Pokhara 18th May 2006

I woke up late (ish) and decided to go for a quick walk around Damside (part of the lake where the dam is). The weather was lovely, although I couldn’t see the Himalayas due to cloud cover over the mountains.

After about twenty minutes I left the town behind me and crossed a rope bridge and I was suddenly walking through rice terraces. I greeted several people I met along the way and they were all ‘smiley’ people. Some guy came up to me and asked me where I was going, I told him truthfully, that I didn’t know, I was just walking. He followed me for about 1km and he was pointing out various sights along the way, all of which I knew from my guidebook. We came to a turning before a small village and he told me to follow him, I was in the mood just to ramble by myself (spend three months in India and you’ll know how I feel). I told him I wanted to go the other way and I asked him what he wanted from me. He told me that he wanted to be my guide and that he’ll bring me to ‘Davids Falls’ (a waterfall). I’m all templed out, peopled out and waterfalled out. I told him I didn’t need a guide and then he asked me to give him some money. I told him (more or less) to take a jump in Davids Falls as I was perfectly happy wandering by myself.

He then left me alone (thank god) and I had a lovely wander through the rice terraces and small villages that surround the lake. I was surprised by how hot the sun was and I hadn’t put on any sun cream so I found a tree to crash out under, I had a lovely ¾’s of an hour to myself watching village life go by, before I had another ‘guide’ approach me. We had a brief conversation together and I probably gave of ‘leave me alone vibes’, so he took out his umbrella and sat in the shade of that for half an hour, before finally getting up and wandering off. I hung around there for another hour or so before heading back to Lakeside.

I ended up at the ‘Fishtail Restaurant’, which is on the west bank of the lake and chilled out there for another hour. The sky had turned a lovely grey by then and there was the sound of rumbling thunder in the distance. I was firmly ensconced on a bench and watching the comings and goings on the lake taking it all in. It started drizzling and the feel of the rain was bliss, the only rain I’ve felt in the last six months was in Delhi about three months ago. I went back to the main drag and went to a restaurant on the lake side and had a lovely pizza, salad and a couple of beers and then went to an Internet café. Whilst I was emailing the rain came down big time, rain like I hadn’t seen in years, it was lovely, so refreshing. I went back to the hotel to chill out for a while but just as I got there I heard lots of singing and chanting so I went to investigate. There was a big march going on and the mood was jovial, I joined the back of the march and tried to find out what it was about. The peoples protests about the current monarch had been successful and the King had been more or less overthrown. Two hundred and thirty seven years of monarchal rule had been over thrown by people power. It was a historic day, and I’m glad to have witnessed it.

I then headed of to the bar where I had watched the Arsenal v Barcelona game the night before as they had a live band. I got talking to the headwaiter and had a really good conversation about the political situation in Nepal. There was a really good live (covers) band playing there and they played lots of Hendrix, AC/DC, Black Sabbath etc. The guy is married with two kids (4 & 9) and this is his second job. His other job is Auverdic massage that he runs with his wife, he kindly offered me a massage, but I think he took some offence when I told him that I’d rather have one from his wife!