Pokhara times

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

So relaxed right now... although today has probably been one of the more eventful of the past week. I'll start from the beginning.

While Marianne and Angie were still about we enjoyed (as far as I'm aware) going out for dinner together but spent the majority of the three days apart from one another. I spent my time, mostly shopping and drinking coffee and drawing/writing.

We spent one day visiting a Tibetan refugee camp - which made me a little sad - about their situation in general. I felt obliged to shop to make it up to them (just some jewelry and cymbals and prayer flags etc.). They had a carpet warehouse which was interesting - and I wanted many carpets but managed to restrain myself as any but the magical kind would be far too heavy to lug around India, plus, they were rather on the pricey side. There was also a guest house which apparently no one uses, Marianne explained it was probably because no one knew it was there... There was a monastry where we saw monks making a sand mandala. It was interesting. This was also the day that the three of us had dinner at Olive cafe - which if you go to Pokhara in the not too distant future will probably be the best restaurant on lakeside and you should go there. They didn't even pay me to say that. The croissants are actually rather good - I'm not sure what the other 'croissants' being sold here actually are... I've put on weight and I shall blame the chocolate cake with ice cream (I return to being vegan from tomorrow (I've said that most days this week.))


So I've been here a week and literally most of my diary entries are talking about my lazy days, and how I just sit around, drinking, eating, drawing, reading and writing and generally being a little peeved about the lack of mountains (the weather is, unusually for Pokhara, worse than Britain's at the moment.)

I made friends with the guys who work at the hotel Bednidhi and Purna as well as Bija -the guy who runs the bike rental out the front. This has made life much nicer as I've had someone to talk to. Having said that - as soon as Angie and I arrived here Pokhara felt like some crazy trekking reunion - it's great the number of people you bump into that you've been bumping into trekking. I also met up with the Scottish girls (not sure if I mentioned them previously) Jen and Ruthie, we went out to dinner a couple of times, and Jen and I went Pedaloeing on the lake which was fun despite the fact that the lake and surrounding scenery was just a blur of different shades of grey. I showed Jen this yoga retreat thing I had booked to go to for approx 3 days - we looked it up online - seeing how hardcore it all was (waking at 5!!! Nasal cleansing!!! Mud baths which were just pots shared in a garden!!!) I decided it wasn't the sort of retreat I wanted and as I was quite enjoying chatting to the hotel guys and Jen and Ruthie I decided to stay in town. Jen and Ruthie then left me to go there!

Jen had talked of visiting the eco village that the hotel Marigold, where I'm staying, runs. I was interested, so I spoke to the Bednidhi who tried to convince me to go there most days. To be honest - I was shamefully lazy (although everyone needs a break and lots of chocolate, especially after a trek) and the weather was just a tad oppressive and made me want to sit in cafes hugging coffees and books. So I did. Today I decided to go - So Purna and I cycled there - at my request - in part because conversations about my fat were beginning to get to me, but also because 20km didn't sound that far. (I did do it in under an hour before... ) So as it was up most of the way and we stopped a few times it ended up taking 4 hours to get there. It should have taken 2. And I've never been on a more uncomfortable bike ride! going uphill off-rode on a mountain bike with a saddle which I can only presume was made with steel is rather awful!
Then we arrived. It was so beautiful. I felt a little bit gutted immediately that I hasn't spent my week in this peaceful haven of marigolds and views of the frikkin' mountains! Even now I'm still not bored of seeing mountains - they're like fire or the sea. You can just stare indefinitely. Purna showed me where all the organic vegetables are grown, so I have lots of photos on my phone now of plants which I'll probably forget what they are when it comes to posting them on facebook. The little cottages where people stay were so quaint and the rooms named after mountains. The whole ethos of the place is right up my street - all environmentally friendly and what not. We had lunch and I met Purna's mother and father and brother and sister in law and their dog. There were no tourists there at the time. It would have been perfect for doing some drawing and writing. Don't dwell on it Mary, dont dwell on it.

the eco village : beautiful

And a few other things:

I've now seen the king's speech - at this delightful restaurant called T'hic T'hac or something... I ate a magic pot of something called Grandmother's secret and watched the movie. It was a wonderful evening. The manager also had a complementary drink sent to my table (ginger lemon and honey I think - I was a little worried it would be drugged so I drunk it slowly.... It wasn't.) I don't know why... I think maybe because I told him the A team wasn't the King's speech... they'd advertised the latter on a board outside..

I had a full body massage from a blind/semi blind person. There's this great place here where they train blind people in massage so that they can have an income. It was the hardest massage of my life so far, and I didn't really like it. But Marianne and Angie both liked theirs so maybe I'm just a little bit more of a woos than I realised...

I think that's it. I'm off to Chitwan National park tomorrow to see ANIMALS! How exciting. I'll let you all know how it goes. Although I may be in India when you next hear from me - who knows?