Pokhara Faced

Parts 1 and 2

So, finally,  finally, it was time to get off my butt and go trekking.

Yeah, it’s bloody cold, and I don’t even have hiking boots, but you can’t be in Nepal without getting your pack on your back and walking into the mountains.

Yoni, Jul, Inna and I wanted to hang together still, so we decided on a simpler trek.

I'll just do another longer one when they leave in a few days.

First we took a couple of local buses to a place called Phedi.

Fast food

It was straight up, right from the get-go.

And it didn’t take long to get some height. The rice-terracing in these parts is really amazing.

We walked through tiny settlements and little farms

Ma Durga, a warrior-goddess who represents power and protection

Gravestones

Right before our very eyes, the top of this tree jumped off and ran away. It was incredible.

It was a steep stony track

This girl followed us for ages

The most amazing thing happened. We passed a large group of women who were having food and listening to music. As we approached them they insisted Inna and Jul go up to their group and dance with them. The local women squealed and laughed in complete joy when they did it.

Then they grabbed Yoni and I to do the same, and before we knew it the four of us were in the middle of a huge circle of women, all of us dancing, and they laughed their beautiful heads off, sang, squealed and spun around us as they danced.

It was my definition of being in heaven.

Unbelievable, how joyful they were. And how infectious the joy was.

Buffalo soldiers

Eventually we made our way up into the forest. It was beautiful.

We watched the sunset from this knoll. We didn’t get to our destination, Australian Camp, till after dark.

Typical.

It was freezing at night. Our rooms were basic basic - just beds in small stone rooms. No hot water. A little lean-to out the back for toileting and washing.

But there was a warm room to hang out and eat in at night. Rooms up here are relatively cheap, but food prices are ridiculously high, by Nepalese standards. All of the owners of the guest houses in any tiny settlement get together and set food prices together. They all have exactly the same printed menus.

Basically it’s a cartel.

But hey, it’s the only way they can make money, so, it is as it is.

Hiking To Lumle

The next morning Inna and I got up to watch the sunrise. It was magnificent.

The Annapurna range, some of the highest mountains in the world.

Brand new.

Jul adores anything animal

Makeshift swing. It goes super high.

Sorry for this pic. Just don’t smoke ok? Or vape. Nepali-style warnings.

Eventually, after a 2-minute noodle breakfast, we left the camp, and headed east, looking for a small village to stay, around a couple of hours away.

The forest was beautiful. Again.

Sorry for this graphic pic too. This is (was) a large macaque monkey. According to a villager, it’s been killed by a wolf, and its head eaten. Packs of wolves roam the forests in these parts, as do leopards. But they’re generally not interested in attacking humans.

Lucky for us.

Eventually we came upon a little village called Lumle, and found the sweetest homestay in history, run by a beautiful local man, Subash, and his mother.

Lumle from above

Their cute little home

Late lunch snack. I told them to pretend to be happy.

Later the family cooked a beautiful traditional dinner for us, packed full of local goodies. As much as we wanted, of course. The thing about thali or Thakali meals is that they’re re-fillable, it’s all-you-can-eat. And in the villages local hospitality demands that guests have way more than they want.

There were only 2 sleeping rooms in the house, which we nicknamed the fridge and the freezer. I slept in the freezer. The family actually vacated their own rooms for us, and the mum slept on a tiny rug on the floor in the kitchen, and Subash in the tiny shop they have out the front. That’s how they do things around here.

We felt guilty about it, but they’ll always do that sort of stuff to make some cash, and to provide us with a bed, which is what their hospitality culture requires of them.

It was freezing at night. But the rooms were super dark. We all slept in, after all that tiring hiking. I emerged from the freezer after 10am, shocked that it was so late, considering that we went to bed quite early.

The next day we spent the whole day trying to decide what to do.

We all had the best day. We basically sat outside in the sun, read books, jammed, chatted, ate, explored the little village around us. It was one of those  memorable and supremely deliciously restful days.

Jul made a Hansel’n’Gretel-style trail out of dried corn, and led the chooks around the place. So cute.

The view from the front of the cottage

We ended up staying till after sunset, which happened to be magnificent. Then, in the most beautiful way, the mother blessed us all by sticking rice on our foreheads, giving Yoni and I a dhaka topi, a traditional male hat, giving us a bag of their own homemade dried forest leaves and wild vegetables, and then giving us all flowers.

Unbelievable.

We all felt so incredibly warm as Subash led us down through the village to the road, where we ended up taking a local bus back to Pokhara.

Lumle temple

Peace Pagoda

The next day Yoni and I walked for hours, right across to the other side of the lake, and then through the forest to an amazing stupa way way up on the top of a hill.

We stumbled upon this beautiful place, Kedareshwar Temple, dedicated to Shiva.

More lingams than you could poke a dick, I mean a stick, at.

A local visiting Yoni’s peaceful shoulder

Unfortunately we did

I went and got myself a trekking permit, and then eventually we made it to the forest, and up we went.

Fast growing city

See those Himalayan peaks at the back?

The stupa in the distance

I was shocked to discover how big Pokhara actually is these days. Our experience of the place has been so chilled, down by the lake. The main part of the city feels a million miles away from us.

Whetted

So even though I've just finished a trek, that was just the entree.

I wanna go further, longer and higher.

I wanna get closer to that incredible Annapurna Massif.

Well, as close as I can at least, considering that I don't have the proper gear with me, and it's full-power brass macaque weather at the moment.

I wanna get in amongst it!❤️

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