The town of Pokara is a smaller version of Kathmandu. It has many touristic shops, restaurants, and offices, as well as guest houses. Among other services, the town offers massages and shaves. We took a couple of days to unwind after the trek and before getting back on the 7-hour bus to Kathmandu. Meanwhile, Marc got more than his money's worth when he sat down for a shave. The young fellow took the libery of massaging Marc's head with such intensity, it seemed as though he might kiss his head. He then offered Marc a full massage in the back room, which sadly Marc declined.
It was finally time to return to Kathmandu. After a long bus ride, we checked into the Pyramid Hotel. The bathroom in our room had a broken window, some of the lights were broken, wires were sticking unnecessarily out of the wall, there was a window that wouldn't close, the porcelain of the toilet was broken, and as we'd seen several times before - the TV did not work as it either lacked electricity or had no channels coming through. Believe it or not, this was an improvement over our previous accommodation!
It had been a wild adventure, but we were ready to move on. We had a morning flight back into India, so we checked ourselved back into the airport. We found it strange that after passing the metal detector, each person is also then hand-patted down and their bag is inspected by hand. Men and women have separate inspection areas, each with appropriate gendered inspectors. Afterwards, we sat in the waiting lounge. As we started up the stairs to the plane from the tarmac, all passengers were checked again! Incredible.
Aside from the lack of electricity, which often affected what could be ordered at a restaurant, we will remember Nepal for the following unique features:
- The locals are often either on strike
- Unpaved roads lead to slow travel
- Buses always entail broken seats and loud music
- The diesel fumes are on par with India
- There are garbage littered streets in Kathmandu
- The multitude of stores selling yak wool products and pashmina, pashmina, pashmina: always fun.
While we were in Nepal, we spoke with many people who told us about trekking in the mountains at various times during the year. September through November are the most popular months due to the dry, mild weather. We experienced pretty extreme cold which may have affected our stay in country. One thing we will never forget is the advice given to us to avoid June through August when the monsoons bring heavy rains and leeches. If you want to see the most magestic mountains in the world, you'll have to plan a trip to Nepal. It's quite an adventure.
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