Poking Around in Pokhara

March 13 - 17

So, like I mentioned in the last blog, after getting back to Pokhara from the Annapurna trek, we were too tired to get out of the room. We stayed in the guest house and ate our remaining snacks, rubbed Fast Relief (an ayurvedic ointment from India, FANTASTIC for aching muscles) on our legs, slathered Baume de Randonneur (awesome cream for hikers that I picked up in Paris) on our feet and watched TV until 8 or 9pm.

The following day, we signed up for a relaxing trekker's massage with sauna - our first splurge after trekking. A huge storm raged while we were inside the spa, the wind blew so hard, it was almost a typhoon! But by the time we got out, the rain stopped. In the evening, we treated ourselves again to great steaks from Everest Steak House. Real beef at last!!!

 

The next day, we only ventured out in the morning because after 12, there was a hailstorm and Pokhara looked so...  blue.

But bad weather could not keep us inside for long, at dinner we had great pasta and desserts at Moondance. Lemon pie!!!! Oh my!!!

But it was a good thing after all, because the next day, the weather was perfect! The clouds had parted, revealing the creamy white peaks of the Annapurna range.

We could even see the mountains from outside Pokhara!

It was the perfect day to go boating on the Phewa Lake. We paid 600 Rs, and we got the boat for the whole afternoon.

And before sunset, we parked our bums on the lakeside and had tea, coffee, and ginger biscuits.

The next few days were cloudy, but we had been navel-gazing in Pokhara for far too long. We had to see what else we could see and do in Pokhara before our visas expire! Enough waiting for the weather to change!

We rented a bike and went to the World Peace Pagoda, which is great in itself, but the spot is supposed to have a super view of the mountains, the lake, and the village...

Alas, it was too cloudy to see anything. We felt a little sorry for the people who were paragliding for the day. Then we went a little urther to the load less travelled, past the paved lakeside road. We had some trouble dodging the buses, but we survived.

It rained some more in the late afternoon, so we returned the bike without using half the petrol we put in it. But at least we were able to go to the bus station (a little hard to find on your own) to get our tickets to Tansen, the next leg of our journey.