Pokhara

Cool - here we are in Pokhara, which is the second city of Nepal. The city is situated around a massive lake and sits in a valley at the foot of the Annapurna's. Pokhara is the starting point for all treks within the Annapurna Region. Our next visit to Nepal will no doubt encompass another trek and I would choose the Annapurna Circuit, for various reasons - one being that altitude doesn't seem to pose as much of a problem as the Everest Region.....especially as Pokhara is already at lower altitude than Kathmandu itself. One of the other reasons is that if we were to bring our boys here, I believe there is a lot more on offer around the region, including white water rafting, mountain biking, paragliding.....

Anyway our trip to Pokhara was by "tourist" bus which takes 7 hours but its cheap at around $18AU each, including lunch and water. The bus was air conditioned.......but the driver only put the air con on after a couple of people started getting ill - and I mean ill as in vomiting out the window. He was obviously trying to conserve energy!!!!! The bus trip was a real treat - lots to see - going around mountains and passing trucks and other buses by "beeeeeeep" then just going for it and hoping someone else wasn't coming the other way!!!!!! OMG! Seeing village people showering under the various outlets from the river and doing their washing, waving at tourists and locals riding on the top of the bus with all the luggage (very dodgy), rice paddy fields and locals farming, beautiful river running through the mountain ranges. It certainly was another exciting experience.

Once settled into our hotel .....after beating of the hoards of touts offering or should I say forcing upon us taxi rides and hotels..... we took a stroll down to Lakeside where all the restaurants, bars, shops etc are. Its so peaceful here - I think we will stay a few extra days and do very little - maybe hire a mountain bike and explore this city, go up to Sarangkot for a sunrise view of the snow capped mountains hovering over the lake, do some boating and maybe take in a "bollywood" film at the local cinema hall - and of course EAT HEAPS.........great food around here! Lost a bit of weight climbing those mountains in the everest region - I don't think anyone will see any evidence of it though - as I said the food is great here....YUM!