Firstly, good luck and best wishes to Antonia for her last day (Friday) with Land Registry. If you are half as happy as I am after almost a year it won't be at all bad! Well we've had a busy week and packed adventures into every day. Last Thursday taking it easy with a walk around sunny Phewa lake, then a 3km walk to the north side of Pokhara to Bindhyabasini a Hindu temple with stunning views of the Annapurnas. Friday, we wanted to see the sunrise at Sarangkot (1590m) so we got up at 5:00 and took a taxi part of the way up in the dark. A young Austrian girl was alone and so we accompanied her - her legs were bigger than me so I had a job keeping up with her on the 30 minute walk up stone steps with only a small torch. I couldn't speak by the time we reached the top. At the viewpoint the sun had started to rise - the light beginning to affect the Annapurnas in the north. The mountains were a bit cloudy but Paul still captured some great shots of the light hitting the snow caps (see Himalayas photos!). We spent an hour or so watching the light and clouds change every few minutes. Local children pestered the tourists for sweets and photos, some were letting the kids play with their expensive DSLRs. After a mountain top tea/toast breakfast we set off for a walk across the ridge of the hill through hill villages to Naudanda. Children all along the way were saying hello and 'Namaste' on their way to school. One young boy of 9 or 10 stopped us to practise his perfect English for some time. At Naudanda there wasn't much to do, but we watched a professional photographer at work taking photos of a local woman - it shattered some illusions. He had a team of about 5 helpers, a six foot light diffuser and had the woman dressed up for the part...not like Paul's natural reportage shots!! We let some packed buses pass and finally got an empty one back to Pokhara. On Saturday we hired a scooter and set off for Begnas Tal a 15km+ trip - the less commercialised lake. We first stopped off in Old Pokhara visiting Bindhyabasini again which was bustling with people making offerings on their only day off. We got a bit lost looking for Bhimsen Tol a small shrine - see photos - and set off again to visit Karma Dubgyu Chokhorling Monastery. A steep climb on the scooter up to the hilltop monastery, there was a ceremony going on but we asked permission and were allowed to sit inside to witness the last 10 minutes of chanting, drumming and hornblowing - so atmospheric, you could feel the drums reverberating through you. It was a magical experience. The prayers were part of the build up to Losar, the Tibetan New Year. After getting very lost again we found our way to Begnas Tal via the main highway (dusty b-road in England!) to the very peaceful lake where we had lunch then took a boat ride out - lakeside Nepalese music added to the atmosphere - as did the 75 degree blue skies.
Sunday (sunny) morning we set off to climb the 5km to Pokhara's World Peace Stupa after many warnings about muggings and 'bad people' in the forest we tried to take a well worn path skirting the forest. At the start of the trek a guy directed us into the forest - not likely mate! We were then accosted by a gang of six year old 'tour-guide wannabes' with an alarming command of hustler English. They wanted to show us the 'safe' path to the Stupa for sweets and Rupees. We said we were fine and probably wouldn't visit the Stupa today anyway, we went back down into the fields and continued to skirt the hill for a couple of kms until we spotted the road. Clambering through vegetable terraces we reached the steep winding road, then the 'safe' footpath to the Stupa. More great views and great photos and back down the road for lunch - ginger tea (a revelation we will try at home), momos, hot and sour veg. soup and vegetable chowmein at 'Don't pass me by' restaurant. Monday was a bit cloudy, but warm, our mountains were nowhere to be seen so we set out to find the International Mountain Museum, another opportunity to get lost using our useless Pokhara map. Nice grounds but the museum was just o.k. That evening we saw the celebrations for the Hindu festival Maha Shivaratri. People had built bonfires on the roadside and sugar cane sellers were everywhere. We asked our waiter at the Laxman restaurant what it was all about. The festival is in honour of the god Shiva, revellers light bonfires, smoke pot and sing and dance into the early hours. Young boys stick five foot long sugar canes into the bonfires then whack them against the floor causing an explosion. They then share out the sugar cane. See Paul's photos.
On Tuesday Paul had started with a cold but we headed up north for a little trek. We got a bus (50Rp for the two of us - 40p) to a small village called Milanchowk. We spotted a temple on the side of the hill - see photo of steps. Half way up the steps we were accosted by a group of children - unlike some of the lovely kids we had met before it was "Namaste - give me money, give me sweets, take photo." Paul tried his usual fun approach of asking them for money in exchange for a photo. They then resorted to swearing at us "You, you Fcuk!" repeated over and over. One of the boys poked his finger up my bottom as I passed him on the steps. I was livid and shouted at him. The boys then left us alone, but the girls persisted in jumping in front of Paul when he was trying to take photos. I had lost all patience and shouted to some women sitting close by "are these your children?" One of them ushered the childern away. We then found the path to Astam a small village on the hill facing the Annapurna - the closest we had been to the mountains. We met other children along the way - you have to assume that each new one you meet is just being friendly, but we were having an unlucky day. It was always "Namaste, give me sweets." I was getting a bit narked. We stopped in Astam at the 'Eco-village' eatery and asked to see the menu - Dal Bhat or fried rice was the reply so we waited for some lunch while enjoying the views. Some local trekkers/sherpas had also stopped for lunch. The veg fried rice lunch was completely tasteless with peas like bullets and our jokes got us into giggling fits. That humour was wiped away with the bill - 840Rps about twice the price at good hotels in Pokhara. We imagined that we had just paid for the locals too - we didn't see them pay! We followed the sherpas down a steep little used path which was a tricky but quick path down to the roadside town where we met a young boy, accompanied by his mum, who wanted to practise english - he restored our faith in the locals. A hot and sweaty packed bus (you cannot even imagine) back to Pokhara, with an old lady giving up her double seat so we could sit together - a nice gesture.
Our final adventure yesterday was another hot day of trekking. Our map let us down again the bus dropped us at a town called Parsebhati (1025m elevation) but the path was about 1/2km before it. A steep but wide road took us higher and higher past a town called Ulleri for great views and the highest point yet - a clearer day would have produced the best photos yet -Fishtail mountain now had its two peaks visible (see photo). We climbed 800ms and walked about 10kms in total, through forests, down unmade 'roads' through hamlets and past shrines and temples.... We were not sure where we were, so Paul asked for directions to Bhumdi (Boom-dee), well actually he asked each person anything but Bhumdi - Bundy, Bumpty, Bunty. That evening we discovered it was pronounced Voom-dee. No wonder the locals were bemused. We then started to ask for Pokhara which took us along a similar wide road to the initial one. In the end Paul was getting impatient and having spotted the road endeavoured to take a "short-cut" through the vegetable terraces in the valley. Local farmers kept stopping us to ask us where we were going. Finally one farmer (carry a hug eheavy wooden tiller and wearing flip-flops) speaking really good english directed us down some very steep steps (which ran for about 1km descending 300m) to the road. The bus back was crazy - every space taken, the floor was packed with sacks of produce and cases. I had to stand on one leg as there was nowhere to put my other foot and Paul adopted a bizarre crucifixion pose. Our muscles ached more from this ride than the 10km walk! Evenings (as ever) were filled with Vegetable curry, chapatis, naans, paneer/potato/spinach curry, fruit lassi and lemon with honey hot drink..... you must be bored by now... we will do another blog this weekend with interesting facts about Nepal and a song competition, plus Paul will tell you about the photos and camera he uses.