POKHARA

 

 

 

We decided to go to Pokhara altogether.  We made plans for the weekend.  We decided to go on Friday after Shreeram and Sarita from school.  So I took the Lonely Planet Nepal book from the book shelf and started working.  I took notes, when I found something interesting I went to Macarena and told her we drank coffee and discussed our trip.  So we made a plan staying 1 more night after Shreeram and his family left and see the whole city. This is the best part of the trip, planning.

 

Friday morning I sent word to my students telling them I had 2 off days, we would continue on Monday.  We took a taxi to Narayangarth, then a microbus to Pokhara. The 7 hour trip turned out to be pretty exciting and interesting.  We looked around, the roads were very small roads along the mountains, where ever we stopped we ate something from peddlers, check over the book, listen to music, took photos, and talked. 

When we reached Pokhara, we went near the lake Phewa. 

First we wanted to take a boat and go to the temple on a small island in the middle of the lake.  Then we decided to go find a hotel first settle in and eat something.  So we took a taxi to a street where all the hotels are.  We stood in between two hotels, negotiating the lowest price and chose Hong Kong Hotel instead of Singapore Hotel.  Went up and settled in.

While the kids were resting Shreeram, I and Macarena, we went out to walk around.  Bought some souvenirs and then sat in a restaurant and ordered beer.  Drinking our Everest beer I had a dream of moving to this little town, maybe open a restaurant or buy a hotel.  We talked how we could go to the lake fishing and sit under the sun when we had free time. Just dreaming..

 

 

We went back to the hotel, got Sarita and the kids, looking for a restaurant to eat.  Of all choices we chose a restaurant that served classic Nepali dishes.  Shreeram and Sarita told us they would never feel full unless they eat their dal, bat and tharkari.  When I saw the hamburger on the menu we said ok.   I ordere a hamburger, French fries and a beer.  The meat was buffalo meat, the bread was falling apart, it was nothing like the burgers we were used to.  But it was the best burger I had ever eaten in my whole life.

 

Sarita had never had alcohol in her life. Not because it was forbidden in her religion but because she believed it was bad for you, which is true.  Macarena and I convinced her to spike her

Fanta with a drop of beer.  She drank it as if it was poison. Placebo affect she was almost tipsy; butterfly effect I got very tipsy.

 

We walked around the town, looked around, all the places were closing at 22:00.  So we went back to the hotel, we had a TV, opened it and found some foreign channels and watched the news, and fall asleep after a while.

 

We woke up very early in the morning.  We had breakfast; omelet and tea! We went to the lake and took a boat to the little island in the middle with the temple on it.  We said prayer in the temple and gave an offering, coconut and rice, to the gods in the middle of the lake.  Took a lot of photos, took the boat back to shore.  The water was covered with mayflies, spiders, lotus flowers, sun was shining and we were surrounded by endless mountains...

 

We told them we wanted to stay another night so they accepted and left for the bus. We took a taxi after a long bargain and travelled this little town to see the sights.

 

 

 

 

First we went to Davi’s Fall.  This was a very weird shaped waterfall very deep and hardly in our sight when we hang down the fence that protected us from falling in.  Back in the time a tourist named David fall down this waterfall and was never found so they named it Davi’s Fall.

We walked around the waterfall, it was so hard to find and see the actual waterfall it was very interesting.  The harder it is to find something the worthier it becomes to us.

As if we are surrounded with endless beauty we pick more mysteries ones and pretend the others are worthless.

After walking back and forth and finally sticking our necks through fences we saw the waterfall. It was mostly a big hole with water running into it, but it was so odd I was amazed. Then I took some photos.  At some moments I love taking pictures but sometimes the view is so beautiful that wasting time for pictures seems insane. Instead of trying to fit the beauty into a small screen I rather stand there and watch it trying to put it in my head. Because most of the time the camera cannot catch the beauty my eyes can, inhale the smell and hear the voices.  So I can keep in my head a beauty that could be triggered by all kinds of things when I want to remember.  Sometimes the picture taking seems a worthless effort to remember some scene. As if it is not enough to live, smell, taste and enjoy the moment and even forget it forever afterwards. That is exactly why we miss the real beauty in it in sake of keeping it forever.  I wish we were like cats, running after a ball with joy and wonder but the moment we see something else just forget the one before and focus on the new wonder. 

But we cannot do that. We talk about another food while we are eating, remember another movie while watching one, tell about another place while visiting one, wish for a bloody marry while drinking a vodka tonic. So we just mess up the moment we are in by talking about another...  So all of a sudden we realize the great sunset is gone, vodka tonic is warm, dinner is cold while we were wishing for something else...

NOW:  AHILE (in nepali) There is nothing else...

After Devi’s fall we went to another place which was a hundreds of steps down and deep under the same waterfall.  A thin line of light shining into the cave onto the millions of drops of water in the air.  The light shining through was as confused as we were, we weren’t sure if it was cold or hot, if we were sweating or not. The light was just fighting to open a space for itself through the cave...

When our lungs felt like full of water we took off and got in the cab, next destination; the bat cave. Macarena said she was scared of bats and I told her that I have never seen bats, so wonder came over fear and we went in.  They rented us a flash light at the door, telling us it was very dark, and then a guide came to us and told us it was very hard to get back out and there were huge bats in there so we needed her to guide us, so we also said ok to her.  She took our flash light, gave us a candle, shining the flash light to her own feet started walking down the cave.  We kept telling her to shine the light on us but no use... There were no bats in the cave, she told us they left their babies there and went to get food. So we passed through a silent, dark cave feeling a little disappointed, but the exit was worth the whole cave.  It was a small hole in the ground that after coming out we couldn’t imagine how we actually crawled out of it.  Of course we were covered in mud and sweat.  It was fun, we washed our faces and took off for Sarangoth.

