Perfect Pokhara

Sunday 24th - Friday 29th May


Well after our early morning introduction to Pokhara the naughty Annapurna's hid themselves away behind cloud for the next few days, peeking out only briefly a few times a day. Pokhara is so relaxing and chilled out, exactly what we needed after Varanasi and such a long overland trip. We spent the first night in a hotel just to catch up on sleep, and the next day we set off to find a couchsurfer we had contacted- Ashiq. After a little bit of confusion we tracked him down, and we had met our first Kashmiri person. Despite living most of his life in Pokhara, Ashiq is 100% Kashmiri and loves talking about his homeland and showed us some spectacular photos from when his Father was a trekking guide (now we're kicking ourselves we didn't go to Kashmir)!
That night over a delicious dinner we met the rest of his family (the family currently in Pokhara that is) his sister Tabusan (16) and his cousin Ashfarq (16). Ashiq is only 18 but happily runs his fathers business while his mum and dad build a new family home back in Kashmir. There was another couchsurfer staying there from Greece, Rigas, who is an organic agriculture student doing some research in Nepal. Basically Ashiq and his family were so welcoming and generous we
felt instantly comfortable and it was almost like being home for a few days.

Pokhara was a great place to just hang out, we went row boating on the lake (when there was no wind), and sailing when there was wind (sort of). We hiked up to the 'world peace pagoda' and also watched the sun rise from Ashiq's balcony. We shopped, played pool, drank ice tea at lakeside cafes and just enjoyed being in Nepal around the laid back Nepalese and the welcoming
Kashmirs. There are actually quite a few Kashmiri people in Pokhara, they came here in the 90's to sell their handicrafts after the terrorists scared all the tourists out of Kashmir. We also met this poor kid who lives near Ashiq, he got sick when he was young and went deaf and dumb, his parents are divorced and have re-married with other children and don't care about him so now he just fends for himself basically. He lives in a room near his mother but cooks for himself and doesn't go to school- which is a shame cos he is a really clever kid, despite his disability he is able to communicate quite well, mostly because he wasn't born deaf. We also met another Aussie traveler, Michael, who is friends with Ashiq, and he joined us for dinner as well on our last night. Ashiq just knows everyone :)

Couchsurfing has made our trip so much more fun! Every time we meet a couchsurfer its a great experience, and I think the thing we will miss most about Pokhara is definitely the people we have met.

On Friday we set off for Kathmandu, another bumpy bus ride- but hopefully our last, as we have booked a flight back to Mumbai to avoid the 3-4 days of travel we would have had to have done.
And now we're in Kathmandu!