We set off on another early morning long bus journey on 12th Januady. We had decided on our broader plan for Nepal which entailed journeying to the lakeside city of Pokhara and going on a trek in the nearby foothills of the Annapurna mountain range. En route to Pokhara, we decided to stop over at the village of Bandipur.
Bandipur is an old village perched on a ridge that used to be on the main road to Tibet. While the construction of the modern road in the valley below has long since removed that purpose, the village has become something of a tourist destination and a great (and accessible) example of local rural architecture and life.
Our journey to Bandipur had been easy enough, although witnessing the most outrageous overtake attempts on the narrow mountain road was a little nerve-wracking. We jumped off the “Tourist bus” at “Bandipur Gate” – the turn for Bandipur just by the town of Dumre on the valley floor. We immediately were greeted by a taxi ready to take us up for a reasonable price, so we didn’t bother haggling. The centre of the village is pedestrianised so we walked the final stretch to “The Hotel”. It turns out “The Hotel” have expanded so we were staying in their newly built building at the top end of the village rather than in the old building in the centre. This proved to be a good outcome as from the roof terrace, we had a spectacular view of both the village itself and the surrounding mountains and countryside. When we first arrived the village sat just above the cloud line – in the valley below it had felt like a grim day weather wise. But the cloud gradually dispersed leaving truly stunning scenery behind.
We went for a walk in the afternoon around town and had lunch and chilled in “Himalaya cafe” – a gorgeous spot with a north-facing small terrace from which we could see the distant massive snow-capped mountains. In the evening, we walked up to the tiny temple on a hill just by Bandipur village. This is clearly the thing to do here as we were joined by numerous Indian, Nepali tourists as well as a group of Brits. The spot is deservedly popular though… Situated on a ridge, we had simply breathtaking views looking at the setting sun on the one side, and the huge mountains that ranged all along the view on the northern side. Just before sunset, the mountains glowed and came into crisper view. When the sun had set they suddenly transformed into what looked like a really cold and hostile ice-world (which they almost certainly are).
Walking back down to the village, we had Dal Bhat for dinner and decided to sample some Nepali vodka (turned out to be really quite tasty). The village really became quiet after dark with only a handful of places open and people burning fires on their porches to keep warm. We finished the night by sharing a rice pudding back at Himalaya Cafe which we agreed had the best feel in the village.
The next day, 13th January, we had breakfast and set on our way towards Pokhara. Our cab driver from Bandipur kindly helped us flag down a bus once down in the valley, and also make sure we did not get ripped off. This bus was certainly more rustic with what felt like non-existent suspension but we made it nonetheless! We grabbed a taxi after some haggling from the city centre to our hostel-Zostel in the north end of Lakeside. Lakeside is very much the tourist hub of Pokhara and with good reason – it is by the lake! While Pokhara is lower than Kathmandu in altitude (c. 900m), it is much nearer the big mountains. In fact from the town itself you could see a number of the massive peaks poking out from the clouds (most notably Machapuchre – “Fishtail” mountain). All this combines to give Pokhara Lakeside a really alpine feel – albeit one with stupas and pagodas on the surrounding hills and momos and Dal Bhat instead of fondue (which only adds to the place of course!).
Zostel itself is an Indian chain of hostels and was a really cool spot a little out of the way from Pokhara. We were staying in the best room in the house – a 3rd floor room with private balcony overlooking the lake – for a very reasonable price. After getting lunch in the hotel’s gardens, we headed out to explore. As the colourful and rustic local buses’ starting point was just outside Zostel, we ended up mastering them as our means of getting around town (at least when we were too lazy to walk or heading beyond Lakeside).
We first stopped by “3 Sisters” Trekking Agency and quickly arranged our 7 day trek. We were impressed both by their professionalism and local knowledge of quieter routes, and of their mission in employing only female guides and leading a host of other women empowerment leadership initiatives within local communities. We paid our deposit and were given maps and checklists of what we needed, which kept us suitably excited over the coming days before we started on 16th January.
Around sunset, we enjoyed a coffee in a really nice cafe overlooking the lake with simply magical views. We then walked upstairs to join the walk-in meditation/ healing bowls class we had found. The session was in what felt like a dance studio but had simply incredible views from its floor-to ceiling windows overlooking the lake and mountains. The session itself was relaxing and certainly a different experience with unique and calming sounds being produced by the myriad of healing bowls, while we lay down and had the job of trying to clear our minds to focus on the sounds as they came and went. We had dinner at a gorgeous lakeside restaurant called Crazy Gecko who have created a very cool bohemian feel with plenty of cushions and fire pits in a forested setting. The food was also great! On returning to Zostel, we joined a few folks gathered around a fire in the gardens for a chat. At first it was some of the hostel staff having a drink with one playing a drum. We later had 2 different groups of Indian medical students join us. They were studying in branches of Indian universities in Pokhars and Chitwan (south Nepal). They were all great fun and we stayed enjoying beer, hot rum punch and good conversation for a few hours.
