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Published: December 19th 2009
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4/12/09
The third day in Pokhara and the sky was still clouded, no way you could see something that had mentioned in every guidebook, no view at all, only could view it through the postcards in the shops! Pokhara...do I like it here? No...not totally disliked, but sure not my favourite. The Lakeside was everyone heading for accommodation, luckily it wasn't the highest stage of the high season, so I still could find room for 200 rupee with attached bath and hot water all the time! At first Pokhara seem big, yes...it spread really long, but once I began to walked, it actually could be covered by foot easily, was it because after 2 months practice? Every distant ssem minimal? Took the road up north aiming at the Old Bazar, not a market anymore though, but still could see couples of old houses, and still got many goldsmith working in the shops, here was supposed to be the old Pokhara area, but you wouldn't feel much of the old atmosphere here, and in fact the whole town was new. Further up was the Bindyabasini Temple, Hindu came to sacrificed poultry(mostly chicken), of course...only sacrificed their blood, an executioner would cut
the chicken head and let the blood drain down the small dark stone pillar, which looked rather horrible with blood all over! The famous Sarakot view point was further north up at the altitude about 1500m, with the weather so cloudy, no point to climb up there I guessed. But the nearby Bag Bazaar still provided some old market scene where many copper and bronze wares was being displayed. And the nearby Annapurna Museum although small but got good knowledge for different wild life in the area, especially for butterflies. Walking back down south the New Bazaar around Chiple Dhunga was the commercial center of Pokhara nowadays. And it leading down all the way to Prithiwi Chowk where you find the main bus park, then further south you would see the airport and reach Damside area. And to the left would take you back to Lakeside. That was it. And seem like outside of the tourist and commercial area, there was only school or educational institutes, so many of them, I wondered why?
Tourist like to came to Pokhara while in Nepal, I could understand why, it was cleaner than Kathmandu, enough souvenirs shops could keep you busy, many nice
restaurants and cafe, and compared with in the trekking trail, price in Pokhara was cheap! And the Fewa Lake was nice especially in morning time when the mist began to dispersed, one could rowed your own boat out in the middle of the lake. wanted some more adventure? paragliding down from the hill top of Sarangkot then. But still...those wasn't the kind of thing I like, I preferred place like Kathmandu, a city or big town should be like a town or city.
6/12/09
All shops were closed yesterday in Pokhara, no business excepted in the Lakeside area. But today there was a strike in Nepal, all over the country. No shops opened, no cars, no buese and no taxi, what a quiet day, only bicycles running on the street, everybody walk, that was how I like it. All road junctions had police stood guard, together with the Moaist supporters too, for the locals involved in wholesale business, just one more day off I guess, but some tea houses and restaurant still half opened, where you could still got tea or food in through the side door. With no bus, I had to stay another day in town,
as I was planned to travel to Nepalgunj today. But last night on the news, riot went up in the far west of the country, somewhere near Nepalgunj, a police had been killed and couple more civilians as well, people urged me not to go there as it wasn't safe in that part of the country right now. Nnnggg...need to looked for another destination...a plan B!!!
Today the sky at least cleared up a little, the Machhapuchhre appeared on the northern sky, the shape more like the pyramid than the fishtail while looking from Pokhara. Went to the regional museum, a small but well worth visited especially there wasn't much you could do in Pokhara, here you could learn more about the different caste that lived in the region, all for only 30 rupee entrance! For the last 5 days I again developed a routine, breakfast in the local tea house with fresh roti every morning, and next door was a bakery with delicious bread, sometimes I would torn between the decision about what to eat! as the roti only 5 rupee but the bread cost 20 piece. Internet at the place in between Lakeside and Damside, 30/hr, I think
it was the cheapest in Pokhara. And next door a woman sell momo and chowmin, and sometimes tasty beef curry! And coca-cola for 20 rupee! My favourite dining place was on another end of the street in Lakeside, I ate there every evening, this Limbus man came from Dharan in eastern Nepal, he made superb tasty fried noodle, and every night he introduced my new dishes, although there wasn't much choice in his small place, still I got at least one different diskes each night, the momo was usual, chowmin as I mention was great, and usually I would ordered an omelette which he prepared quite good with onion. Then the fried rice with vegetables was acceptable. And I learn now 2 name for dishes which I could order later in elsewhere while travel in Nepal, the Shek-gua, mean fried fresh meat, and Su-gu-ti, mean fried dried meat. Both were very tasty, and what kind of meat I guess it would depending on on the area, here on this altitude should be buffalo meat, up a little higher would be sheep meat, and in over 3000m that should be yak meat that was served. Anyway...in between all these places I
would pick a new trail to walked each day behind the main street along the lake, there even one old round house, the traditional Gurung house call Ghumauro Ghar somewhere by the small lane. I did climbed a small mountain where a huge stupa stood, it was where they named the World Peace Stupa, a great view back on Pokhara and the Fewa Lake, time would past like this accordingly, and I would be tired by the end of the day, even more tired than up on the trek and no idea why.
Note
Regional museum closed on every Tuesday.
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