Pokhara - the lakeside resort

I arrived in Pokhara a few days ago. After an initial culture shock I managed to adjust to the new environment.

Pokhara is the dedicated tourist resort.
Apart from the splendid setting on the shore of the Fewa lake, at the bottom of beautiful hills, nearby the majestic Annapurnas, Pokhara offers lots of activities and interesting things to do:
- you can start the fantastic Annapurna Base Camp trek
- you can start numerous smaller treks from here as well
- you can rent boats on the lake
- you can go white water rafting
- you can visit the Royal Chitwan National Park and ride elephants in the jungle
- you can paraglide (tandem)
- you can take a scenic helicopter flight
- you can take a scenic "ultralight" flight around the Annapurnas.
- you can rent bikes and motorbikes
- you can eat well and drink cheap and smoke even cheaper
- you can just be lazy in the sun
- you can take great pictures

I might have missed some items on the list, but you must have gotten the idea...

There are lots of weirdos and hippies around. I ignore them. The buffalos are much more interesting. They walk along the street as if it were their personal promenade. However, they're as shy as they're big.

The city is fairly large, but I think that's unimportant for the foreign tourist. He or she probably only gets to see the main "strip", the wide paved road along the lake where all hotels, restaurants, bars, internet cafes, trekking agencies, bookstores and souvenir shops are lined up.
The bookstores are my favorites. I am impressed, amazed and every time surprised to discover the wide selection of books there. You can find Eugene Ionesco's absurd theatre plays or E.A.Poe's poetry. You can find the most beautiful coffee table albums on Himalaya but also CDs to teach yourself Portuguese or Finnish. You can buy travel books and you can exchange books. Very much flexibility here.

I have established already some sort of a daily routine here. It is, however, a routine of ... undiscipline.
During the trek I used to drink tea in the morning and evening. Now I drink coffee in the morning and otherwise Coke or Fanta. Lunch used to be consistent daalbhat or vegetable fried rice. Now I consistently skip lunch. Dinner was very important on the trek, now I only had dinner 3 times out of 7 days. But I eat plenty of apples and biscuits and I indulge in good yak cheese which I buy in bulk and eat in chunks.
One other bad thing is that as soon as I got cak in the city I started going to bed late.

My focus, time and money goes to the internet cafe and blog updates. And internet time is the most expensive commodity here in Pokhara - 100Rs per hour.
As a reference only, I am paying 400Rs/room/night and about the same amount for food.
As mentioned earlier every third shop is an internet cafe, nevertheless it's expensive. It's acting like a union charging the same price everywhere, whereas in Kathmandu the rate varies just like the range of services.

I hate internet cafes. You sit elbow to elbow with your fellow travellers. Some of them smoke, and that I find terrible. I sometimes feel I'm going to choke while inhaling the stinky smoke of their cheap cigarettes.

I spent 8-10 hours in the internet cafes over the past few days and a simple calculation shows that my internet costs are very high in comparison to the rest.
The interesting part is that after just 2 days of sitting my back started hurting again :-(

I was thinking about looking for internet cafe sponsorship :-)

But back to my routine - just so you don't get the wrong impression that I'm torturing myself continuously in front of a computer :-)

In the morning (around 7 am) I go and enjoy my coffee in the beautiful garden of the Boomerang restaurant next to the lake. The food there is not too good but the garden is great. There are lots of beautiful flowers and it is very peaceful. I watch the boats glide on the water, I read and I write postcards.
The lake is blue, a deep blue, although it is far from clean. From my viewpoint I can see every morning women doing the laundry on the shore amidst the "sea" of light-purple water lilies. I can probably safely use the word "linger" - I'm usually lingering there in an armchair sipping my coffee for about 2 hours. At that time it is very pleasant temperature-wise, not busy and I have the inner quietness to read or write in my diary (after 2 hours internet cafe, I feel already exhausted and my peacefulness is gone - then I need a break to recharge). Along with the coffee I savour a cheese croissant or a brown roll with honey. Those are very tasty. Sometimes I also enjoy a glass of plain lassi (some sort of sweet yoghurt) or a glass of fresh pineapple juice.

The climate here is hot and humid. I have measured 32 degrees Celsius one of these days. Because of heat and humidity even after a clear sunrise mist starts rising in the valley enveloping the lake in mystery and eventually hiding the peaks. Therefore, morning time is the best time to enjoy. The first 3 days it actually rained a lot and it felt really refreshing and good - plus I felt I wasn't missing much by sitting in front of a computer.

By 9-9:30am I pull myself together and head to the internet cafe. Here I spend 2-3 hours in a row, then I need to take a short walk, before I turn totally stiff and go nuts. I then go eat a snack or return to my room for some cheese, apples and biscuits. After another internet session I repeat the above or go eat somewhere before I return for my last internet cafe session. At 9:30pm typically I finish, since closing time is 10pm and I also want to be at the guesthouse by then. On the way back (about 5 minutes walk) I sometimes stop to buy more biscuits, juice or apples. Back to my room I take a shower, review the pictures I took, write in my diary and read until almost midnight.

There's little variation here, but, fortunately, there have been a couple of exceptions.

On the first morning I went to the dock where you can rent boats from. It was already busy and the light was not the best so I decided to return some other time for a boat ride. But I took many pictures of the colourful boats.
Three days later I made it.

A couple of times - on the days without rain or haze or clouds - I could watch the sunrise over the peaks from the rooftop of the guesthouse (before 6 am).

