Okay, so Day Two in Nepal. The plan was to take a bus to Pokhara, the second biggest tourist city in Nepal, home to the Annapurna mountains. Arriving at the bus stand, we dosciver that Maoist rebels have taken control of the highways and the bus is cancelled. No road traffic for the whole day. Apparently its common for this to happen and it usually only lasts for a day, but that didn't really help us considering we were only in the country for like 5 days total. K. had planned to meet a friend and really wanted to head out there, so we forked over the money to take a 20 minute plane ride there.
Arriving at the airport, it was so weird to see how many domestic carriers existed for such a small country. It was probably twice the size of the international airport section we arrived at (!). Flying just above the clounds reminded me again of Girl with a Pearl Earring (the book, not the movie) (what colour is a cloud?) Seeing these white, puffy, cotton balls in the sky is my favorite thing about flying and the view of the cities and landscape was worth the extra money to fly here and not miss this part of the country!
Once we got there, apparently everything in the entire COUNTRY was closed due to the revolt. We had to overpay a taxi to tak us to our hostel. Considering how often these revolts happen, I was surposed at how much it still stops everything. Since we couldn't get rickshaws or CNGs into town and around, we decided to rent bikes and just rise. Armed with a small map with no names, we set off to see Pokhara. First stop: a Hindu temple (Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave) where a stalagmite in a cave was worshipped as Shiva. Next: getting lost trying to find a waterfall. Then we were watched by an entire family (5 sisters!) while we ate lunch. Although we found a bunch of temples on the map, we missed all of these and then finally, we came across a monastry emerging from the top of a mountain (Karma Dubgyu Chokhorling Monastery). Climbing a ridiculous amount of steps, we ran into two girls who were kind enough to show us . Other than the amazing view, it was completely peacful with the soft boom of the drums.
On the way back, we crossed a bridge and my bike faltered over a bump. Catching my balance and trying to be aware of my surroundings, I looked to the river below. Looking back up, out of nowhere, the Annapurna mountains emerged (our first glimpse!). As if cloudy Nepal couldn't get any better, the clounds parted and it did. I tried to follow the mountain ridge, but unfortunately, it disappeared behind some clouds. Being completely ecstatic at having seen one mountain, I could return to Bangladesh.
We stopped at this big lake (Phewa Tal - apparently famous in Nepal) on the way back and K. really wanted to oar a boat - appaarently he didn't get how difficult it could be. After about 15 minutes, he was really tired and gave up. We got to watch a beautiful sunset and if it hadn't been so cloudy, apparently the mountains reflect into the lake. I've decided I want my honeymoon here, haha. Apparently you can also go paragliding here!
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