We dawned the four (Victor, Irene, Laura, and Raul) in Kathmandu after spending the night telling us war stories and left the hotel to head to Pokhara. Here, we enlisted things to do in Pokhara. Our journey started by bus. The tourist bus that joins the two cities costs 23 dollars and leaves every day at 7 in the morning. We thought it was too expensive. So, we opted to go to the local bus station and take the first one to go to our next destination, and that the hotel owner had already offered us a tourist tour for much less than half.
Things to do in Pokhara
Almost all the websites recommend that you do not take local buses for safety, but our adventurous spirit was put before us back to everything else. With this, we do not mean that this way of traveling as Low Cost is better than any other, but today we have to tighten our belts if we want to comply with the itinerary and the budget.
Journey on a local bus
The journey on the local bus was quite heavy because it took us about 7 hours to get there, but we managed to catch the point of the trip, and we had a great time watching video clips of Nepalese Bollywood songs on the little TV that the bus had. Engage. We were stuck watching the screen and trying to decipher the story they told in each video. Also, we learned two very important things from our fellow travelers who have been backpacking for 6 months.
The first is that we are wearing too many clothes and that we have to try to put the washing machine every 15 days and not on the fourth day of arriving as we had already done. The second that being the low season is much better to the hotel chosen by booking but without booking it and when you get there, bargain to get a better offer.
When we got off the bus in Pokhara, the locals took us to their respective hotels and without realizing it we mounted a performance with more tension than the Masterchef semifinal, where the two finalist candidates exposed the advantages of their businesses before the astonished gaze of the taxi drivers and ours. I, Irene, took the lead and after a brief dramatic break I communicated the decision to the winner and consoled the expelled.
Lake Phewa
The decision was very successful, and we ended up at the Hotel Lake Breeze, in the northern part of Lake Phewa, in deluxe rooms that on booking cost 21 dollars for 1,260 Nepali rupees (about 10.5 euros). There was some problem with the hot water that was finally solved, but in general, they were quite nice.
The next day we woke up with a sun of scandal (because at night it rains) and we went for a walk and ate something near the lake.
Main city
Pokhara is the third largest city in Nepal and not that it has much to do, but we found it very welcoming and gave us good vibes. And that it rains a lot, but almost always at night. The first thing we did was get prepared the trekking we would do two days later and the route chosen was that of Poon Hill, from where you can see a part of the Himalayas. We decided to do it on our own, without a guide or agency (which is perfectly feasible because it is very simple).
So we downloaded the track to take it in the maps application and went to the tourist office to pay the necessary fees to carry it out. You have to pay 20 dollars per person for the conservation of the environment and another 20 per person for the TIM, which is what allows them to know where you are at each moment in case something happens to you. If you take a guide, it costs you 10 dollars.
Trekking
Until the day of the trek, we spent time enjoying Pokhara and reconciled with the cuisine, although almost everything we have been taking is more Indian than Nepalese. We found a small site, the PP Local Restaurant, which for 800 rupees (6.6 euros) we put all four up. If you go, do not stop asking for the sesame chicken and the veg fry rice. For breakfast, we went to the Flavors to have scrambled eggs with toast and tea, for 100 rupees each (less than € 1). Another thing that we loved about this city, especially me, was the cinema.
Movie garden
The movie Garden (you can find it on Facebook with that name), a small open-air bar with a large screen where they show films of all kinds. It costs 240 rupees (2 euros), and you can buy soft drinks, beer, pizza, and popcorn. The day we went we put 7 years in Tibet. Very own just before climbing the mountains.
As for temples, we went to see the famous pagoda of peace. We negotiated with a taxi driver to get us up to where he is, on top of an 1100 meter high mountain and we got it for 500 rupees (4.1 euros). It is a Buddhist stupa, built in 1973 and contains relics of the Buddha. It was made with the aim of uniting all races and religions in search of world peace.
Watch Annapurna
The views from there are quite beautiful. You can see the whole city, the lake, and on a clear day, you can see the mountain range of the Annapurna. We did not have that luck until the last day before the trekking that just by seeing the snowy point we already cried of the emotion.
After seeing the monument we walked down through the forest to the lake, and there we took a boat for 500 rupees and had a nice walk. We even sang songs to our boatman, a 63-year-old Nepalese who told us that there was little tourism and he was hungry. We take this opportunity to repeat that you come to Nepal, what is missing!
And finally, this time I choose (Irene) the song that I knew years ago that there were lakes in Pokhara and since then I’ve always wanted to come.