The new volunteers that arrived in Nepal at the same time as I did went on a weekend trip to Pokhara from March 20 to 22. It is only 200 kilometres away but took seven hours to get there because of the windy roads going through the mountains. We left at 6:30 in the morning and I slept for the most part but got to take in the amazing sites in the small towns along the way.
Pokhara is apparently the “jewel” of the Himalayas. It was definitely gorgeous. When we got there in the afternoon, we went for a walk in the shopping district which was nice. I found a few souvenir items. 🙂
The first night we went for dinner at a place called Moondance. Our house manager Niv recommended it. When I saw the menu and found out it was owned by Canadians, I was excited. I ordered a beef tenderloin with cheese and a prawn, veggies, and fries. It sucked. My first steak in five weeks and it sucked. First, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a tenderloin. Second, they OVERCOOKED it, AFTER butterflying it. So annoyed. Then it was chewy. And third, I don’t know what kind of cheese they used, but it was barely existant. The fries were really good though, as was the wine/mushroom gravy on the steak. I had a margarita that wasn’t too bad.
My favourite part was getting up early to see the sun rise over the mountains, despite me not being a morning person and despite the hotel clerk banging so loud on my door and trying the door handle to get in while I was in the shower that it freaked me out when I heard it. I slipped and fell and hit my head. I’m okay, but so not impressed. I guess I missed the “wake up call” that I did not order so he came knocking on my door. Who does that? Crazy person!!! The bed was not comfortable at all either and I would never recommend this hotel. When we got to the top of the mountain though, the view was absolutely stunning, and you could see the whole sun actually rising. I didn’t expect that. It put me in a better mood. 🙂
Our next stop was breakfast and then nap while Guillerme and John (two volunteers) went paragliding. It’s too bad they decided to go in the morning because it pushed back our pre-scheduled siteseeing trip as the weather turned dark and rainy and we couldn’t go on a boat ride to the middle of the lake where there is a temple. Ahh well, no biggie. When the guys got back, we went to the World Peace Pagoda. It’s called the Shanti Stupa, a shrine to Buddhists and world peace. When we got to the top of the mountain, we had to walk up another 360 steps (I counted on the way down!). I didn’t think I would make it up, but I’m glad I did. It was gorgeous!! Again, I’m not one for religion, but it was interesting to see a Buddhist monument since I’ve only seen Christian/Catholic ones in Europe and Hindu ones in India. According to Wikipedia, the stupa “displays the four statues of Buddha presented as a souvenirs from different countries: ‘Dharmacakra Mudra’ from Japan, ‘Bodh Gaya’ from Srilanka, ‘Kushinagar’ from Thailand and ‘Lumbini’ from Nepal. Each statues represents the important events related to Buddha and named according to the place where it took place.”
After that, we went to a cave that is 5,000 years old. There is a Hindu temple inside and waterfalls from above coming in. It was very interesting, but I was so terrified of slipping and falling. Thankfully I had my good hiking shoes on. 😛 We then went up to see the Devi’s Falls from above which was a little disappointing. I thought they would be bigger, but it was just small. It was nice though.
After that we went back to the hotel and had dinner. We had to get up again to hit the road for 6:30 a.m. the next day. It was a short but nice trip. If I were an outdoorsy person, I’m sure I would’ve liked it more, but I’m glad I went!
–Bea
Bea Vongdouangchanh 