Day 18 - Dhampus (1650m) to Pokhara (820m)

Toby Diary

Woke up after a comfortable night keen to see if the cloud has cleared up.  It hasn’t but I get breakfast ordered and wander down the village to the ‘Mountain View’ lodge where we stayed last year.  The same Girl and Granny combo appear to run it.  I climb onto the ruined raised area and did a few photos to prove the revisit.   As I arrive back at breakfast with the others they break into a chorus of ‘Memories, nothing more than memories...’ as I had previously let slip that I had a fling with a woman there last year!  We set off down through the village and go down the Phedi route rather than down via Surret.  This is probably best as we are all itching to get to Pokhara and have had enough of the country.  Tensi arranges for a couple of taxis.  Jules and I are in the one that seems most likely to fall to pieces, with Marhis.  To wind the window down the driver hands round a handle – the only one in the car!

The Tibet Resort Hotel is a reasonable place near the airport. All pretty luxurious compared with our last 16 nights but still no hot water for my shower.  Once settled in we drift down to the Laxman on Lakeside (20 minutes walk) drink beer and have Nepali style fish and chips followed by Mustang Coffee (Rhelsi and coffee).  Everyone is now in a severely mellow mood.  Jules and I go and do the internet thing to send e-postcards etc.  Jules also checks his shares on iii despite my reservations but has a huge grin on his face as the club and his shares are up, up and away.  Back for more beers and mellowness – once we can get the boy to calm down.  Head on into town to look at the shops and get sucked into buying particularly good Thaka Mandelas – mine cost $144.  Jules does not have the dollars and rushes off to find them.  We wander around for a while and then he reappears on a motorbike, but no dollars..nincompoop!  Eventually, after we have headed back to the hotel and noted that Tensi and Marhis are not coming back, we find him back at the shop having had various adventures in the dark on his bike.  Purchases complete, we head back into town for some dinner (also had an argument with a snake charmer during finding episode and got away with it).  End up having dinner in ‘Tibetan Rice Bowl’ – excellent.  Hot and Sour soup and local fish and then back for a beer in the bar near Laxman (closer to town) before heading back to the hotel very late (10pm!)

Mark Diary

The day started with breakfast, sitting out on the flat area in front of the lodge, and we were able to see the valley dropping to the river bed far below. Along this river, we knew, lay Pokhara.  Large clouds moved across the peaks of the Annapurna range over 6000 metres higher and nearly 30 miles away.  We left through the far end of the village and it was only a couple of minutes before we started our descent through terraced fields and open hillside.  It took about an hour but the time passed quickly.  We passed through a small village and before long we were also passing groups of people on the way up; this was the beginning of one of the less rigorous treks to Jomsom.  Below was the river, brown and muddy, and alongside it the road; the modern world beginning to encroach on our lives once again.  It was not long before we heard cars, rough sounding and smoky, and something we had not heard in 3 weeks of trekking.  Our descent lasted only a few more minutes, winding down the last few hundred feet through trees on a steep, flagged stone path.  We arrived in a small terraced area by a road with a cafe alongside.   Our trek came to an end at this point while other groups of trekkers were gathered here, thronging around and preparing to begin their own treks up into the hills.   We were immediately assailed by locals, wanting to know if we wanted taxis, or whether they could carry our bags and generally looking for some opportunity to charge us a few Rupees.   Tensi found a couple of taxis and we loaded up and jumped in, the first time in an age that we would find our way from ‘A’ to ‘B’ without the use of our own two feet.  The road to Pokhara took about half an hour, long and straight through the river valley, past basic single floor square houses, some half built.  A man drying hay across the road and the same drying (dragging) skills as displayed en route to Basi Thisar.

Pokhara was not as I expected.  Buildings of grey concrete brick, some half finished, some brightly painted and others left bare.  And everywhere were adverts for Tuborg beer, painted on walls, some new and bright while others were faded and flaking after years of not being touched up.  Pokhara is on the largest lake in Nepal and the lakeside is the place to head for.  We found open fronted shops selling t-shirts, records and books standing side by side, all with small lit rooms behind into which to go and haggle your price.   Alongside these there lay a regular series of restaurants with terraces from where you could watch the world go by, to-ing and fro-ing on the wide, dusty and potholed road below.  A relaxed atmosphere, a hippy hangout and a great place to chill for a night.