Undisputed Scooter Champion of Pokhara

We arrived in Pokhara on the second, by way of Kathmandu. Unfortunately, we had to scrap our plans to visit Bandipur because I came down with a case of food poisioning that kept us in Kathmandu for two extra days. I am in good spirits and good health now though.

Pokhara is the second largest city in Nepal - its significantly smaller and has a decidedly unhurried pace of life compared to Kathmandu. The street salesmen here are even more relaxed - I've found myself having to tone back the snappy, almost mean "NO!" that I developed in Thamel because one polite no will suffice and they don't even follow you for blocks afterwards. The change is quite pleasant and very welcome! I attribute this town's relaxed demeanor to its proximity to Phewa Tal lake - Pokhara is a beach town in the middle of Nepal.

We woke today and decided to get a feel for the town by renting motor scooters and running around. Unfortunately some unseasonal rain cut into our scooting time but after a two hour delay, we grabbed rain jackets and continued on!

Pokhara was definitely the right place to rent scooters - our tour through Old Pokara included only a few, barely notable shrines that were quite far apart. There just aren't as many temples, stupas, squares or shrines as there are in any of the other places we've visited so far. Still though the scooter was thrilling and changed what would have otherwise been a tepid day into an exciting tour all over Pokhara. After a few hours bombing around backstreets, we wound up at the International Mountain Museum (where we would get stuck because of rain). We had plenty of time to check out every single exhibit, and then thoroughly examine them again. Some of the exhibits were quite interesting, original gear from the 1953 first ascent of Mt. Everest, and some were not, preserved snakes, but we had a great time learning about the worlds highest peaks and some of the people who climbed them.

We have some exciting things planned in the next two days - stay tuned for updates!