Things are better in Pokhara

Trip Start Aug 25, 2010
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Trip End Nov 23, 2010


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Where I stayed
north face inn

Flag of Nepal  ,
Wednesday, September 29, 2010

So the 6-7 hour bus trip rom KAthmandu to Pohkara was 9-10 hours long. I met a couple of fellow long travelers, Kevin from Ireland and Alex from Germany. We decided to get a taxi together at the bus station in order to thwart off the touts. I had made a reservation at North Face Inn and told the tout that approached me. He immediately deferred, saying "North Face is Raju, you wait here and he will be right back." If a traveller said they were at any other place, the butterfly lodge for example, the other touts would sy that the place had burnt down and that their place was much better. Ends up, I had picked the one man's guesthouse who had street cred.

Raju got us, Kevin ended up also getting a room in NFI. We got some food and went to bed early. My room was amazing - the place was just built last year so everything is sparking like a palace - all for $14 a night. The next morning Kevin and I took a boat across the lake and climbed up to the stupa
Street Scene, Pokhara Nepal
Street Scene, Pokhara Nepal
. Kevin, the one empiricist I have ever met in my life - and of all ironic places, in Nepal - had just finished a 16 day bicycle trip from Llasa, Tibet over the Himalayas to Kathmandu. He was in a little bit better shape than me. We reached the World Peace Pagoda - one of 100 that a Japanese dude decided to build back in the 1970s. Not sure where the rest of them are but that would be a neat little checklist to tick off. At the top, I realized that Pokhara was a much larger city than I first thought. Ends up some 700,000 people live here.

I must say, that the Nepalese might be the most beautiful people on earth. The mixture of Indian and Tibetan/Chinese makes for gorgeous people. Big brown eyes, great open smiles, amazing festive clothes, strong lithe bodies - they are fabulous. It is hot here in Nepal and I never expected it to be. It's like subtropical hot - banana trees, large bugs, the whole shebang.

I made the decision to spend several days here and rehab my assorted illnesses. There are a myriad of activities to do - most people trek. I am not a trekker. Many people ask if I am trekking into the Himalayas and I tell them no, I don't trek at home, I'm not starting in Nepal. Aside from the odd adventure, which I will discuss in a later post, I basically eat and sleep here. It's fabulous.
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