 

 

Pokhara is the 3^rd biggest city in Nepal.  It is almost right in the middle of Nepal, west of Kathmandu. Population about 200.000.  The city is founded around the Lake Phewa and among the mountains that surround it.  Anapurna, the 3^rd highest peak in the world is very close by. 

We took the taxi to 1590m high peak Sarangoth. At some point soldiers stopped us and asked for passing tax.  This used to be something the Maoist rebels did when Nepal was still a monarchy. Now they keep taking the tax although they in power now.  We left the taxi at about 700m and hired a guide to take us to the top. This is the light walk for trackers but since we don’t track this was a long walk for us. But whenever we stopped to catch a breath we stood breathless again but because of the view this time. 

The sun touch everywhere on the earth, the high peaks surrounded with clouds, the clear blue sky slowly rocking... Small village house on the way, beautiful nature, trees, rocks, green fields nothing else.  Standing on the top the world looked much more beautiful than it really is.  The silence was incredible and godly. We just stood there and smoked a cigarette without talking or thinking. Just enjoying the wonderful view.

The nature was standing right across us making us feel small, worthless and meaningless in a way but also making us welcome and feel like a part of it.  But don’t get too excited, you are so small... You are just a dot. You are a small dot that is trying to survive, trying to enjoy but depending on my air, on me...

The comfort and safety of being a part of something this incredible is better than any kind of freedom.

If this is what you feel at 1500 m I really wonder what you could feel at 8000 m.  If it wasn’t so expensive and so hard to do it I would try to climb the Everest just for this feeling.

 

 

 

We slowly started walking back down. Walking down is not just physically more difficult but also mentally.  On the top it is hard to let go of the top, once you have seen how far you can go, you never want to go back. 

After the heavenly Sarangoth we went to the Mountaineer museum.  People who have climbed the highest peaks for the first time, the people who lived in the mountains, the Sherpa most of all, who could climb the highest peaks without oxygen tanks were very interesting to learn about.  They guide the mountaineers to the top, carry their camping equipment, put their tents up and pack.  The Sherpa has adopted into the mountains while climbing up and down with big baskets on their backs since they were little.

After the museum all we could think of was go back to the town and drink something cold.  So we sat in a café and I ordered a latte, Macarena asked for an icetea. We talked about what we would to the next day while drinking and smoking our cigarettes.  We planned to get up early, have our breakfast and go back to Patalahara. I had a class on Sunday.  We went to the hotel and bought some pants on the way because we were covered with mud.  Rested a little, changed our clothes and cleaned up, and went out for a walk.  When we were hungry we found a restaurant called Tea Time Bamboostan.  This was in the lonely planet book. There were a lot of tourists and they were drinking beer and eating pizza.

I ordered spaghetti and beer, Macarena wanted a coke and a pizza.

 

 

The waiter asked us where we are from.  So he wondered what someone from Turkey and someone from Chile was doing in Nepal. We told him we were volunteering and now travelling. So we talked and ate. Afterwards we went to a internet café and Macarena called someone, I didn’t call anyone.  We fall asleep right away when we went back to the hotel.

 

When we woke up in the morning we packed and went down to the reception to pay. They told us there was a strike and no busses or taxis were working. Students were striking and they didn’t let anybody pass. We said great, now we couldn’t go back even if we wanted to. Settled back in the room and went out to enjoy the beauty of nothing.

We had a breakfast, walked through the great bookshops where I found some good books, sat by the lake reading... Later we went to the Tea Time Bamboostan to enjoy the happy hour.

We asked for screwdrivers and the waiter welcomed us saying our countries names. Hello Chile hello Turkey! We got something that looked like a screw driver but tasted like tang.  Macarena scooped out the ice from her drink saying that ice will make us sick here. So I showed her the picture I took of her the day before in the café drinking a huge glass of icetea full of ice. The waiters assured us that the ice was from good water but she insisted on getting rid of it. They were somehow insulted. If we had a bug in our food they would just take it out and forget about it, but the ice was just rude...

 

Next 4 days, we stopped packing and accepted that we were trapped in a great little town and enjoyed it. 

We got lost and found.  Drank and sang, ate and walked.  Just took advantage of being trapped. Sat down in the internet café for hours and wrote emails to everyone. Decided to go to Kathmandu when I was leaving 5 days prior to my journey and stay there see the city.  They have incredible book stores here in Nepal, you can find any book you want.  The traveler give their books to the shops in return of other books. So there are books from all over the world, which travelled and seen a lot.  They all smell amazing.  I always smell the book before I buy it. To me every book has a unique smell and no not because of the paper or the print, only because of the ingredient and places it has been. After smelling some books and checking out music cds, and checking in in Tea Time Bamboostan we would go back to the hotel and wait for the next day to reveal itself.

Finally on Wednesday strike was over.  We took the bus for 7 hours and after bargaining with a cab in Narayangarth we reached home in time for my class. When I went to school all the children and women surrounded me asking where I have been. “You said you will be away for 2 days but it has been 5 days!”

I tried to explain them we couldn’t find a bus. After they forgave me we had our class. I told them about our trip and Pokhara. So I was back to normal.  But that night I realized I had so little time left.  I went to bed and cried. I wished I could stay.  I loved them so much and they loved me so much that it made me feel not lonely at all.   Being loved is the most beautiful feeling in the world.  It softens your heart, to beloved, to be missed and cared for.  That is all we do anyways isn’t it? We spend our lives trying to be loved, by friends, family, lovers, and people who we don’t even know.

Be loved...