Days 221 – 222: Pokhara
We were on the fence as to whether we had enough time to visit Pokhara. Originally, we were planning to spend 2 days in Chitwan and 2 days in Pokhara, but since we had to spend an extra day in Kathmandu, we weren’t sure if a 24hr drive-by would be worth the trouble. In the end, we had nothing else to do in Chitwan, so we decided a change of scenery was better than wasting a day in a hotel room. We ask the hotel to book us some one-way bus tickets, and we headed out at 8AM.
We were hoping to arrive just after lunch, but not only were the roads in HORRENDOUS condition (Lindsay actually started to get pretty car-sick from the constant bumps and sudden stops), but our bus picked up a huge group of Australians who had booked a transfer with lunch, forcing our bus to stop at a roadside restaurant for about an hour. By the time we finally arrived in Pokhara, we barely had time to walk around the lake before sunset. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all…
Chitwan to Pokhara: another 6+ hour bus trip. The bamboo carnival rides outside the smelly, 5-rupee roadside bathrooms don’t lift our spirts the way they should
After a LONG day in the bus, we check-in to our hotel in Pokhara and enjoy a balcony view of the city, with the Annapurna Mountains and Lake Fewa in the distance
Walking along the lakeside footpath, trying to take in as much of the hippie Pokhara scene as we can
Sunset over Fewa Lake in Pokhara
Grabbing an early dinner and a much-needed bottle of wine
Since we literally had less than 24hr in Pokhara, we were more than happy to let our hotel manager plan our activities for the next day. Sure, he’d give the hotel a healthy profit margin, but we had no time to shop around. Since we absolutely had to return to Kathmandu the next night in order to make our morning flight to India the morning after, we also asked the hotel to arrange transportation back for us. Unfortunately, all the tourist bus companies leave at 7:30AM or 8AM, giving us zero sightseeing time. The latest flight back to Kathmandu leaves at 4PM, but naturally all the seats were already sold out. Our only option was to hire a private car to take us back. Considering it’s a 6-8hr drive, the USD $100 price tag didn’t seem unreasonable – especially since we would be spared the coughing and seat-kicking of other passengers. J
Thus, our super-fast day in Pokhara started with a 4:45AM wake-up call to see the sunrise from the Sarangkot village viewpoint, a quick stop back at the hotel for breakfast, and a lightning-fast visit to the World Peace Pagoda. Surprisingly, we were finished with the hotel’s activities by 10AM (granted, we skipped visiting some random cave), so we even had time to rent a rowboat and paddle ourselves around Lake Fewa for an hour before jumping in our private car and making the LOOOOOONG trip back to Kathmandu. True, not our ideal way of visiting Pokhara (the extra day we lost due to Diwali shut-downs would have made the stay more comfortable), but at least the day-trip wasn’t a waste!
High above the glittering lights of Pokhara, a huge crowd of Nepali tourists gather at the free view-point at Sarangkot in the pre-dawn darkness
Bitch, we so rich! We forked over the extra 100 rupees (USD$1pp) for the “private” view tower, including a cup of hot tea! Front row seat, all to ourselves!
Morning light slowly starts to brighten up the Pokhara valley
The tips of the peaks turn gold as the sun rises over the horizon
Sharing the sunrise with my romantic, handsome, prince of a husband
Sunrise on the Annapurna mountain range
Sunrise over Pokhara and Fewa Lake
Stunning views of the Annapurna peaks over Pokhara
Panorama of Lake Fewa, Pokhara and the Machhapuchhare mountain range
The Pokhara Japanese Peace Pagoda – during her last trip to India (10 years ago!) Lindsay had a chance to visit the Darjeeling Peace Pagoda as well
This stupa is one of over a hundred shrines around the world, built to promote World Peace in a post-WWII era. One would hope the natural reaction to such a monument would be thoughtful introspection, and hopeful optimism…not the desire to rip off one’s clothes and take nudie pics. Sadly, that must have happened at least once for them to put up this sign…
The underwhelming Davis Waterfall – apparently it’s more impressive during the monsoon. The English name is because of a Swedish tourist who drowned after swimming in the falls back in the 60s. Now the river is completely fenced off with 8ft. high, heavy metal bars (to stop other white people from doing something stupid?)
A wishing well sits at the top of the falls – if you drop your coin in the bowl inside the well, your wish comes true!
We took a few silly gender-swap photos with the photo stand-ins on display, but all in the all, the Davis Waterfall was a pretty lame attraction (we kinda wanted to ask for our 60 cents admission price back). According to our hotel’s itinerary, there was a cave attraction across the street, but we decided to skip it as it couldn’t possibly live up to this!
We walked over to the lake to rent one of the brightly colored “doongas” (boats) for an hour before driving back to Kathmandu. We weren’t filled with confidence when the boat owner had to spend a good 5min bailing out a puddle of water in the bottom of the boat, but it stayed afloat until we got back!
Taking a romantic row-boat ride on Lake Fewa, with the World Peace Pagoda behind Lindsay, and the Annapurna Mountains behind Igor
Hopping in our private car and leaving the mega tour buses behind for the long, bumpy, dusty, traffic-jammed ride back to Kathmandu. It took us a good 7hrs to get back to our hotel in Thamel – Kathmandu traffic on a Sunday night is crazy! The gridlock was so bad at times that our driver just turned off his engine until cars started moving.