Pokhara

It's 11.25 pm. Today has been amazing!!

We set our alarm for 8.30 am (slept in for an extra fifteen minutes), got ready, then went and had breakfast in the social area (it was included). I'd love to explain what it was I had (Hope didn't fancy any)... I think it was somewhere in the middle of like bread/waffle/pancake with chocolate chips, and banana, and a kind of eggy taste (bit strange!).

Anyway, we went and got cash out after, and were in the lobby at 10 am ready for the day tour. It cost 2000 rupees each (although it's not expensive, we could have done it much cheaper ourselves, but with such limited time here, this was definitely the best option!).

We had the guide, Manooj, and two other people; Kitty (a lady from Thailand), and Kaas (a lad from the Netherlands). We started off our walk, en route to the Pokhara Ashanti Stupa which is a Buddhist pagoda-style monument on a hilltop in Amanda hill.
First we walked to the boats, and got a boat across Lake Fewa. Then we started our trek up. I forgot my trainers so has to wear sandals... lol! The men made out that it was a casual 'stroll' up to the top ... but it was not at all! It took over an hour, and we were absolutely DRIPPING in sweat (I can't even put into words how sweaty we were!!!).

Luckily it was all worth it when we got to the top. The views of the city were breathtaking, and the Stupa was even more so. It was beautiful!! Random fact: you can only walk round clockwise or it's bad luck!!
Even the gardens surrounding the Stupa were stunning - filled with gorgeous flowers!

After spending time at the top, we made our way down the other side and went for lunch. Me and Hope shared veg momo (Tibetan culture - it's a dumpling filled with vegetables) and vegetable Thukpa (also Tibetan - noodles, soup and momo all mixed together). It was all beautiful!

After lunch we headed over to see the waterfall known as Devi's Falls. It is in the gorge of the Seti River and is a magnificent water fall next to Gupteswar Gupha.

Then we headed to the gupteshwor mahadev cave, just across the road. By this point of the day (14.30), we were absolutely sweating! It was SO hot - so the stairs down (and especially back up) were a bit of a struggle. The venerated cave contained a huge stalagmite worshipped as a Shiva lingham. The ticket allowed us to clamber through a tunnel behind the shrine, and emerged in a deep cavern adjacent to the thundering waters of Devi's Falls (Unfortunately due to the heavy rainfall, we were not able to visit the bottom of the cave as it was dangerous at this time).

Next, we made our way to another big and beautiful waterfall off SETI River. We had a long walk there after a ten minute bus journey, and sadly enough time to get burnt. We crossed two bridges (one was massive and pretty scary... Hope was petrified bless her, giving herself reassurance as she walked). Luckily, one was a lot smaller (only 270m long and no way near as high!). Then we had a long walk down as well, Hope took a few selfies with some locals who asked her haha, and we all scrambled our way down to the bottom. Hope and I had to get changed under an umbrella (not ideal), but luckily, the waterfall was so worth it! It was so nice to cool off and chill out. The current of the river was actually pretty strong, so we moved quite quickly. We chilled there for about an hour.

After that, we made our way back up to the top to get the bus back to the hostel. We had to take the stairs up - and wow - the biggest stairs we have ever seen. We were absolutely shattered as we were, then had a gigantic climb up. Our legs were like jelly when we got to the top - and we were no longer cool and refreshed, we were hot and sweaty again.

(It's now 22/07 and we are on the bus back to Kathmandu so I'm finishing off yesterday's blog!)

When we got back to the hostel, we checked into the dorm room 106 (600 rupees each). Hope had a nap, and I caught up on some of the blog. Then we went for dinner at half 7 pm. We came to the reggae bar because we had enjoyed our drinks so much yesterday, and liked the atmosphere , and thought the menu looked amazing (Mexican food). But wow, what a mistake! The local food here is fab, but we have realised that any other food is just not nice (which is a shame as we really fancied chips). We had a veggie burger (grim),nachos (they were not proper nachos), and quesadillas (the beans were awful!). The bill was 1500 rupees (if it was local food it would have been maybe 600 rupees). We are going to stick to local food in the future (no matter how much we fancy western food!)

After dinner, we looked at a few shops, but we were shattered from the day so went back to the hostel at 10 pm ish. We didn't fancy drinking as we knew we had to be up early today.

Overall - a great day! Hope summed it up by saying it was one of the best but also hardest days ever!Read more