The trip from Kathmandu to Pokhara was another windey, bumpy ride on some seriously dodgy roads, punctuated by numerous stops at random roadside restaurants. We eventually arrived in the lakeside town of Pokhara in the afternoon on Wednesday 12 September, and wasted no time in in finding a place to stay. We found a quiet little place up a hill overlooking the lake and, after dumping our things, walked into town for a relaxing drink to calm the nerves. We spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling in the room, emerging only to brave the torrential downpour in search of dinner. We didn't hang around too long afterwards, and soon were back in bed at the guesthouse.

Thursday we slept in and basically just had a lazy, relaxing day :P It was actually really nice not having an agenda for a change - nothing to go and see and nowhere new to get to. Our time was taken up by some nice chilled meals, browsing around some shops, naps, reading and drinking coffee and/or chai.

Friday we checked out of our room, left our big bags at reception and set off on an overnight hike up the nearby hill/mountain to the village of Sarangkot. The bright sunshine that we left in soon gave way to rain and then, later, some low cloud-cover. Even so, we still had a good time and got to see some amazing views of the valley, speckled green with all its fields and rice paddys. The climb to the top was fairly short but quite steep, and we were sweating and out of breath by the time we reached the top. We found a place to stay fairly easily and, after a quick bite to eat and a hot shower, snuggled into the warm bed to read and nap. Later that evening we walked up to the lookout point where you can get a great 360 degree view of the valley - too bad that a big bank of cloud was blocking the Himalayas in the distance :-/ After a while we went back down to the room where we just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Saturday we woke early and climbed back up to the lookout point in the hope of watching the sunrise. Unfortunately it was drizzling and also really misty, so could see very little. When it became clear that the mist was not going to clear in a hurry, we quickly made our way back to bed :-) A bit later we emerged and had a quick breakfast before beginning the long walk back down. By now the sun was shining brightly so we decided to head down a different way, down a winding road past all the paragliders launching off the hill and through all these tiny villages. By the time we finally reached Pokhara town again we were starving and enjoyed some delicious pizza's on the way back to our hostel. After a shower and a nap, the evenings activities comprised of emptying out our bags, doing a big cleanout and then packing the remaining stuff back.

Sunday we were up early for our long back to India. We were able to trade our big bag of unused goodies for a free lift down to the bus station :-) We arrived with a few minutes to spare so grabbed a quick coffee and a bagel-type-thing for breakfast and then climbed aboard for another 'exhilarating' journey back towards India. At the border, we walked down the flooded, muddy road and quickly found a bus to take us further South to Gorakhpur. After a very close call with a cow running into the road, we arrived at the railway station, where we killed a few hours in the waiting room until our train arrived to take us back to Delhi...