Seeing the sunrise...in Pokhara

If you’ve been following the blog, you’ll remember I mentioned I was in a city north west of Kathmandu. The third largest city in Nepal, Pokhara seems to be where all the dreadlocked travellers want to wander around; where young travellers who know how to order food in the local language hang out; where retired couples who want more than a big house, and a pair of comfy slippers come and settle down. An odd mix of people who look like they were doing what we’re doing, and just decided to stay. It made me wonder if we might become like them. Sometimes I think, maybe. Sometimes I think, maybe not here.

On the first day we woke up around 5:15am to drive up a hill in the city (well, I say hill, but I suppose it was actually a mountain, seeing as we were surrounded by clouds) to catch the spectacular sunrise beside the Sarangkot mountain.

As the sun started to rise in the distance, I thought about the painted trucks screeching around the city below us, their rusty exhaust pipes hurriedly blowing out smoke behind them; and how the bright glow of their break lights in the smog was now replaced by a circle of lava, its fiery liquid burning through the lazy fog, gradually painting the snowy peaks pink. Shame we had to share this with about 30 other tourists who all had the same idea that morning…

Apart from soaking up the atmosphere in Pokhara, dining and even drinking wine for the first time since we’ve been here, we finally tried to burn off a week of Indian food by hiking up the Raniban forest for 2 hours until we reached Pokhara’s famous “World Peace Stupa”, a Buddhist temple with an impressive view of the whole city framed by the Annapurna mountain range. We trekked back down, this time taking a route that took us down to the beautiful Phewa Tal Lake, and got back to the city via a canoe ride- much needed relaxation for our trembling legs. Isma’s amazing attempts to capture the aforementioned vistas can be seen here…

Guess what I found out in Pokhara?

1. The Western chocolate bar that seems to be most widely available here is the Bounty. Perhaps the coconut agrees with the Asian palate!

2. Restaurant kitchens close at around 8:30pm in most places in Nepal. Unlike their Indian counterparts, the Nepalese have dinner and go to bed fairly early - perhaps due to the lack of electricity in the evening.

3. The first female to climb Everest was Japanese Junko Tabei, planting her national flag at the top in 1975. The fact that a non-Nepali had been the first female to do this bothered Nepal’s Pasang Lhamu Sherpa, who was from a mountaineering family, so much so that she finally climbed Everest herself in 1993, fulfilling her ambition. Unfortunately she died when descending.