Pokhara

When we returned to Kathmandu after the Everest base camp trek, the fatigue accumulated in the past 14 days hit us hard. We felt completely extenuated and had no energy. We took a total of 5 days to completely recover and get our strength back up! We spent our days eating in the delicious restaurants of Thamel and getting whatever weight we might have lost back on quickly! Nepal’s capital is truly excellent for restaurant choice and quality; it never ceased to amaze our taste buds!

 

Delicious Indian food at Zaika restaurant in Thamel, Kathmandu 

Healthy middle estern food at Or2K, a very popular venue in the heart of Thamel

Once we felt strong again, we took the long 7-hour bus ride to the town of Pokhara. Although the journey was long, the bus made (too) many stops for stretching our legs and snacking. There was even an official 20 minutes lunch break. It felt like we stopped an unnecessary amount of times actually! The bus had air condition and comfortable seats, so the journey was not so painful despite its length.

We were able to walk from the bus station to Lakeside, the most popular district next to the beautiful lake. The main road follows the water and is filled with shops, restaurants and guesthouses so we had plenty of choice. We arrived right on time for the festival of lights, Diwali, a 5-day long Hindu festival.

Locals light candles and make beautiful mandalas with coloured sand and flowers on the ground in front of their businesses to attract the goddess of wealth and other deities. It turns the city into a magical fairytale. Another tradition during this festival are large gatherings with dancing and loud music. Choreographed Bollywood-style dances are displayed on the street and onlookers gather around in circle, donating money. Less formal dances also involve locals dancing in the middle of the circle in turn. It had a very joyful and communal feeling. Also, children get to have a kind of Halloween night and go door-to-door singing a jingle to collect money. This was our third big festival so far during this trip, after Ramadan and Idul Fitri in Indonesia. It’s always great to get to experience such special events abroad and gives an good insight on local traditions.

Locals blessing a cow on Diwali

We originally had considered doing the Annapurna circuit trek either after or before the Everest Base Camp trek and Pokhara is the starting point for this. Unfortunately, tragic events on October 18, 2014 made us rethink this. An avalanche had just devastated the giant mountain, stranding many trekkers and even killing some 39 unlucky people. In fact, we found out that the storm we had been into theday we reached Everest Base Camp was part of the same weather depression which caused the avalanche in Annapurna. Considering we had already pushed our luck and following the tragedy, we chose not to go on the Annapurna for this trip.  

One day, we rented bicycles and rode outside of town to two different Tibetan refugee camps where we met locals and bought their handicraft.

Goats inside the Tibetan refugee village

Local elder showing me how to turn the prayer wheels around the temple

Another day, we walked to the World peace pagoda which is set on top of a hill overlooking the lake with a pit stop to a famous waterfall. We also got to run a few times – we felt a bit rusty after the trekking. Contrary to our hopes of finding jogging easy after having spent time in high altitude, we rather felt like the break in training had put us back a bit. In the evenings, we enjoyed walking around the lake and sometimes catching a glimpse of the surrounding mountains behind the clouds. We had a pleasant time in Pokhara, a popular tourist destination.

Pokhara lake 

Peaceful view