I woke up this morning with barely more than two hours sleep, but all of that was forgotten when I opened my door to see my first sighting of the famous Machhapuchhare Mountain, Nepalese for fishtail.
After seeing it so often in photos, nothing compares to walking out and seeing it towering over you.
With such clear skies, I knew I needed to make my way to Phewa Lake in the hope I would see the lake from a boat with Annapurna reflecting on the water.
Sadly, by the time I arrived, clouds had already started descending over the mountain peaks. Any movie you have seen of Everest that shows a dangerous change of weather in mere moments really isn’t making it up.
Despite this, I booked a boat to take me across to Tal Barahi Temple, an important Hindu religious site in Pokhara.
The temple is located on an island and I was expecting it to be a calm oasis, where people come to meditate. Instead, I could hear singing from a loud speaker before I’d even reached the island and once there, street traders pushed souvenirs on you and people pushed and shoved you to get to the temple.
I couldn’t wait to leave and go back to the peace of my boat. It was beautifully serene on the water with just the gentle sound of the paddle cutting through the water.
By the time I came back in off the lake, I’d been on the water in the sun for 2hrs and the temperature had climbed to 33 degrees. I was walking home but with the combination of those two things, I was flagging and managed to haggle with a taxi driver to get home.
Barely 2hrs later, I was back in the exact same spot at Phewa Lake as I tagged along with Jill, Ambika and her daughter Salina to enjoy an hr long Nepali massage (for $25!)
Mathiny, another volunteer from Malaysia had offered to cook Nasi Lamek (for all 8 of us), so we sat in the kitchen helping to cut the vegies and played ‘Never have I ever…’ until we were kicked out of the kitchen.
It tasted delicious and with Nepali beer and wine flowing, we had the most wonderful evening filled with laughter.
I took myself off to bed by 11pm as I was getting up at 4:30am in the hopes of going to Sarangkot to see the sun rise over the Annapurna range with clear skies. Fingers crossed.
Happy you have met such nice friends and can share a meal and a laugh with them.You are certainly adventurous and seem to be managing the money and getting around successfully as I was sure you would. Hope to hear from you on one of these comments so I know you have read them, and I am doing the right thing. Off to TCF Gala with a sponsor ticket saturday night so it should be nice not being involved in the organising for once in my life. Keep safe and having fun. love you xx
Gorgeous mountains. Sounds like quite the day! Hugs to you!!
Every day feels like this amazing day here. Big hugs back and sending you lots of love xx