Day 35 – Tansen to Pokhara – 28 Sep 2018
Waking up to a misty morning and cool weather, it was so good to be sitting on the terrace dining table of the Bashyal home, and then sipping a cup of coffee looking at the views from Tansen. After an authentic Nepali breakfast including Bara pancake, prepared by Abhishek’s mom, I thought of exploring some of the simple hiking routes shared by Abhishek during last night’s chit-chat.
- TOTAL KMS: 124 Kms
- TIME TAKEN: 4 hours 42 mins
- AVG FUEL EFFICIENCY: 17.5 Km/L
- ROUTE: Waling, Putali Bazar
- NHs: H10
- TOLL PAID: Nil
He had told that if we make a simple hike of half an hour from the Tansen Bazaar, we could have a gorgeous panoramic view of the major Himalayan mountains at a single stretch, including Annapurna! As wife and daughter were busy getting ready for the onward journey, I decided to make a lone hike to the mountain trying to explore the same, and was welcomed by serene and dense forest slopes on the way. Since it was very misty, I couldn’t get a decent view of the snow capped Himalayas once I reached the top, however the hike by itself in the cold weather was a refreshing feel for the morning.
By 10.30am, we left for Pokhara, which is 120kms from Tansen. It was expected to take around 4 hours because of the mountain roads. The winding roads offered one of the most spectacular views so far driving in Nepal!
And after a very smooth and relaxed drive, we reached Pokhara around 3PM and checked into our hotel which was right next to the Phewa lake.
Pokhara rests at the foot of the Annapurna ranges, and is one of the most popular trekking starting points. The Lakeside Pokhara where we were staying looked to be a tourist hub, resembling more of a European lifestyle. There were hundreds of cafes, and restaurants facing the lake, offering all kinds of food options – continental, Indian, Thai, Italian, French, Burmese, Chinese, Japanese and Nepali! The cafes, massage centres, adventure tourism and culture – all add to people flocking to Pokhara in large numbers.
Around 4:30pm, we reached the Phewa lake looking for a boat ride. But we were told that we don’t have enough time to go on a hike to the Stupa and so we decided to postpone the boat ride to the next day. We switched back to the favourite activity in our list – lie down, relax and melt your stress by simply watching the lake! This beautiful artificial lake was deep green in colour, reflecting the surrounding green mountains. There were very good shades offered by the lakeside trees, and we decided to sit beneath one of them, and enjoyed our evening.
Rest of the day, we just spent on window shopping( only window shopping because of the prices. All priced up for the tourists). When we decided to add Pokhara to our list of places in Nepal, we had planned for a trek. However, since things were not falling in place to trek with the kid, we dropped the plan and decided to spend only 2 nights in Pokhara just to enjoy the nature. As we walked around, we saw several tourist agencies offering adventure tourism, and out of curiosity, we stopped-by to learn more about them. They were offering paragliding above the Phewa lake, trekking to Annapurna, river rafting, kayaking and more importantly, wife was most excited seeing that they offer Helicopter tour to the Annapurna Base Camp! That is when we realised that there are Heli services to many of the base camps, but they were too costly! We thought for sometime, and then decided that we would rather skip such luxury, keep our trip economical, and come back later for an exclusive Nepal trip to enjoy all these, if time and fate favors! Roaming around the streets further, we chose to taste some of the junk food we have been missing for so long including a popcorn chicken from KFC and a scoop of Baskin Robbins ice cream! We had deliberately booked a spacious room with a small kitchenette and other facilities in Pokhara, as we had a two nights halt. After several days, we unloaded and unboxed our cooking materials from the car, which were unused most of the times, and the first thing to do was to make a proper Indian tea on the stove boiling the tea powder forever! Though we have made tea or coffee at all our stays using the kettle provided, this one was a bliss! We had a very comfortable and sound sleep that night!
Day 36 – Pokhara – 29 Sep 2018
As we had no plans for a trek or any other adventure sport, we spent our morning in the hotel itself. We enjoyed the breakfast provided at the hotel, and spent some time for laundry. Later on, I was completely occupied with the blog activities and wife was going to the hotel reception once in a while without telling anything. Around 11 o’clock, only when the doorbell rang, we realised that she was planning a surprise lunch for us. The room service folks came with a bag of vegetables and chicken, wife was co-ordinating with them to get the cooking materials from the market. She then managed to cook some homely food, including ghee rice, dal and chicken fry! It has been more than a month that we had some food like this, and that was really an awesome surprise!
After a quick nap post lunch, we got ready for the Shanti Stupa hike. We walked down the boat boarding area at Phewa Lake, and paid for the boat ride which included the hike as well. This means, the boat man will wait for us until we return back from the hike and will drop us back at the starting point. A friendly boat driver drove us through the calm Phewa lake and dropped us at the starting point of the ascend to the Peace Pagoda. The ride was so serene, as the lake looked calm and content, and we could see colourful parachutes floating above us in large numbers! There is a restaurant and few shops at the starting point of the hike to the Pagoda, in case we need to have something before the hike. We could see bunch of locals sitting at these restaurants and playing carroms! We packed up some soft drinks and eateries, and started climbing the endless steps ahead of us. Daughter was so excited initially and abruptly climbed up the steps, stopped in between to say hi to some of the milky white gooses spotted randomly, and climbed further until we reached a spectacular view point – the lake, the town of Pokhara, and the mountain ranges in the background!
The hike trail is well marked by the footsteps of many who visited the Peace pagoda before us and also there are markings on the way to guide. The steps looked never ending at times, and we finally reached a small pass with a restaurant, where we did a minor halt to breathe in. After few more ascends, we reached the garden of the Peace Pagoda! It took us 1 hour to climb up with the kid. It should normally take 45 minutes for others. And the best part is, our daughter walked up most of the way. A moong dal packet we had bought before starting the hike did the trick. She kept walking eating from the dal packet believing that will give her energy to climb all the way! We spent half an hour at the stupa just lost in its panoramic views, serenity and calmness, watching the people reverently spinning the prayer wheels clockwise!
However, daughter decided to stay on my shoulders while coming down. The trip had started paving wanderer instincts in her, that she suddenly got down from the shoulders at a view point and asked us to pose for a photo which she wanted to click. And that was her first photo of us, sitting under a banyan tree, facing the lake and enjoying a peaceful evening!
The boat man was waiting for us down the mountain, and we quickly rode back. We had a view of the crowded Varahi Mandir located in a small island in the middle of the Phewa Tal, however we did not stop-by.
We were dead tired after returning from the trek. We had dinner at a nearby cafe with some authentic fresh lake fish delicacies, and headed back to the the hotel soon! And that winds up a complete “no driving” day for us. We had not even moved the car from the parking slot.
It’s time for the capital city now. – Kathmandu, we are coming 🙂
Roads N Dreams 