Back to Reality (Pokhara)

Alas, we arrived back in reality (which I was ready for). Back to sandals, warm weather, sleeping past six, delicious food, grocery stores, bakeries, clean laundry and all the wonderful little things you are surrounded by but tend to take advantage of. After arriving in Pokhara the evening of our last trekking day we took Nirpa the porter out for dinner and spent the night thanking him for being so wonderful - he really made the trek a fantastic experience... and we compared him with all the other porters - we lucked out and got the best one for sure, for sure.

Pokhara is Nepal's second biggest city after the capital and is a trekkers haven. It's got all the shops, restaurants, lounging places and lassi stops of KMD but none of the pollution. The city itself is surrounded by the Himalayan mountains and lines Phewtal Lake. Overall not a bad place to relax at all. The first day back in town was spent cleaning. Cleaning everything, then gasping at the outrageous Internet prices, then stuffing our faces with chicken curry and momo's. After the essentials were out of the way we decided to rent a boat, but not just any boat though, the B.Lassi. She was the most wonderful foot-paddle boat you'll ever see. I thought we may sink, but she pulled through and we spent four hours paddling out to the other side of the lake and hiking to the Peace Pagoda, then paddling back to the middle of the lake and floating around eating sandwiches and cookies and quenching our thirst with ... yes, Fanta.

The next days are all a blur as relaxing is just so good. We bought some new books, drank some good tea, wandered around aimlessly and in honor of Halloween, purchased a Snickers and Nutella sandwich. Yes, you heard me. Snickers and Nutella together at last, in sandwich form. Amazing to say the least.

When enough relaxing had been done we signed ourselves up for a two day rafting trip on the Seti River. Expecting death defying rapids we came back a little disappointed, it was tame to say the least. As we floated along the river, not doing much for the majority of the time I realized I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie. For brief moments we would hit some rapids and once or twice get thrown around about but mainly just splashed a lot. It was not enough and I wanted faster, harder, stronger, longer - everything to make it exciting. The food was a main focus for the trip, cooking was a massive production however it turned out delicious for camp food. The night, oh the night. The night was spent in the shabbiest tents in the world. It was uncomfortable, wet and hilarious. The little 2-person pup tents were held up by the paddles we had used that day and they tended to collect water in every which way possible. As careful as we were to try not to touch any of the sides or top AND not bump the carefully balanced, erect paddle in the middle holding everything up, it was pretty much impossible. The door zipper didn't work and the bugs and frogs snuggled up with us for a restless and painful night. SO freaking funny.

So, just when you're looking forward to a nice soft bed and non-smelling walls you walk into a Maoist coo right outside your hotel. Apparently there was a "bad man" who has been doing bad things and ripping off people and beating people up and now the Maoist 'policing' has decided it was enough. Rumor was they were going to cut his hand off so we were watching with great anticipation...but that never happened, things settled down and the night ended without bloodshed and instead with a hot shower and chocolate pudding. Nepal is great.