Uh, sorry about the title - I got carried away with trying the alliteration angle...
After my abortive mountain-biking day in Kathmandu, the next morning, I headed out to Pokhara – the other major tourist destination in Nepal that is at the base of the legendary Annapurna range
If I had to make a comparison, it's a bit like Nepal's version of Lake Tahoe in California, or Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, with gorgeous water backed up by high snow-capped mountains. Most of all, it was also famous for a much more chilled out vibe than busy Kathmandu – so it sounded like a perfect place to (as the Aussies say) chillax. Yeah, yeah – cheesy word, but what the heck... blame the Aussies!
An early bus ride out got me there in the early afternoon, and I headed out looking for a place to hole up for a few nights. And to inject a bit of suspense into the blog, this (gasp) is where I might be guilty of stretching an analogy...
I know, I know – cheesy but brace yourself.
Anywho – it's weird, but finding a good hotel is a lot like online dating. You can find out a bit about things through emails (or in this case, Lonely Planet), but it still comes down to that first meeting to see if you felt comfortable or not.
And, Pokhara was no different – I checked out a great hotel, cheap, clean, and so on, but the staff was just stone-faced and unfriendly. So I decided to roll the dice and kept looking...
…only to luck out with a stellar place called Sacred Valley. For about 400 rupees a night ($6), they were warm and welcoming... sold!
The next three days were actually a bit of the same... they revolved mainly around resting, reading, and eating, sometimes all at the same time. There's a good Italian-style cafe near the hotel that does good breakfasts, and for dinners, I always wound up at the Moondance on the main strip which was friendly, cheap, and had wi-fi AND wicked good apple crumble. Who can beat that?
Otherwise, Pokhara is pretty much geared to people heading out on multi-day treks in the stunning Annapurna range of mountains nearby. And, well, since both my schedule and the onset of the rainy season ruled those out, I decided to see what else Pokhara had nearby.
On the second day, I hiked up the nearby hill to the World Peace Pagoda – a massive brilliantly white structure on the top of a ridge that was built by a Japanese group to promote, well, peace (duh!). It was a fun hike – and the rewards at the top were some great views, and more importantly, a cold drink.
On the way back through the gate, I saw a woman and her two young daughters selling bananas in the hot sun. While anyone who knows me realizes I completely loathe bananas in all their forms, I figured it'd be fun to make some balloons to liven up their day. One balloon turned to three or four, and the kids came out of the woodwork, turning into 30 minutes of twisting, tying, and laughing in pidgin English or Nepali. Good times.
The third day continued my bad luck with bikes. The plan was to rent a bike and roll over to old Pokhara and the Gurka museum. Alas, for $1 a day rental, you really don't get quality... within the first 500 meters, the chain kept freezing which almost caused a few accidents. Deciding that discretion (and laziness) is the better part of valor, I retreated to the Moonlight for a beer and pizza.
The only other 'tourist' bit I really wanted to do had to be checking out the Annapurna range. Normally, the mountains can be viewed from the lakeside town, but the summer haze made that a no go most of the time.
So the morning I was heading back to Kathmandu, I caught a taxi up to Sarangote – a viewpoint at the top of a nearby hill, and got to watch the sunrise over the range:
Still a bit hazy, but it definitely whetted my appetite to come back to Nepal to trek through this magnificent area... 'course, now the main problem is that even with this trip, my list of countries to go and places to see just keeps getting longer and longer!
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