The next day (Jan 14th), we woke up late and enjoyed a delicious breakfast of muesli mixed with fruit and Nepali curd (which we repeated the next day). Katharine had done some googling and found a good sounding meditation school a short walk further along the lakeside road, away from Pokhara. We both walked there, taking in the gorgeous scenery and sunshine. After some looking around, we eventually found the school (it was up a tiny alley from the lake and had no signs to it or on it whatsoever!), and George headed towards Lakeside to drop off laundry and provide passport photos to the Trekking agency for our Annapurna conservation area trekking permits.
We reunited back at Zostel and after a quick lunch set off on the local bus in search for a hair salon… Katharine had decided to go a bit crazy and dye the end of her hair purple. George decided to grow a beard. We both wanted to do something a bit different to our usual appearance while we have the space and time. These efforts paled though, in comparison with the often hilariously cliche levels of hippie-ness from some tourists in Pokhara… We saw plenty of dreads, lots of long beards, just about every pattern and colour of “hippie pants” and hundreds of ankle bracelets. We also spotted a man with all of the above but also wearing the most ridiculously colourful waistcoat while carrying a baby (presumably his).
With Katharine’s hair now purple and looking really quite cool, we set off. We would unfortunately quickly see the dye coming off with every wash. At time of writing it was a light shade of pink. It’s not clear if this is due to the quality of the dye or Kat’s hair not being compatible somehow. We caught another local bus that took a somewhat longer route back to Lakeside but we were able to hop off at the south end by a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet called Moondance. After having a lot of Dal Bhat, and conscious of our upcoming 7 days in the mountains, we were craving some pizza… Katharine created an incredible tasting pizza with yak cheese, pineapple, smoked chicken, tomato and spinach while Grorge took advantage of the hilarious but excellent happy hour deal of a free pizza slice with every bear ordered (itself at a discounted rate). We returned back to Zostel on foot but headed to bed as there was none of the excitement of the previous night happening.
On our penultimate day before heading out to the mountains, we briefly did separate activities. George went on a 2 hour or so walk up to the World Peace Pagoda on the top of the hill on the opposite lake shore to Zostel, while Katharine repaid a visit to the meditation school.
The walk up to the peace pagoda was certainly peaceful – there was not a single other person around the forest-covered paths. There were plenty of people at the summit – people cheating by getting taxis up… The pagoda itself is really a white – painted stupa. It is different stylistically to others we had seen (more pointy and cylindrical than the big domes that most Nepali stupas seem to be). This may well be because it was constructed as a gift by the Japanese. The views from the top were sensational. Below was the entirety of the lake with the city of Pokhara stretching out from its eastern corner. Above all this, however, loomed the massive snowy peaks of the Annapurna range and others as far as you can see in both westward and eastward directions. The photos don’t do it justice.
Katherine’s meditation session was good and it was great to have the time to go two days in a row. Through conversation about her work over lunch, talk turned to Muslims in India and it quickly transpired that the man (himself Indian) who had seemed so spiritually relaxed and wise was a real Hindu nationalist with heavily islamophobic views. It was really quite shattering and upsetting after placing so much trust in a seemingly spiritual man.
After reuniting in the afternoon, we had a quick soft drink at our favourite spot at Crazy Gecko, end walked to Lakeside to 3 Sisters Trekking Agency for our briefing meeting ahead of setting off the next day! We met Shanti, our guide and Abichek, our porter / assistant for the trek. Shanti (female, as with all the agency’s guide) is small in stature and certainly seemed to make up for it in the size of her heart and enthusiasm. She went in great lengths explaining our route and the various other options we had depending on how we were feeling and on weather conditions. Importantly, she came across as the perfect balance between professional and knowledgable of the risks and dangers associated with trekking the world’s largest mountains, and good humour and humility to make for a great guide and trekking companion. Abichek – a young lad just turned 19 – is tall and fit and seemed to also have a good sense of humour despite being less confident with his English.
We left the briefing with the lightweight backpack for our things and, on Shanti’s advice, bought ourselves an aluminium water bottle on the way home to use as a hot water bottle during the trek. We had dinner at a place on the lakefront called Bamboo. Their barbeque was tasty but otherwise our meal huddled outside by an outdoor fire was a little disappointing. We headed back to Zostel, packed our bags and went to bed, ready for the adventure that was to come in the morning!
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