Sunday, 22 November 2015

22nd – The beginning of the end (Birethanti (1025m) – Pokhara (820m))

Morning routine was as usual except for the fact that breakfast wasn’t until 0830. Departing we started the day with a short half an hour walk which brought us through the village we were staying in and getting us to the bus stop where our private bus was already waiting for us. At 1130 we arrived at our hotel in Pokhara after a mostly paved drive.

Despite it being Sunday most children seemed to be on their way to school while we were passing through; wearing school uniforms and all walking in the same direction gave it away.

On arrival in Pokhara we were given an hour to get our rooms and to a nearby ATM if necessary before saying goodbye to the assistant guide and porters and handing over their tips. We also had complete group photos taken; while going through the cameras an elderly local man came by and wanted to join in the photo and it was very difficult to make him understand we weren’t interested in having him there – even when our guide took hold of him and led him to the other side of the street. At one point he claimed “I like all foreign countries! Except India!” but it would end up being nearly impossible convincing him we were Indians in an attempt to leave us alone.

During the one hour our guide had fed the porters and assistant guide and after the photo session we said our final goodbyes.

Until meeting for dinner at the hotel at 1830 we had a free schedule and most of us went out for lunch nearby followed by spending an hour on rental boats on Pokhara lake. Having a short walk around in the neighborhood we ended up in a bar with drinks and card games.

Dinner was nice (when our guide talked about the restaurant for dinner we all heard the name “Rambo”. We found out when arriving that that was heard wrong; the name was “Rainbow”) and we ended the night at a bar/nightclub. It was weird being the tall one; standing next to the dance floor I could only see a layer of heads jumping up and down. Much fun and drunkenness was had.

Being watched when going through the village.

A quick look of the mountains just after leaving Birethanti.

View from the boats.

The group before saying goodbye to the porters and assistant guide.
You can just see the shadow from the old local guy to the right.

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