A couple of times - on the days when the sky cleared in the late afternoon - I could watch the sunset over the peaks from the rooftop of the guesthouse (between 5:30-6 pm).

Here, in Pokhara I had my first ever motorbike ride. It happened without any previous planning or intent. I needed to extend my visa. I asked my new friend, the owner of the internet cafe,as well as English teacher in college and owner of the trekking and travel agency whether he can help. Sure, no problem!
Well, the only problem was that I had to go there as well and Bigwa gave me a ride to the Immigration Office and back.
I have to admit that I had some hesitations, but then I just accepted the ride. And had a great time! I got the best city tour possible and the thrills of passing cows, pedestrians and bikes, of avoiding potholes and going over bumps in the road. In hot sunny weather, along the shore of the Fewa lake - what better time and place to motorbike ?
Afterwards I realized - stupid me - that even I, and any tourist for that matter, can rent a motorbike here and go just about anywhere. I wonder if anybody ever asks you about driver license or age.


After the brief motorbike break I decided to start more modestly on my own, by renting a bike. It only costs 150Rs/day (versus 100Rs/1 hr internet). It's easy, no hassles, no bureaucracy at all. You negociate the price (not me, of course), pay the money, pick the bike, get the corresponding bike lock key, get on the bike and go.

Hence, later that afternoon, I rented a bike and biked a little bit around, about an hour since I did't want to bike in the dark.
The mountain bikes here are absolutely unique. They look great, have solid springs and vivid colours. They even have the symmetrical brake and gear shift levers. It is only when you try to operate one of those levers that you discover that they are there for no particular use.
On my rented bike none of the gear-shifts worked, but I was happy for my rear wheel brake. Anyway, it is a means of transportation and Pokhara is absolutely great for biking, I think. There is nowhere the traffic you encounter in Kathmandu. You always have views and thus reference points to not get lost. The air is warm and not as polluted as in Kathmandu.


I need to run away from the city and the computer. I am planning to go to Sarangkot for a day - hike up, stay overnight and return the next day.
Sarangkot is a village located on top of the highest hill around the lake. From there you have breathtaking, unique views of the Annapurna range. By staying overnight I'll witness both sunset and sunrise. It'll be peaceful and I'll read an entire afternoon.

I'm just about to finish another book by Yann Martel which I got in exchange for his "Life of Pi". I enjoy his style very much, his rich vocabulary and wealth of nuances. Although this book does by far not have the same appeal as "Life of Pi" I found some interesting lines there...

"Travelling alone is like an extended daydream. You catch the sights, you watch the people, you admire the scenery, all the while inventing your own company and your own scenarios, on your own time and at your own pace. It's the way to travel, if you can stand the regular loneliness." Y.Martel - "Self"


I finally went for the boat ride I had planned for. I missed the sunrise. I took the sunrise pictures from the roof figuring that I get a better view from there. Nonetheless, I went to the docks right after, at 6am. There were already a lot of people there - most of them locals going to the temple on the little island on the lake - but I got a boat quickly and in the same informal way as the rented bike. I didn't want to rent a "paddler" as well, so I went by myself.
The boats are being maneuvred with just one paddle. If you're not familiar with this system you do not manage to go straight and waste a lot of time and energy.
I was aware of the minor paddling issue and pondered about the decision for a while, but my goal was to enjoy the views from the lake and take some pictures, not to paddle much.
Most of all, in those early hours and in that misty and mysterious air I didn't feel like chatting for a minute. (Plus, the conversations are too often too dull:
"What is your country?"
"Canada"
"Canada ... beautiful country. Which part?"
"West Coast. Vancouver"
"First time in Nepal?"
"Yes"
"Do you like Nepal?"
"Very much"
etc

I think the first English classes teach a basic set of questions which then are used consistently in encounters with the tourists in the same wording and order.

I attempted a few times to break the normal flow - "How do you know Canada is beautiful?" or "Have you been there?", etc - with various results. But about this some other time... )

I took the boat and paddled slowly away from the docks. I tried taking a few pictures but there was not sufficient light for the details. Above the city, behind the green hills the icecapped peaks of Annapurna South, Machhapuchhre and Annapurna 4 were glowing in the early sunlight. Down here in the valley the city was still in the shade and there was mist rising from the lake.
The rising mist slowly rose hiding first shore, then trees, then buildings, hills and finally mountains. The sun became invisible and I was gliding - or floating ? - in a milky universe. A few other boats were stranded in similar way in the same medium. Dark tiny shells on a sea of silvery mist. The scenery was all monochromatic with indistinguishable details.
The pictures I took show boats in the air. There is no distinction between up and down, water and sky. Some tiny black shapes on a grey background. There was not only perfec peacefulness but also this mystery shroud around everything. The boats overladen with local women were slowly gliding to the temple island, the only bit of land - alas, a tiny island - left visible.

Only slowly did the mist rise higher and dissolve and the sunlight finally reached the scenery; colour was returned to the elements. It was then that the boats finally turned red and blue and green and yellow, the vivid colours I was used to by now. The women's dresses also turned yellow and pink and orange and the hills started gaining contour and substance. Only the mountain peaks behind stayed concealed longer.
By 7:30am when I returned the boat this great, mute colour-show had come to an end. The dock was busy and noisy, street vendors had opened their stalls, colours had been restored completely to their usual vividness.