Don't Steal Flip Flops, Marmot LoVe & Peace Pagoda
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
203
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Pokhara,
Nepal
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
In some of the better budget hotels in Nepal they supply you with some flip flop thongs in the bathroom that you use when going to the toilet so you don't have to put your bare feet on the floor in there. The pair at Shanti guesthouse were faulty and someone had been using them as a brake on a bicycle, the right one was well worn down in the sole. I had no slip on shoes so i wore them out in the street a few times by sneaking past the hotel owner in them. This turned out to be a bad idea, they were bad luck for me. I slipped over in a puddle of water in them and also stood in a sacred cow shit in them. A waitor dropped a whole plate of food on top of them and then the worst thing was when we went to Busy Bee bar with Dror, Luke and the marmots and the plug broke out of the dodgy thong as i went to look at the band inside, i slipped over on the dance floor and thought i had broken my right big toe. Woe is me. Don't steal the indoor flip flops!
Pokhara is set onto a beautiful lake called Phewa Tal and one day we all hired a boat and rowed it to the World Peace Pagoda.
Phewa Tal
We met Luke down at the lake where he was doing his laundry from a boat and we scored an extra wooden boat for 250rupees for the day. Slowly we rowed across the lake taking in the relaxing water views. We did a short hike up the hill to the peace pagoda that was built by a Japanese monk. A peace pagoda is a Buddhist stupa designed to provide a focus for people of all races and creeds and to help unite them in their search for world peace, this one is quite spectacular with gold images of Buddha set into it and facing in all four directions. We were fairly lazy just cruising around the lake. After bringing the boat in we had dinner at a fabulous restaurant on the lake called Lover's Nest which like many places in Nepal, had wild marijuana growing in the garden as an ornamental plant. We sat outside and watched a very dark and chunky storm roll in from the mountains. Some children ran out to play with colourful kites in the wind as it brewed up like a mini cyclone. It was a case of bring the chickens in, a storm's a brewing because all of sudden things from our table started flying away and bottles of Everest and Nepali Ice beers went crashing down. We moved inside to a makeshift dining room where there was a game of finger snooker going on and motorbikes where were usually stored. The heaven's broke open and it was raining yaks and yetis again, raining very hard, sideways style. The food we ordered was home cooked Nepali style and took about two hours for the chef to prepare. They were either stoned or had to go to the market to buy the ingredients or, maybe both. Regardless the company was great as other random punters joined us at the table and the food turned out to be the best we've had in Nepal. I knocked back a couple of Khukuri local rum pegs (a peg is a 60ml shot measurement) and would probably make a habit of it more often if they didn't send me broke.
Next we went to another place called LoveShack where all of us shared a sizzling chocolate brownie and ice-cream. We're going to miss having people to share our love of food with. Another night we went to a Punjabi restaurant and another night to an Israeli place Dror showed us and introduced us to the delicious shakshuka dish. Shakshuka is one of the most popular dishes in Israel. Shakshouka consists of poached or scrambled eggs cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers and spices sometimes with herbs and cottage cheese and served on bread. Lush.
Hail to the marmots Omar and tanya, we've all vowed to catch up back in Kathmandu because we just can't handle being apart. We are going to stay in Tanja's Swiss ski chalet some day.
My toe is not broken but i've been whinging about in anyway. There isn'e enough crew for the rafting trip i was trying to organise on the Sun Koshi so we have canned the rafting and are considering round two of Vipassana instead
