Chilling by the lake!

  Pokhara, Nepal
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Fewa Lake Pokhara

Wow but I think I have reached Nirvana - or is it Shangri -La (according to the guide books). After 16 days in the relative bundus we thought the urban life would be brash and loud, but its gooood! Pokhara is situated on a lake with the Himalayas on one side and 'hills' on the other, perched on top of one is the World Peace Pagoda.

We have spent out time not having to pack-up and just enjoying being in 1 place for a short while. We have been enjoying it so much that we ended up extending our stay by a day! The place is filled with funky cafes serving really good quality cheap food. Tonight we had awesome fillet for about 10 quid in total. Awesome! There are also tons of other activities to delight: bicycling, hiking, shopping - although we have been targeted by every single shop owner and street vendor as tourists are thin on the ground! I think the buying will have to slow down- not surprisingly on Kirsty's side anyway!

Our guide Rakam stayed an extra day and took us to Devi's falls which are these falls which seem to disappear into the ground through limestone. The spray surrounding it was impressive. I think the monsoon also helped. After that we hiked up to the world Peace Pagaoda and enjoyed gorgeous stolen views of the Annapurnas.

fishtail Mountain

 We woke up early one morning and saw perfectly! The gods have started to favour us once more. For supper we went to a local place and had our best Dahl Bat. Made the eating worthwhile, though I think we still need a bit of a break. The locals seem to eat it for 2 meals a day which would drive me crazy!

Yesterday we basically did nothing as Kirsty's feet have seen better days and today was spent cycling around the lake, a bit more shopping, chatting with the locals and a very professional massage for Kirsty. An English couple have started a blind charity giving people massages in lakeside. Half the proceeds go towards training and the other half for salaries. A worthy cause for Kirsty to get her teeth into. It is called Seeing Hands and we can strongly recommend it.

We had 2 other firsts here, namely Kirsty being wee'ed on by a buffalo (well flicked on anyway) and our first leech bites. Tomorrow we head for Chitwan and hopefully elusive tiger viewings...