We said our goodbyes to half of our group as some of us travelled onto Pokhara. This time in a mini bus the long journey was a tad less bumpy and immediately began to climb into the hills. We looked down upon massive rivers, with their glacial flows rushing towards the Terai.
There were a couple of things of note on this trip…
First we stopped to birdwatch over a river, you could see where there had been massive landslides that had destroyed the road in the recent past.
While we were there a holy man walked up purposefully. Suchit gave him money but he was insistent and aggressive, I said “No” and it was probably the wrong “No” there are several versions. This sent him off into a tryrade at me so I turned my back but Dad was facing him and bridling. The man had an iron pole and was clearly stoned! Suchit manage to move him on and told us that so many of these ‘holy men’ have addled brains due to drug use and to be very careful around them.
The second thing was, with the cloud dispersing and there were mountains ‘The Himal’!!!
At Pokhara dad and I parted from the group, as we were on a mission. While others stayed in the hills at a very swanky lodge. I had booked a cheap Hotel in the town for Dad and I. The Green Tara Hotel was rather good, the fixtures, (particularly the bathroom) were tired but the service you couldn’t fault. Family run, fresh cooked food every day, we felt safe and welcome.
Pokhara is a lakeside Bournemouth, a holiday destination. I didnt really like it much. This is where we saw the most European faces of this trip so far. A Californian couple saw us with our binoculars and said ” I think you belong to our tribe” and Dad responded ” Yes Pink”!
We had a 3 mile walk with a short climb and a very dodgy dirty bloke loitering on the path who offered us drugs, that finished dad off so we retreated to our hotel for a snooze.
Later Dad got a haircut at a funny little barbers. He had a trim, a head and shoulder massage, an eyebrow trim and if we hadn’t stopped it there god knows what else, losing a fortune in the mean time.
To be fair Pokhara is quite picturesque and I can see its apeal but its just not for me.
We were only there for one thing and nothing to do with bird watching, I’ll tell you about it in the next installment.
The Travelling Bee 