Pokhara, Nepal
Friday, July 6, 2007
Pokhara was instantly a hit with us! The place is stunning even though it's a bit like the touristy Queenstown in New Zealand. We got a mint place to stay (a family run guesthouse that was trustworthy), finalized our plans for the trek and even found a wicked mountain biking club run by a French dude which lit Shaun's eyes up like a Christmas tree. The trek was SPECTACULAR! 5 days on a track with very little people besides the locals and saw some of the worlds most amazing mountains. Each day we were up by 5:30 am to check out the Himalayan peaks which only show their face at dawn at this time of year. We got super lucky on our third day as all of the clouds cleared and we could see all 16 mountain peaks from Poon Hill which is at 3210 meters. This is really unusual during the rainy season and both of us were stoked! We saw plenty of leeches(even feed a few of them) and discovered some great tricks to combat them. The last few days of the trek were pretty hard going when we would spend hours going down and up steep stone steps; always being livid when we had to drop 500 meters, just to gain 500 more on the way up. We don't know how the Nepalese locals do it as often as they do.
Our final days spent in Pokhara were spent chilling out and Shaun nearly dyeing going for a couple of mountain bike rides with the locals. Needless to say it was an awesome time in Pokhara and we will be back!
