Nepal 2: Pokhara to Low Camp

After eating and sleeping I woke up early in Pokhara, again ready to finally gaze upon snowy Himalayas.  I couldn’t see the Himalayan range but could see the foothills from our balcony and the air tasted so sweet particularly after Kathmandu.  It was warm but with a cool mountain breeze and sunny with a bit of haze.  There were butterflies and colorful birds and green grass with cows munching away.  The lake reflected bright green and brown hills.  I felt better right away as we ate our breakfast, drank our coffee and gazed out at the lake.

Nepal 1: Kathmandu to Pokhara

            We got into Kathmandu at midnight, exhausted from a 5-hour flight from Hong Kong and a 6 hour layover in Delhi.  Adriana, Monica and I could tell before leaving the airport that we were not in Hong Kong anymore.  Dusty concrete floors led us past blocked off, newly painted white walls into a square brick room with low ceilings and crowds cluttered around in tight groups.

          We queued, then entered details into a visa-processing machine, then queued some more and paid a fee.  We posed for pictures, got inspected, got stamped, got welcomed to Nepal—then staggered to the money exchange counter where 300 US dollars gave me more 500 rupee notes then I reckoned I could spend in an entire lifetime.  Crowds pushed by as I crammed rupees into my wallet, passport holder and three different pockets.

We got a taxi and headed for the tourist district Thamel through dark, narrow, dusty streets.  There were tiny brick shacks held up by scaffolding and already we saw piles of bricks left behind by the earthquake.