NEPAL: DAY 4

Pokhara

Lake Phewa

Yes, I am still at Pokhara. I stayed here (Lakeside Hotel) for two nights and one of the best thing of all is that there was free WIFI. I mean who can live without Internet these days. My hotel is just located next to Phewa Lake.

 

The scenery taken from the Hotel.

 

It was all about taking in the sights at Pokhara today as it was also the election day for Nepalese.As such there was no public transport on road and cars/buses as they were disallowed to be used today (I do not know why though and I thought transportation will help heaps during this period).

 

Morning walk on the village road which leads to Pokhara Market place

 

Shops at the Pokhara Market Place

Pokhara Market Place

It was a free and easy day as opposed to the day before. It was SHOPPING day. Hurrah!

 

There were so many shops and so many things to buy, BUT the ultimate is to purchase original (and not fake acyclic) cashmere sweaters, pashmina and blankets.

 

"Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from Cashmere goats and other types of goat. The word cashmere derives from an old spelling of Kashmir. Cashmere is fine in texture, strong, light, and soft. Garments made from it provide excellent insulation." - taken from Wikipedia.

 

There are an extensive range of sweater, pashmina and blankets to choose from the materials available. I chose a decent enough material for a blanket which I purchase to be used at home for my children. My kids like light and warm blanket so the blanket I purchase was perfect.I think the most important is to know your material well enough so that you would not be duped by the sellers. 

 

Next trip is down Phewa Lake. Even though it was 18 degrees that day, it was still a very sunny day and the best thing was to ride a boat with SHELTER.



Phewa Lake

 

Scenery taken at Phewa Lake

 

The tour of the lake took an hour. I stopped in the middle of the lake to visit a temple which was erected on a small island in the middle of the lake. It was a temple where most Nepalese who wishes to get married immediately can do so before the temple.

 

 

The day ended rather early as due to lack or non existent transportation on the road, I settled at the Hotel and waiting for the next day journey back to Kathmandu.

 

More tomorrow :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEPAL: DAY 3

Chitwan National Park

Elephant Ride

Woke up early for my elephant ride at the National Park.

The ride was approximately one hour and it was really interesting even though this was my second time on the elephant, the first was when I was in India.

 

Explored the jungle on an elephant is rather surreal as I was high above and it needed some adjustments from your body as I was sitting on a wood framed box like chair and it was not that comfortable as I have to bend my body slightly to follow the movement of the elephant. I ended up with a sore back at the end of it. 

 

 

 

The elephant rides

 

I saw various species of birds and animals whilst touring on the elephant. The best of all was seeing the one horn rhinoceros. My guide told me that I was lucky as out of all tours that he had taken only two out of his ten trips that he was able to see the rhinoceros (I actually saw a total of four rhinos on this trip).

 

 

Baby Rhino & Mummy

Back of my elephant's head

Deers in the jungle 

Pokhara

After the elephant ride, I went back to the hotel to pack up to head to Pokhara. The trip to Pokhara took about 4 hours even though it was only 40km away (again due to the condition of the road and the traffic).

Tibetan Refugee Camp

I arrived at Pokhara and visited the Tashiling Tibetan Refugee Camp. The Tibetan Camp in Nepal was established for the refugees of the Tibetan who escaped when the Dalai Lama escaped from Tibet to India. There are religious buildings, school, accommodations and shops within the boundaries of the Camp. Due to constraint of time I managed to visit the handicraft centre and right next to it a carpet making little house where the Tibetan spend their day sorting out yak wool before its spun into carpet.

  

I was told that elderly ladies have the duties to sort out the yak wool and where as spinning and the making of the carpet is left to younger women with better eye sight.

Carpet Making

 

 

I bought a carpet (more like a rug) and some handicrafts for friends and family to help out the community there. I mean just imagine if you are foreigner living in another country due to the political turmoil in your own country you are almost always be considered a second class citizen regardless of how great the adopted country is (well this is just my opinion anyhow - even sometimes living in your own country makes you feel like a third class citizen, so go figure).

Davis Fall

After that I visited Davis Fall (the locals call it Devis Fall). The story is that there was a lady and her husband was taking bath in the river before the fall by the name of Davis who got washed off from the rising water. Her husband survived whereas she did not and it took great efforts to extract her body from the waterfall due to the strong undercurrent.

 

 

Davis Fall

Gupteswore Mahadev Cave

I did a quick stop at the Cave which also housed a temple in it. I did not spend too long in there as the cave was dark and has a really bad musky scent to it (bat poo poo). This cave holds special values to Hindus since a phallic symbol of Lord Shiva is preserved here in the condition that it was found. I generally found it too dark for my liking and no pictures were allowed to be taken in the temple/cave.

 

 

The entrance to the temple/cave.

 

Day 3 came to a halt after the visit to the temple. I stayed at the lake side, the biggest lake in Nepal I think, Lake Phewa.

The view taken from the bus on my way to the Hotel. You can see the Fishtail Summit as well as the Himalaya and Mt. Annapurna Ranges on a clear day such as this.

 

Sleep is much needed at this point to ease the back and buttock pain. Ha ha.

 

Nite.