Enlightenment just out of reach: Pokhara

Wednesday 22^nd April 2015

Back in Pokhara we decided to take a few days to rest and recover from the trek (my legs were fine I didn’t need a rest I did however need to wash a lot of stinking trekking clothes so a few days to make sure it was all dry was perfect. Marks legs were hurting him and he spent the entire day walking like Bambi it was especially amusing watching him walk downstairs.)

Today was pretty much a non-event we had breakfast and then returned to the guesthouse to do aid washing. It took much longer than it should have as after soaping up everything I owned the water ran out and we had to wait an age for the pump to fill the tank up again (but at least all the stinky clothes got a good soak)

By the time I was ready to hang it all on the line the sky had turned from the clear blue dream it had been to dark and thick with rain which typically started as soon as I started to hang up my clothes and as soon as Mark had finished cleaning the bike.

We had to move the clothes line to the safety of shelter and with that finally done we braved the rain to go and get some food for a late lunch.

We got to the Indian restaurant and the sky opened up heavier than ever before with huge hailstones as well as giant raindrops. (Google weather told us at the time it was a zero percent chance of precipitation…)

We ended up eating way more than needed mostly as an excuse to stay in the dry of the restaurant, but eventually we had taken the piss long enough and had to brave the weather once more to walk back to the guesthouse.

I spent the rest of the afternoon writing about our trek and waiting for the painfully slow internet to upload some pictures whilst enduring Mark singing “Don’t speak” by Gwen Stefani and not knowing any of the words so just making up lyrics about me ignoring him.

Eventually I was done and we went done the road in the drizzle to a Nepalese place. Having eaten all the Indian earlier I wasn’t really hungry and so just had a veggie Thukpa which is a Nepalese noodle soup and is very tasty.

By the time we got back to the guesthouse it was once again pouring with rain and so we hid inside watching movies.

Thursday 23^rd April 2015

This morning we were up and at our trusty breakfast haunt early we didn’t have much planned for the day except to go to the mountaineering museum. After we had eaten we spuddled about at the guesthouse for a while half-heartedly packing up and generally sorting through things.

We left for the museum around midday on the bike it was only a short drive so it didn’t take us long to get there. We parked up and got tickets and headed inside.

Some of the exhibits were really interesting others a bit boring and badly worded. I liked the stuff about all the mountains over 8000m and the tales about the Yeti. There was also a new exhibit about climate change and the impact that it is having on the people who live in mountain communities.

Mark was hungry and followed me around the museum like a bored small child at the supermarket so it was good when two hours later I was done and we could go and get some food.

We both got pizza I ate mine at a normal speed whilst he hovered his up like nobody’s business (anyone who knows how fast I eat would be amazed at the speed this boy puts away food it’s actually scary)

We finished eating just as the sky was beginning to thunder so we headed back to the guesthouse as we had washing out in the sun. We got back in time to move it before the heavens opened and then paid the bill for our stay in preparation for heading to Lumbini tomorrow.

The rest of the evening was spent chilling out and then getting more food before hitting the hay.