We arrived in Pokhara after driving from Kathmandu with the chap that we organised our trek with in an old school mercedes which only broke once; but was fixed by the driver/ mechanic.
We spent just one night in Pokhara but had enough time to enjoy the local street performance for Diwali festival right outside our hotel hosted by nepali Anton du Bec (or however it is spelt) and also managed to move rooms threes times to escape from the cockroaches.
The next morning we climbed aboard a tiny plane (just like Indiana Jones) and headed off to Jomsom to start our trek with our guide Sangam. After a not too bumpy flight we checked into our guest house where we were entertained by a 8 year old kid who did the backwards crab and the splits on two chairs much to the amazement of ourselves (he also did the best magic thumb trick). We were also entertained with more singing and dancing for Diwali at our guest house; for some reason they keep singing about Michael Buble.
Unfortunately we couldn't just enjoy the talents of this kid and had some serious trekking to do in the Himalayas (well a couple days stroll). Our trek took us up to Muktinath and around the Mustang region of Nepal which was very similar in landscape to Tibet (not many plants and a few yaks) and involved going up a very steep hill and a lot of sunshine; we thought the Himalayas were meant to be cold! The area is well known for the apple orchards and so we were able to enjoy lots of fresh apple juice and apple pie, amazing. Mark was even given apple brandy at Muktinath by a group of Nepali doctor bikers who said it was good for him; mmmmmmm not sure about that.
After our trek we flew back to Pokhara on another tiny plane.
We had a few days in the Lakeside area of Pokhara which is pretty nice and relaxed and bumped into our pals we met in China, Chris and Anna for a couple of evenings of intellectual conversation or drinking too much and trying to make stray dogs have sex. Also Chris had a little cry about his dead cat; our bellys hurt from laughing. After heading our seperate ways we headed up to the Castle on the hill just outside of Pokhara where we spent a few days just relaxing and again drinking too much (Mark) with the lovely owners Joe and Sophia and Klaus their German friend who refered to an ipod as a "mouse cinema". There staff made us laugh everyday not the brightest cookies but amazing non the less; one even wanted to come home with Mark and the other said Mark was looking cute after a shave; both men by the way. We had a great time having a rest and meeting lots of nice people here; except the Russian cult group but that is another story.