Here I am in beautiful Pokhara. As previously mentioned the first day was spent 'recovering' .. and not from a hangover.
I started to move around on the second day, but still wasn't up to going too far. I gave Ann a call, this was the person who I had been emailing about trekking and she had been so helpful and kind. Ann popped over to the hotel and we had a great chat and decided that I would go for a 3 day Royal Trek on the Thursday with her brother in law Prakash. (The whole family relationship thing gets a tad more complicated here, but brother in law will suffice for here).
In the meantime, she invited me over to their house and I got to meet the family and see the computer centre they have setup (more about that later). Of course, just because I was coming, there was a minor crisis and their main computer decided it couldn't find windows on the morning I came in, so I also got to repair that whilst I was having a look. One of Devi's friends turned up, so we all headed into Lakeside for dinner and had a great night.
I arranged to go out with Prakash the next day to see if I could still ride a motorbike. First up we went to a big sort of oval type place and suprisingly I was fine. A bit rusty on the gear changes, but really not too bad. Poor Prakash, he was so brave, we next headed out on the road. He rode pillion up one of the close mountains and we made it in one piece to a fantastic lookout. The one thing I have to remember to do here is to beep the horn all the time. Because the rules are no rules its an early warning system that you are there or coming, but because its not something that we do I find it hard to remember.
After the lookout we went for a nice lunch and then met up with Ann and Devi and her sister in law Sarita and husband Mukta. On three bikes we went out to another mountain and had a wonderful afternoon. Prakash and I had ordered so much for lunch there was a heap of left overs so this made a great 'tiffin'. At festival time they make these huge swings of bamboo and its a real artform in how to swing them, but you just have to have a go. I was killing myself laughing and damn it seems so high as you get older. (You swing standing up by the way).
Prakash and I left everyone and I got the tour of one of the local Tibetan Refugee camps along with a Buddhist temple. The next stop was the biggest local Hindu temple and then back to Lakeside. Seeing as I was heading off early the next morning I went and grabbed a few things, packed and had an early night.
Off to trekking we go. Prakash came and picked me up and we headed back to the house. Amah gave us a blessing and tika and we headed off to the bus stop. We got a bus to Patan Bessi and then it was foot. I find it hard to describe the whole trip, but the scenery and the countryside was just magnificent. The Royal Trek is through the villages and mountains all around, but relatively speaking you don't go that high ( meaning high enough for snow ). You get to see and meet villagers, see life that hasn't changed much in years, so much fresh air, rice paddies carved into the hillsides, the flowers, ferns, plants and trees just magnificent and the Annapurna range often in view. We stayed in the local tea houses who serve up Dal Bhat (the traditional rice, vegetables & pickle with a lentil soup) and the accommodation is basic to say the least. No showers, no mirrors, no makeup but of course theres always the raksi. Actually the mountain raksi is freshly made and served warm and tastes very mild compared to the city version. I slept really badly both nights as I really was still recovering and by the 3rd day of up hill and down dale we were nearing the end and Prakash pointed to this huge flight of stone steps and I just looked and him and said .. nope ... its the bus. Now I'm not sure which would have been worse, but the bus trip was a whole experience on its own. As usual the amount of people they can cram into a bus is incredible. It was already packed by the time it got to us and I didn't think it could fit anymore, but sure enough, every stop they managed to fit more in. There are no roads to speak of, just tracks with huge rocks and bumps perched on the edge of cliffs. The bus swings and sways and bumps and at some stages you are on a 45 degree angle peering over the edge of a thousand foot drop whilst hanging on to a metal rail, jostling with people and trying to keep your balance. Finally finally we made it and after a short walk we stopped at Begnas Lake for a while. We sat around and while I contemplated falling asleep on the stone steps I thought I better head back to the hotel. This bus ride was a lot better. Made it in to Mahendra Pool and then taxied back to Lakeside. The first thing I did was have a nice hot shower and then hit the bed again.
The next morning it was time to find a new bed. Hotel Lake Palace is relatively speaking pretty expensive (US$10 a night), so with help from the wonderful Sapkota family I got a cheaper room in Lakeside and settled in. For the next 2 days I really didn't do a great lot, mostly read, wandered around and had a rest. I'm not sure if I mentioned that Ann is American and married to Devi, well the day of the election I was over their place and Ann being a Kerry supporter was getting more depressed as the day went on. Once it looked like there was really no hope we compounded the situation by heading into Lakeside and setting ourselves up one of the restaurant tv rooms with some good food, a bottle of vodka and Farenheight 911. That was it, we were mad, drunk, bawling, laughing and talked so much. Somehow we made it down the road to meet Devi and one of his friends, so more food, drink , talking and laughing.
The hotel I was at is run by 2 brothers and there was a couple of moments where they both tried to get 'amourous' and funny as it was, when I told Ann, that was it, seeing as Prakash was off on another trek I had to pack my bags and come to their place. I can't tell you how wonderful this family is. I now have my Pokhara Nepali family who have adopted me and are just so beautiful. There is Amah (Mum), Haaji (Grandmother), Devi's older brother, wife and 2 absolutely adorable childer affectionately known as Babu and Nanu (who now sleeps with me every night), Ann & Devi, another 3 sisters and little babu, Prakash and of course any other family members who come and go. Ann has her own website which has lots of interesting stuff about Nepal and some older photo's of the family, so here is the link
http://thevoyagers.com.
I have just got so much to tell, but seeing as I have put a lot up today, I will try and spread it out over the next week or two.