Pokhara 19th May 2006

I had good intentions of waking early this morning and indeed I was awake by 07:00, and I had a quick look out the window towards the mountains. They were covered in clouds, so I crashed out again for another hour before I got up. I decided to have another walk around the lake (east side this time) and I wore my new hiking boots and hat, which I bought yesterday.

I can’t believe how unfit I have become. On a level road, I can keep up with the best, but it’s been a while since I walked up hill – especially since I tore my ligaments in Laos, but living in London I haven’t encountered many hills in the last twelve years. I found a nice spot down by the lake and chatted to a couple of people who passed by, they were all very friendly and didn’t even try to sell me anything. I hung around there for about two hours and watched people fish and swim in the lake and it was very relaxing. I meandered back to my hotel and decided to have a rest before going out on my bike. I ended up crashing out and waking up at 17:00! I then went to an Internet café and as I was there the most amazing rain came down. I’m still not used to seeing rain, and this was so heavy, that shopkeepers had to pull down their shutters to stop their shops getting flooded out.

I spent two hours in the Internet café and decided to go for dinner in a restaurant that shows the ‘latest’ DVD’s. By the time I got there (about 100 metre) I was drenched right through, so I went back to the hotel and got into some dry clothes and put on my new rain coat (North Face - £10 GBP). I then had a lovely Schnitzel and salad and watched about an hour of a really crap move. When the movie stared there was about ten people in the restaurant, when I left there were only two people there. I then headed to a bikers bar and ended up playing pool with a couple of Australians and when they left, some Nepalese.