The original itinerary had us driving from Kathmandu to Pokhara, but when I had dinner with Morgan in the city a few weeks ago, he strongly recommended that I go by plane instead.
“They’re doing roadworks on the whole stretch of highway. Not in sections; they’re working on the whole highway at once. What should take 3 hours takes 9.”

Yikes!

Added to that, a section of the highway is damaged by the landslides that happened 2 weeks ago, so our whole group elected to fly. None of us are keen to go near any unstable mountainsides. Our guide flew with us, which was handy.

So I’ve booked 2 domestic flights, plus a scenic flight around Mt Everest on the last day. I’m really looking forward to that one.

The photo is the view we had from the terrace where we had lunch. It was all very tranquil and peaceful.

Apples, anyone?

After lunch, I went shopping. I need some hot weather clothes for Egypt in November, so 4 pairs of trousers …

… and one hemp top later, I raced back to the hotel to meet everyone for a boat ride on the lake. I got lost heading back, but luckily I had taken a photo of the hotel when we left for lunch. A nice man pointed the way for me. I was only one street off.

To be honest, I was expecting something a little more high tech than a paddle boat. But the price was right… $10 for an hour for all7 of us. Unbelievable.

This isn’t high season, so most boats were unoccupied. It must be jam-packed in their summer.

Macy had first go, alongside our 80 year old captain.

I love how the people here are unafraid of colour.

As we rounded the corner, we could see a little island in the middle of the lake.

We swung around behind the island and pulled up to a little jetty. We had arrived at the Tal Barahi Mandir temple in the middle of Lake Fewa.

This is the most famous temple in Pokhara. It’s only accessible by boat.

Pilgrims come here, mainly in October and May.

Lonely hearts come here to pray for their perfect match, while newlyweds come to pray for a long and harmonious life together.

The temple was destroyed by floods a few years ago, so locals did a fundraiser that took a long while before they could rebuild. Another few months and it’ll be finished.

This is the temporary temple that the locals put up for people to use in the meantime.

They sacrifice animals here. At first the people come to pray and ask for a favour from the gods. Once it is granted, they bring their sacrifice of a goat, a chicken or a duck. If they don’t bring animals , they bring coconuts.
Pigeons are also brought here as thanks to the gods for a job well done, but for some reason – lucky for the pigeons – they’re released instead of being killed.
At least, not being killed by the humans. I noticed a fair few eagles hanging around this temple…


While we were there, two girls brought a coconut and cracked it open. They spilt some of the coconut milk at the temple. A goat/chicken/duck is still walking around because of their decision.

Russell and Rob took turns on paddling the boat on the way back.
When someone tried to give Russell shtick about how he was performing, he shot back with, “We’ve got a combined age of 157 years here!”

We ended the day with a meal at an Italian restaurant just around the corner on the main drag. It was a really good night, with lots of good conversation and excellent food.

With so few people in the group, it’s impossible to avoid people who rub you the wrong way.
*cough Jean-from-the-South-America-trip cough **

It appears that the 6 of us get along really well. Thank god!

Tomorrow we have to meet in the lobby at 4:50 AM. Apparently, we’re going to see the sunrise.

Ugh. It better be worth it!

Dad joke of the day: