Nepal 52, An Evening In Pokhara

The taxi dropped us in Lakeside not far from our hotel and we wandered along looking for a restaurant. We picked one with a fire of course!

Clare started to chat to a guy sat alone, he was English of Indian heritage and had been on a ten day meditation retreat. It sounded purgatory to me but, I can see why it appeals if you want complete calm and silence. The way he described it, it sounded rather like a prison for the duration. Then another man arrived and joined him “V” (not his real name), slightly Rasputinesk and very Charismatic. Clare and he were soon in deep conversation.

I sat away from the smoke (they were all smoking) and just watched the scene. Clare ended up swapping one of her rings with V and that seemed to astonish his friend who said he’d been very protective of his rings, (he hadn’t even been allowed to try them on when he asked).

V is a physiotherapist and if you didn’t know, Clare is a nurse. They were very much like minded I think, kindred spirits, similar disposition and connected. Some kind of mutual understanding took place and Clare ended up massaging his feet, she said she felt a zingy energy in her hands afterwards. After a while he was doing some sort of massage of her ankles (all over clothes of course), avoiding the scalded area, then her head and back, the latter was a little rough for Clare and she called a halt. He gave her some exercises to do to help a stiff shoulder.

His friend and I were observing all this, he with some amazement and me with a guardedness.

V is from Israel originally and I was able to tell him about where I had been in Israel. I’m not sure how good his English was because he kept thanking me and I’m not sure for what! He indicated he wanted to work (physio) on my left hand. It was very strange because he pressed hard between my fingers and then pressed my shoulder on a pressure point, I felt pins and needles, he then pressed various points on my face and ears. None of it made me uncomfortable and the pressure on my ears was not hard but made me feel instantly hot (in the over heated sense)! It was a very extraordinary and I was not sure what to make of it or the evening as a whole.

V wanted us to visit his practice and he was very keen to see us again but, as we were leaving the next day it was not possible.

Clare seemed to have an amazing time, it was right up her street but, we did need to get back to our hotel as we had a flight to catch the next day and I didn’t want to be locked out. My experience of the small hotels is that they lock up for the night! So we said our goodbyes and headed off, Clare completely buzzing from the experience.