Nepal- Pokhara

After a quick unimpeded entry into Nepal, we realised that we ought to march ourselves back to India again and get stamped out- nobody was checking, but best to do things right. Once that was out of the way we crossed back into Nepal, walked over to immigration- again nobody stopping us- and got our visas- $40 each for 28 days.
Our little army of Irish, Korean, Spanish, French and Israeli hired another jeep to drive us the six hours from Sunauli to Pokara. On route we stopped at a little restaurant where Kfir declared ‘Oh no, anywhere but here, really this place?’, obviously India hadn’t quite broken him in! But as there was no other restaurants, and definitely not a Mc Donalds in a 1000 mile radius, the road side shack it was. After a quick check of his temperature (the third since we’d met him a few hours previous?) he decided he wasn’t going to eat the local dish of Dal Bhat, and opted for instant noodles instead; the rest of us, ravenously tucked into our delicious meal. I opted for seconds and thirds- we had missed breakfast and this really was imposing on dinner time.

We were travelling at an average of 20 mph and with good reason as we were flanked by sheer drops of some 300 meters from the road down to the gorges below. Exciting stuff and lovely scenery, although we slept most of the way, as the cockroaches on the train made for a disruptive sleep the previous night. We were deposited at a guesthouse- a relation of the jeep driver- and told that it was the busiest time in Pokhara and we would be very lucky to find a room with our torches through the darkened town? The scare tactics didn’t impress us, we were educated by our Indian experience after all! We found a place a few doors down, settled in and “washed off India” as Eliza put it. The city seemed so clean and orderly, almost European. Our travelling group seemed relieved that the city was so nice and almost familiar to home that they couldn’t help but show their excitement and relief. We were surprised that every one of them couldn’t wait to get out of India and never wanted to go back. They united over their terrible India experience, “It’s so dirty!”, but really we doubt that they gave it much of a chance. They were the young kind of travellers where their number one concern was where they would get their next smoke...it turned out to be ‘Nepali green’. They vanished in a haze of smoke and we haven’t seen them since!

Pokhara is well equipped for the tourist, the whole ‘Lakeside’ area catering to the trekkers both going up and coming down the mountains. Finding anything Nepali on the menu proves to be a difficult task, but we are experiencing the best pizza since leaving Italy! Across the lake is the beautiful Peace Pagoda with stunning views of the Annapurna mountains. Sarangnot also provides superior views, where also from this oint many take the plunge which again offers superb views. You can do most adventure sports here also.
We spent 4 days here relaxing, getting hiking gear and our permits for the trek. There just so happened to be a festival on for all 4 days that we were here which was wonderful. There was traditional music and dancing on the streets every day also which gave a real party vibe to the town. After eating like bears going into hibernation, it was time to hit that rocky road and start our hike, yippee!