Pokhara

March 21st, 2008 by Padma Knight

Love Pokhara, it has been so much fun. It is sort of like a beach town, except with a lake. The main other difference is that surrounding the town on one side is the Annapurna Mountain range. There is one main street with lots of little shops and restaurants and guest houses. Our first two nights we stayed at the Yeti Guest House, which while on the main street was actually really quiet and had a lovely courtyard. Unfortunately they did not have the room at the price they had promised us, but we have gotten used to that here. Rarely are things going to go as planned. We figured we could look for another place after the first night. The next day, we found another guest house, Amrit, the only one on the lake. We asked if we needed to leave our name or money to book a room for Thursday and Friday, but they had said no they would just save us a room. Well of course when we got there on Thursday the room they promised us was not available. They did offer us a room with no bathroom – it was in the hall, or a room with one big bed – we decided to pass on both. However, they did call and find another guest house that would give us a room at the same rate. The manager of that house came and got us. This one was way off the main road, but as we walked through the gate we looked up and sitting on an upper balcony was one of the guests that we had gotten to know at our Chitwan lodge. Small world.

Wednesday we had a busy day of just wondering around the town, sitting lakeside in the sun, and lots and lots of shopping. At breakfast that day we were sitting in this lake side cafe and all of a sudden we heard “hey, hey” and there were two other volunteers we know. They had been trekking and had to cut their three week trek short and had come to Pokhara. Really small world! We arranged to meet them that evening. We met up at Club Amsterdam, which has live music and was great fun. It was a very late night, but we’re on holiday so no worries. The next day we tried to sleep in, but I am so used to getting up early that the most I could do was 8:00 am. We had another leisurely day, which is what a lake town should be all about. We went on a relaxing two hour boat ride on the lake. Beautiful views and great weather. On a completely clear day you can see the mountain range reflected in the lake. We didn’t get that, but it was still wonderful. Then we met up again with our fellow volunteers for an excellent Japanese dinner at the Koto restaurant. I swear it was one of the best meals I’ve had here.

Early this morning (5:00) we got up and caught a taxi up to Sarangkot mountain to see the sunrise. It was a little cold and windy, but well worth it. The sun had not risen yet when we got up there, but it was starting to get light and you could see the mountains a little. I was looking at one that looked quite large, then as it got even lighter I saw that a little to the left was another mountain that towered over the first. The sun began to rise reflecting on this mountain. Then I realized that the first mountain was actually covered by clouds and it was twice as tall as I thought – incredible. Unfortunately the clouds stayed over this mountain (fishtail), but the other ones were amazing and beautiful.

I may not have done every siteseeing opportunity or tourist attraction in Pokhara, but sometimes you just have to relax and enjoy the time. I have had a wonderful time and am so happy that we came.

Oh yes, yesterday we saw two people who had been on our bus from Chitwan to Pokhara. The one that we got off of after the three hour stall. We asked them how long they had to wait and when they eventually got into Pokhara. They said the bus was stuck for about 8 hours before it started up again around 6 or 6:30 pm. Then even though the entire bus trip is supposed to take between 6-7 hours it took them another 9. They got into Pokhara around 3:00 am! All that made it a 17 hour bus trip. Man, are we glad we got off that bus!