A day in Pokhara

We'll call this our first full day in Nepal. We had a free day today as Chewy thought it would be unfair to expect everyone to get up at 5am after spending the entire day getting to Pokhara yesterday... I agree.

We're staying at Hotel Stupa, a little off the main road, it's a nice place with decent sized rooms and a restaurant. B is bunking with Poutine, as the hotel has no triple rooms. Unfortunately both B and I were up at the crack of dawn today but didn't want to wake each others roomies in order to have company over coffee. When we all finally met up at 745, we walked down the road to Once Upon a Time for some breakfast... The dieticians were craving oats and I was on the prowl for banana pancakes... Yahtzee. This place had large pots of black coffee and steamed milk and everything we were after for breakfast (not to mention free wifi).

Being our free day we were the masters of our own destiny. We headed down to Lake Fawa to figure out what we could get up to. The Kitten had her first paparazzi experience at the water, as we're discussing what we should do

We had the option of doing several things- hiking to the World Pagoda, canoeing on Lake Fawa, paragliding (was our #1 choice, it was unavailable today), renting bikes or scooters to head to the caves and waterfalls, or just relaxing in town. For Rs700 we rented a boat and paddled ourselves across the Fawa so we could walk up to the World Peace Pagoda.

The hike wasn't too strenuous- but it was awesome to be able to get some physical activity in considering we'd been sitting for a majority of the past three days!! returning to town we stopped in at the hotel and dropped a few things and then headed back to Once Upon a Time for some coffee and free wifi. We are all a little (ok, a lot) excited to have a few emails from our families asking how our adventure has been so far... I am trying to articulate as much as I can through this blog- but there really are not enough words to explain the experience we are having.

Almost all hotels and restaurants in Pokhara have free wifi- not an essential service considering we could all do with being a little more disconnected from society (says the girl online with an iPad in Nepal). I am however taking a 6 week hiatus from Facebook, a social reprieve if you will. That combined with me not bringing my blackberry from work has been a welcomed relief from the world for me. But an hour or two and a few pots of black coffee with steamed milk on the side, discussing all of the little things we have seen and experienced in two days has been nothing short of a fantastic way to spend an afternoon.

B & Ging packed in when we got back to the hotel as we are getting up at 5 tomorrow to go to Sarangkot to watch the sunrise. I rounded out the night with a dinner with G6, Skinny and Curly. Lots of green tea, naan, curry and chats. A nice way to end a pretty fantastic day.

Nested in Nepal,
L, B & Ginger

p.s
Uploading pictures is tending to take longer than expected... When we get a solid connection and some free time- I will add photos in here!!

Sent from my iPad