April 20, 2016
Two days in Pokhara: another small world connection
Rest day one:
At sunrise, finally a view of the mountains. "You are lucky, we've not seen the mountains for a couple of weeks," the man at the reception desk of our guesthouse says.
First task of the day after enjoying the view from the lakeside and breakfast is housekeeping stuff. Rachel does the laundry out back where the hotel does theirs and hangs it on the line in the sun. The guesthouse has a book exchange so we have new books to read the next couple of weeks. What once was such a normal thing, exchanging books, has now become almost obsolete. Maybe one day, just as we now use a tablet, we will get e-books. But for now, we still like having a book in the hand. We wander through the strip of shops and restaurants and have a big tenderloin steak sizzler lunch.
Rachel has gone shopping for a hat for herself. Patrick's hat had been eaten by a dog in Namibia at a warmshowers stay and he's been wearing Rachel's hat. Since we are headed into doing more camping in the mountains, Rachel needs a hat. These hats we wore on our 2006-07 trip, purchased in Bangkok.
Patrick also is ambivalent whether he needs to replace one of his cycling shirts, but another reason for Rachel to shop. "Are you cycling?" the shop owner says to Rachel. "Yes, how did you know?" He recognized the Ortleib handlebar bag. We talk about a friend of his who did cycling through China to Nepal. Later in the evening walking past the shop, we are introduced to Niwran by the shop owner of Himalayan Sherpa Trekking Gear. Nirwan is managing his families hotel here in Pokhara. We agree to have lunch together tomorrow. For the evening meal we are still full from lunch and have a light dinner of nachos and momos. Momos are a type of filled dumpling native to Nepal.
Rest day two:
"Wait, did you have a blog on CGOAB? This sounds familiar, did you sign my guestbook?" Niwran says. "Yes, now I remember I found your blog late" Patrick replies. "Did you sign my guestbook with a picture?" he asks. Yes, and another small world connection is made. Later we checked his blog and we are #125 in his guestbook. Check out his blog "Home to Nepal" of his ride from China to Nepal http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/hometonepal
We have a great visit with Niwran. He has been back in Nepal a couple of years after growing up here, then living and studying outside the country. He now runs the family hotel, Sampada Inn. He also is active volunteering with a relief organization Right4Children, an NGO based in Pokhara. http://right4children.org/ We ate lunch at The Olive Cafe, a great restaurant we had a very nice pad thai, then Niwran paid for our meals. We will pay his hospitality forward.
Tomorrow we move on with the goal of getting into the Indian Himalayans in about two weeks.Since there is no direct route through the mountains we have to drop down to the Nepali Terrai and head west into the Indian lowlands. We are not looking forward to the heat, India has been struggling with a 40 plus degrees Celcius heatwave. In about two weeks we will be in position to head north again back into the mountains.
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