Rest in Pokhara for a few days

We stayed in our nice hotel for 4 days, hiding out from the sun and people, while our sunburned faces healed. After a full breakfast at the hotel we would cover up and go out for a bit of a walk around before the sun got too strong and the young ones emerged. Then we retreated to our room to catch up on media and reading or watching some sky movies on the big TV.

Our coughs had cleared up as we descended from the mountains, and we weren’t sore, other than our faces. Our bodies are used to long walks and steep climbs, so we fared better than many others. I am sure my legs just think ” Here she goes again ” and get on with it.

In New Zealand, I pay $32 NZD at the cheapest chain of hairdressers. Here, for $30, I had a haircut, a scalp, head, neck shoulders, and back massage. I really needed that after the bumpy bus trip as my poor head had bopped and bumped around for hours. When he had finished, my neck felt better than it had for many months, and my sinuses were clear.

Pokhara is the Queenstown or Taupo of Nepal. Being a land locked country, the huge lake is a real attraction for Nepalese. The rich have holiday homes here, and it is a quick flight from India. There are a lot of different treks around the area so most overseas visitors come here too.

One day, we walked for about an hour across the city to the National Mountaineering Museum. It was very interesting and well set out, taking about 2.5 hours to look around. Well worth the visit.

Again, I was quite disappointed with the rubbish situation. The lake had garbage floating in it, and drains were full of plastic rubbish. The man at the hotel told us that there were some collections from the businesses, but he doubted if it was disposed of properly.

After three days we were both feeling better so we took a 25 minute Buddha Airlines flight back to Kathmandu. Their safety record isn’t the best, but we decided we had pushed our luck on the buses. The flight was uneventful with no real views of the mountains because of the smog.