Begnas Bazar is the town by Begnas Tal - to get there I had to take two buses and then I intended to walk to Rupa Tal which the guide book said was about 3km. I spent half an hour or so relaxing by Begnas Tal and trying to keep out of the sun - it was a very hot day with no sign of rain. From the bus leaving Pokhara you could see Macchapucchre very clearly and another very high peak which I think was one of the Annapurnas. It was amazing to be sweating in a hot and crowded bus and yet see snow and ice 7000m above.
By the time I arrived at Begnas Bazar, however, the clouds had covered all the high peaks unfortunately because the reflection
Begnas Tal
Relaxing by the lake of these in the waters of Begnas Tal is supposed to be be quite a vew - I didn't see the peaks again that day. While sitting by the lake I started chatting to aan older swisss hippy-like character. He said he had spent the last 3 years travelling around India but every 6 months, when his visa runs out, he has to leave India and apply for a new one so he comes to Pokhara. He told me about a fantastic coffee shop high on the ridge between the two tals.
I then set out to walk to Rupa Tal; most of the way was up a very steep hill and the sun was beating down but this time I had applied liberal quantities of sun cream. When I reached Rupa Tal village I was feeling quite weak so I stopped at a small drinks stall which had shelter from the sun and asked for a black tea with sugar which was lovely. The middle-aged lady who served me wanted to practice her English so she started counting "one, two, three". Not to ber outdone, I got out my Lonely Planet guide book, looked up the numbers glossary
Rupa Tal
View looking down from the ridge and replied "et, dui, tin". She was fascinated by the names of all the numbers in English and started going through them all one by one, checking the pronunciation with me. She then called over her friend from over the road who looked at the cover of the guide book and seemed to recognise the word "Nepal" so went back to her house and came back with an exercise book with lots of English words that she had been writing in it. It turned out that they had been having occasional English lessons with a Canadian girl so we ended up spending a pleasant hour or so with me helping them with their pronunciation. They were particularly interested in learning the alphabet so I tried to teach them to sing the rhyming version which they seemed to enjoy - do we still do that in England?
After a good rest in the shade I set off to walk back to Begnas Bazar, taking a detour to visit the coffee shop I had been told about. I ordered a cup of strong black coffee which was gorgeous. The guy who runs it than started to tell me all about their
Students!
My impromptu English lesson farm - they grow the coffee beans themselves and do everything from grinding and roasting etc to produce the finished product. They also keeps bees for honey which can use to sweeten the coffee. I bought a bag of roasted beans to take home.
Walking back to Begnas Bazar was much easier because it was mostly downhill then I again need two buses to get back to Lakeside. I was shattered after the hot day and decided to stay in and eat at the hotel.
Advertisement
Tot: 4.188s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 7; qc: 56; dbt: 0.1672s; 3; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Dorothy
non-member comment
Hi Dad!
Hey Dad, looks like you are having an interesting time and packing a lot in. Your photos are amazing! That's really sweet story about those two ladies and your impromtu english lesson. I think they still do use the rhyming version of the alphabet in England, I tried using it in the orphanage school here but the kids all know a different one wuth a different ryhme and told me I was doing it wrong lol, the same with the 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' song which has a different rhyme here and also an added line about Jesus, not surprising!