Four thirty in the morning wake up call.... Ouch. It would be another longish travel day, though really it was two short flights. We were saying goodbye to India way too early - in both ways.
Delhi has a fantastic airport - very modern, efficient and clean, with all the trimmings you'd expect from an important capital airport. For whatever reason, we all had lower expectations - you'd think we would have learned to look on the bright side in India.
It wasn't long before I looked out the window and glimpsed my first sight of the Himalayans since 1997. I got a big chill running down my spine, and the girls and Beth were all excitedly crowding the window for a better look. I could not wait to get there.
When we arrived at Kathmandu airport, we zipped through their computerized visa process, through customs and out to the baggage claim area. There was an obvious lack of western looking tourists collecting their bags from the carousel.
The plan was to fly straight to Pokhara in the north, which was the base for our trekking in the Annapurna Sanctuary. We got our bags loaded on a trolley, then, following repeated directions from locals, made our way about 750 meters on a small local road towards the domestic airport. It seemed a little ridiculous, but we saw a few other travellers pushing their bags on a trolley on the road so we followed suit.
The domestic airport was right out of an Indiana Jones movie, though the airline I booked with, Buddha Air no less, offerred great, professional service.
Beth immersed herself in the local paper, looking for any indications of dengue fever, malaria, small pox, chicken pox, flu, food poisoning or general malaise. There were none which is why she's smiling here :-)
The girls were in their own world the whole day - talking non stop about this little "world" they've created over the years and filled with weird characters. It's called "Inappropriate World" and I'll leave it at that. They didn't want anything to do with us, and we were content with that.
The plane was much bigger than I thought, though again, not many tourists at all.
Every mountain we saw from the little plane was Mount Everest, at least in the kid's minds. I didn't have the heart to tell them that Everest was Southeast of Kathmandu and we were flying Northwest. This mountain is most likely Mount Manaslu, just the 8th tallest mountain in the world at 8,163 - actually not too shabby!
Ramesh, the hotel owner who I'd been talking to for a few months, had arranged a car to pick us up from the Pokhara airport. We arrived at the hotel minutes later and got settled into our room. We had lunch and beer on our minds (well, I had beer) so we ducked out after getting some trekking stuff arranged, and walked the strip in search of lunch.
Pokhara has really grown up. It has twice as many shops, travel agencies and restaurants as Khaosan Road in Bangkok - all packed into a three kilometer strip that follows the banks of Phewa Lake. The lake is a beautiful, glacial looking body of water that changes shades of light green throughout the day depending on the sunlight.
After lunch, it was game on. Beth was on a mission to get us fully equipped for our nine day trek, and we were going to get it done before dinner dammit! Lol. I kid, but she was really in her element zipping from outfitter to outfitter picking out all kinds of stuff I didn't know we needed :-).
On one section of the strip, I saw an alleyway that looked interesting so I pulled the gang along. The path passed a couple of shops and a tattoo parlour and emerged onto a beautiful waterfront section with a newly laid cobbled path running along the water's edge. We took it all in with drinks at a lake side cafe, the girls insisting on a separate table for them.
I wandered around looking for a good shot of the lake as the light was perfect. On the way back to my beer wife, I ran into a tiny Tibetan woman who was imploring me to check out her wares - basically handmade jewellery. I told her I wasn't interested but promised I would find three potential customers for her. It took a while, but she eventually understood and let me go. There are a lot of Tibetans in Nepal, especially in areas like Pokhara which are close to the border, and they are essentially displaced refugees from their homeland as the country continues to struggle with the Chinese situation.
We finished our drink and I took the girls by the little lady, who now had a friend. They laid out their stuff on a blanket on the ground (I'm assuming this was a "frog market" :-)) and we all proceeded to pick through their stuff, price some things out and make a fairly good purchase. There was no negotiation, it just felt good to spend some money there.
We could already tell that people were hurting. Who knows how much they're down compared to years past, but for the beginning of high season we are not seeing many people at all. It's a shame - this is a beautiful country that needs help getting their mojo back after the devastating earthquake earlier in the year. With Beth's list in hand and a ton of cool souvenir shops, we're making our best effort to make a small difference in the local economy!
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