Pokhara,
Nepal
Thursday, November 17, 2005
We finally managed to drag ourselves out of the evil cycle of shopping and drinking that had beset us and the four of us (Ben, Skye and us two) booked a flight to Pokhara which is Nepal's second biggest town and is within spitting distance of the Annapurna mountain range, i.e. our quarry. We'd heard that there were some amazing views of the peaks to be had on the 30 minute flight so sat on the right hand side of the plane to get a load of them. Unfortunately it was cloudy so we didn't see much but the journey was still entertaining as the plane only seated 30 and had two farty propellers to keep it airborne. We rushed on to get a good seat and ended up on the 2 front seats right behind the pilot. This thing looked like it could have been used for shipping troops around in world war 2! We might as well have been right in the cockpit and could see where the paint had rubbed off the dials and controls. Ironically this made Kerry feel safer because she could see what the pilots were doing so she loved the flight and filmed the perfect 3 point landing through the cockpit.
We all found a room at Karma Guesthouse next to the lake and rushed around to arm ourselves with trekking poles, gloves, mars bars etc. in the many outdoor shops and supermarkets in the place, as we were planning to set off on the trek the following morning. Pokhara had a village feel to it as it surrounded Lake Phewa but since the light was already failing we didn't appreciate the beauty of the place until we returned from the trek and set off with our appointed guides Ratna and Raju as planned at 8 the next morning. Trek on!!
