Travel Day 1051-53 – Pokhara, NEPAL
Even if I didn’t like the Lakeside area of Pokhara that much, after the past two days on the sketchy road, it was really good to be back in civilization…
Phewa Tal Lake in Pokhara, Nepal
Actually when I woke up the first morning after my trek and went for a little stroll down the main road and along the lake, I realized how much civilization there actually was in Pokhara all of a sudden. Standing by the Phewa Tal Lake and looking back at all the ugly concrete buildings that made the Lakeside area seem like a perfect extension of the tourist ghetto Thamel, I couldn’t help but notice that Pokhara had grown a lot during my two years of absence…
It was really a shame to see that a lot more and even higher, ugly concrete buildings had grown out of nowhere, suggesting rather a city like density instead of the village feel that Lakeside used to have. On the bright side, the path along the lake was becoming an actually sealed walkway, rather than the muddy cow field that it used to be. Also some of the open sewers feeding the lake were actually covered by now, making the walk along Phewa Tal and the views surprisingly enjoyable…
Palak Paneer, Chapati and Fruit Lassi
What I didn’t really find enjoyable on the other hand was the realization that everything in Pokhara had become really expensive. Especially in comparison to Kathmandu it was almost amazing to see how much all the touristic restaurants would charge for a regular meal. And since Lakeside was officially deemed a tourist area, it seemed to be a mission impossible to find a decent restaurant that would not charge the 10% service charge and the 13% taxes on top of the already overpriced meals…
As if that wouldn’t be enough, all the small local eateries that I used to go to had disappeared, leaving behind a much too Thamel like tourist area by the lake. But eventually I found at least one decent open air restaurant with wifi and good food to comparatively decent prices. So finally I could do what I was dreaming about for the past few days while trekking: just sitting around and eating. And as a matter of fact, I ended up doing nothing but sitting and eating for most of my time in Pokhara…
Vegetable Biryani after Mustang Trek
It was almost funny, but after walking for so many hours, every single day, I wanted to do nothing more than sit around and stuff my face with all the delicious food that I had been craving in the mountains. As the aftermath after the Langtang Trek had left me craving all the delicious vegetables that I felt deprived of in that region, now once more after the Mustang Trek, it was simply amazing to enjoy a simple Vegetable Biryani or some Palak Paneer with Chapati and fresh Fruit Lassi…
So even if the rainy season started to get a pretty firm grip on Pokhara, with gushing downpours for seemingly endless hours, I really couldn’t be bothered by it as I felt more than contemned with some delicious food while organizing all my trekking photos from Mustang and reminiscing on the remote places I had been to lately. It really had been an amazing trip, and even if it took me two full days to get back to touristic Pokhara, the destinations had been worth all the effort…
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