April 11th – Headed to Pokhara
After a well deserved nights rest, we took our time getting on the road in the morning. This afforded me with the time to walk ahead through the town and take pictures of whatever caught my eye. I found plenty of shots that tickled my fancy and spent several hours photographing things I found interesting. After returning to meet everyone else, we all set off to catch a bus to Pokhara.
It was a short walk through the town and then across a bridge to the bus stop, where everyone crowded on to a local bus for 100 rupees each. We managed to get all of our bags in one seat and Blaine did a good job bargaining the local ticket tout down with prices to allow us to keep our bags next to us on the bus. Along the way, we met a nice Australian couple and had the company of their three year old named James who sat with us in the back due to a lack of room.
The bus ride was very hot and sweaty. As it was completely full of people and had no air conditioning which seems to be the standard for any vehicle that we take here in Nepal. The heat and humidity outside made the inside of the bus even more sweltering and all you could do was sit in a puddle of your own sweat and try to make the best of things.
Even the having the windows open didn’t seem to do much. You can see how sweaty I look in the photo here as I have my hat at a weird angle to try and cool off my enormous head. The ride was longer than anticipated and it took us almost three hours instead of the planned two to get us to Pokhara.
Once we reached the bus stop in the city, we had to walk most of the way through town to get to the tourist area with plentiful hotels. The city reminds me of Katmandu as it also is filled with noise, poor air quality due to generators and cars, and trash all over the streets. I missed the simpleness and amazing scenery of the trail.
Having eaten a chocolate pie earlier on the trek, I was on a mission to find more. A chocolate pie, is basically a moon pie – marshmallow between to graham cracker cookies covered with chocolate. After visiting several shops, I was able to find a box of six. Determined to teach my diarrhea a lesson, I ate the entire box at once to the horror / amazement of Andrea.
After working our way past hotel touts, we settled on a nice hotel for 300 rupees per room per night. Then it was time for dinner. We headed to a local place where we had beer and fries for some appetizers, then dinner. Pokhara is supposedly a place where you can get a great steak, so I decided to try one, but it was fair at best.
Afterwards, we satisfied our internet fix before heading off in search of some ice cream. I found a little Italian ice cream place. It wasn’t the greatest, but it did the trick. Two scoops were 60 rupees. We then heard of a place to watch a movie so Mike, Blaine and I headed down the street to find it. They didn’t have Superbad, so I ran out and bought a pirated copy for 150 rupees and to let Andrea know where we were.
On the way back to the movie place (which happened to be in the back of a restaurant / bar), I talked the ice cream man into 4 scoops for 100 rupees. Mike, Blaine and I enjoyed some beer and fries while watching the movie and then Andrea joined us later. After the movie, we headed back to the hotel to go to bed. It amazes me that for a town like Pokhara, so geared towards tourists, turns into an absolute ghost town at 10pm.