Days 18-23 (October 5-10)

Pokhara is a typical tourist town. You can stay here and have an experience similar to most tourist places everywhere. You can eat food from various cuisines. You can get cocktails and watch sporting events. You can party and buy crappy touristy things. I know this may sound boring to you, but for us, after two weeks of isolation, it was another world. So we had what I guess is the average holiday. Ate platters of various cheeses, hummus and chocolate muffins for breakfast. Drank cocktails on the side of the lake, while admiring the sunset. Watched Chelsea vs Arsenal. Bought silly stuff for home.

The only time you remember you’re in Nepal is when the power goes off. And this seems to happen a lot, judging by how much I can’t use the AC in the room. At least this mid-level hotel had the ability to install its generator on the main power line, so I don’t have to use two sets of light switches. Also, Wi-Fi always works (of course, at the standard Nepali dialup-like speed).

Pokhara has an international mountain museum. Yup, where we got to see mountains. Well, actually we saw photos of them – lots of info about the 14 peaks above 8000 m. We got to find out about the people living in these mountains. There are many ethnic groups that form Nepal, 102 to be more precise. The most well known are the Sherpa, famous for their physical capabilities at high altitudes. We also saw a stuffed snow leopard, giant sheep skulls, mountain equipment from famous accents, the sorts.

The museum has a small cinema, showing a 20 minute movie each hour. Took places and the movie started. Then it stopped and the room went dark. Load shedding.

There are several natural attractions around Pokhara. Saw Devi’s Fall. After seeing so many waterfalls during the two weeks trekking, we weren’t impressed. Entry fee – one third of a dollar.

Restaurants here are all shapes and sizes. Indian, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, you name it. The service varies as well. One evening, as we were ordering, the waiter wasn’t writing anywhere. He didn’t bring any pad or pen.
“We would like one carrot soup, one garlic naan, one cheese naan and one veggie burger.”
“OK, so one veggie soup, one… ”
“No, carrot soup.”
“OK, one carrot soup, one cheese naan, one spinach naan, one… ”
“Nooo, garlic naan…”

In another restaurant, as we were waiting for our order, a group at a nearby table got their food, although they ordered after us. We thought “Eh… Nepali service”. Shortly after, the waitress returned, looked at us – puzzled – looked at the other table – puzzlement grew – until we noticed a click, as she realized that her assumption was correct. She delivered our food to the other table. The group there didn’t notice they got something else and were already halfway through. So she apologized to us for having to wait even more for our food. Some time later, she brought our food, starting with Andreea’s soup.
“One mushroom soup.”
“But.. I ordered tomato cream…. twice already…”
“Oh… But don’t you like mushroom soup?” The waitress was smiling, but we didn’t see anything funny. We don’t like mushroom soup.