Pokhara was a great place to visit and I really enjoyed using it as a homebase for three weeks. I loved being by water again. Here’s a few highlights from my time in this town.
Across the lake is the World Peace Pagoda. After we were done with our trek a few of us from the trekking trip took a boat over and climbed up to the top. It offered great views of the lake and town of Pokhara.View of Pokhara from Peace Pagoda.When I arrived back into Pokhara after Chitwan, I did a three day meditation, yoga, and introduction into Buddhism retreat at the Ganden Yiga Chozin Buddist Meditation and Retreat Center. The center is associated with the Kopan Monastery.There was a prayer wheel in the lower level of the center. There were 16 of us from all corners of the world. I enjoyed learning more about the Buddhist philosophy especially as it relates to loving kindness and compassion.This was my view from the roof of my final hotel that I stayed in. When I was done with the retreat I had three days to relax and just enjoy the town of Pokhara. I took advantage of the time to catch up on sleep, writing in my journal, doing some blogging, and taking advantage of the spas! I was also able to catch up with a volunteer I had met at Her Farm. He was at the farm for a couple of days before his travels took him to Pokhara for some volunteer work. We had kept in touch so it was nice knowing someone in town to make some plans with.On my final day in Pokhara, I was invited to join one last trek with Archana and 3 Sisters. They picked me up early in the morning and we drove to Sarangkot to watch the sunrise.The views never got old. I absolutely loved my time in Pokhara and trekking in the Himalayas. I hope to go back one day. I woud like to spend more time their and do a longer trek next time.A fun story: This is Archana. Archana studied abroad and lived in the United States for six years. Of all the places to live in the US she lived in Monterey! During my planning stages two different people mentioned the trekking company 3 Sisters to me. They told me they had connections with the women that run the company because a family member of theirs had studied in Monterey. I looked into the company while planning but it didn’t look like trekking was going to be possible in my orginal plans. I got to Nepal and things began to shift. I had time for a trek after all. I reached out to 3 Sisters to see if there were any upcoming trekkking trips. Lucky me there was! There was a 5-day trek to Ghorepani/Poon Hill. Perfect. I signed up and traveled to Pokhara. My first day there I met Archana. We got to talking and in our conversation I learned one, she will be my trekking guide, and two, she was the connection to Monterey! She was the one that shared mutual contacts in Monterey! What a crazy, small world! Archana and 3 Sistres Trekking could not have been nicer or more helpful. When I arrived into Pokhara I was a bit frazzled after the nine hour and very bumpy bus ride from Kathmandu to Pokhara the day before. My trekking shoes needed to be fixed as the soles of the boots were coming undone, the cord to charge my phone was no longer working, and I still needed to pick up a few essentials for the trek. Archana could not have been more helpful in pointing me in the right direction to make sure things got done and got done properly. While 3 Sisters specializes in providing women trekkers with women guides and assistants, they do have male guides for groups/couples that have males trekking. I highly recommend 3 Sisters as a trekking resource for anyone traveling to Nepal. And if you’re lucky enough to have Archana as a guide tell her hello!After watching the sunrise we grabbed breakfast at a guesthouse before trekking two hours through villages.During the trek we came across wild poinsettia- both red and white. I have never seen it growing wild before. It’s beautiful.I am forgetting the name of this plant. It looks like watermelons but it’s not! I learned that this plant was used for washing clothes before detergent was invented. They would boil them to release the seeds while putting the clothes in to wash. It’s very toxic!This was a common site throughout Nepal – bamboo holding structures up during construction projects.After an early morning and day spent trekking I enjoyed one last beer at sunset on the lake. Next stop – Kathmandu!
Day two was pretty low key although we did an other Jeep safari ride in a different part of the park.
Sunset towards the end of our tour.We made it back in time to finish watching the sunset with a beer on the river. Fairly relaxing except for the crocodiles that we could see in the water or hanging out on the shoreline!I had a wonderful visit to Chitwan National Park. It was fun exploring a new area with a new friend. After three days it was time for me to head back to Pokhara and Morgane left for Kathmandu on her way to India.
Kelly Jo Travels 