The River is White

 While teaching English in another country has always been something I have wanted to do, by the end of the program, I could feel myself itching to start travelling my style, where I have time to stop, absorb the place around me and simply enjoy being there.

Up until this point, everything has felt quite hectic, and I haven’t had much opportunity to explore.

This is why I’m quite excited for tomorrow, as I will be trekking a relatively new trek called Khumai dada with my personal guide. Following this trek, I am doing the Ghandruk trek before heading to Chitwan.

With my remaining time in Nepal set out, I made the decision to make yesterday my last day of volunteering as I hadn’t toured Pokhara and wouldn’t have time before moving on.

Teaching was a great experience, but I was happy to finish up. Without a Nepali teacher in the class with me, I was nothing more than a substitute teacher and we all know how students around the world treat substitute teachers, right? I didn’t want to spend any more time yelling at the kids or seeing them pull their ears out because I had to separate them from the class.

With the whole day in front of me, I needed to work out what I wanted to do. The best way to visit places I wanted to see and not be taken to places I didn’t want to go to or had already been? Private chauffeur.

For $35, I was personally driven around to a number of destinations around Pokhara, with the ability to spend as much time as I wanted in each place.

First stop was Bindhyabasini Temple. Bindhyabasini Temple is the oldest temple in Pokhara, and is devoted to goddess Bindhyabasini, a Bhagawati who is the incarnation of Kali.

Compared to other temples I have been to so far, I enjoyed quietly wandering around the grounds of this site, finding it curious seeing different temples, shrines and animals outside each one.

Next stop was Seti River Gorge. As with many things in Nepal, this had an entrance fee. As I walked down the steps and saw a bridge that simply went around the water, I wondered if I had just paid 60 rupees (about 8 cents) to just circle around a short bit of water?

As I stepped onto the bridge though, I saw the drop of the gorge below, with rock formations carved out from millions of years of water flowing through it.

The water was white and at first I thought this was due to the dust from the pervasive roadworks that completely surround Pokhara.

When I talked about this with my driver, he said the river is white because it is water straight from the mountains, is perpetually freezing and that Seti means ‘white’ hence the name of the river.

Our next destination was the Mountain Museum. Being honest, I hadn’t expected much, but was genuinely surprised when I walked inside.

The size of it was enormous.

It had a hall dedicated to the traditional people who live on the great mountains, not just here, but other countries such as Slovenia and Japan, showcasing what their traditional dress was, how they managed the harsh conditions and the different ways of life.

The next hall was dedicated to the mountains themselves, with information on where their names originated from and stories from the first man to scale each mountain, including Maurice Herzog who was the first man to summit Annapurna and lost all his fingers in the process due to extreme frostbite.

There was a section on the impact of climate change, geological information including what happened during the 2015 earthquake, sections on the flora and fauna found in the mountains, a section dedicated purely to climbing and what people have worn to summit these great mountains through the ages.

I could have spent an entire day in the museum and still not have read every bit of information.

It was here I left a photo of Lee, facing a pond with Japanese Koi and a meditative garden. Lee struggled with mental health issues most of his life, so it seemed fitting to leave him in a garden dedicated to the mountaineers who struggled and lost their lives to bring them some peace.

From here, it was a short trip that took double the time due to the horrendous roadworks we travelled on, to Devi Falls.

It was 100 rupees to enter and while the sound of the water made it seem impressive, the actuality was less so.

The rock formations were amazing, but because of the positioning of the thick fencing, you couldn’t see the falls area in full. The garden area around the falls was also quite run down and did not encourage you to want to stop and spend time there, so I quickly moved on.

My last destination was Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave Temple, just across the road from Devi Falls.

 

This was more impressive first entering the site and peering down to the cave entrance below.

When I walked into the cave and saw the stairs going down stretching out before me, I had a little groan, knowing I would need to come back up these stairs, plus the ones to the entrance to the cave.

Part way through was a large Hindu temple, but it was forbidden to take photos anywhere within this area.

Eventually, the steps levelled out, before going down once again, before opening into a big cavern with stalactites forming.

At the very bottom of the stairs, you could hear the roar of water, but you couldn’t see anything. Through a chasm in the wall opposite, I could see daylight and just make out water. I realised I was looking at the other side of Devi Falls.

The air was damp and humid and I couldn’t wait to get out, so I don’t think the stairs slowed me down at all. While the air was a bit fresher at the top, it wasn’t any less humid as you could see a storm coming.

I managed to take the below photo just before the heavens opened up and I dashed to my waiting car.

I was delivered back to Lakeside, but the rain was monsoonal, so I sheltered in a restaurant with a 2 for 1 cocktail, waiting for it to ease to allow me to collect my laundry and go home.

When it eased, I dashed to the laundry, but had to shelter in a store due to rain pouring down again. The shopowner very kindly rang a taxi for me to get me home.

My taxi driver was entertaining to say the least. He had music pumping, told me the monsoon was coming early, laughed in delight every time water covered the car from driving through the flooded roads and somehow managed to drive at top speed while his windscreen was completely fogged up.

While I tried to ignore all this, I was incredibly grateful he got me home as quickly as he did, because I was cold and wet. I jumped into the shower and thankfully had some hot water, despite the power blackout.

It had been a long day and I still needed to pack for my trek, so shortly after dinner, I packed my bag and climbed straight into bed. Tomorrow, my boots hit the road.