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After the trek and Sandy’s solo exploration of Pokhara, we had about a week-and-half to explore the area together and enjoy some relaxation time. In terms of normal life tasks, we took the opportunity to get laundry done a couple of times, we moved from the top floor apartment to the ground floor apartment – I think this was our most economical lodging of the journey so far at $10 per night and the apartment was perfectly fine – a little smaller than upstairs, but very comfortable. We had our normal month-end office day on the first of the month (so really, a month-start office day). We also had a well-equipped gym near the apartment and we did two of our workouts there – $4 per person per visit. We went for a four-mile run together by the lake. I hit a rock during the run and later felt like maybe I broke my toe. I didn’t but it was not its normal color for quite a few days afterward. Rest, Ice, and Elevation helped. We didn’t have ice, so we used our fruit jam jar from the refrigerator.

As far as our meals, we mixed in some breakfasts at home with breakfast out. Our favorites included The Juicery (goat cheese frittata for me and crab omelet for Sandy), Pokhara Java (veggie omelet for Sandy and eggs Benedict for me one time and then another time, French toast and eggs for each of us), and Vegan Way (avocado toast for me and a feta cheese omelet for Sandy). The Juicery has been previously documented – it has three locations in Pokhara with the one at the north part of Lake Side our favorite – nice views of the lake and lots of plants to give it a garden feel. Pokhara Java is on the main road down to Lake Side, so not the same kind of view, but a very comfortable and open-air environment. Vegan Way is quite close to The Juicery and has a similar feel but feels busier with people than The Juicery.

For lunches, again, we mixed in some PB & Js at home with lunches out at The Juicery (Greek Salad, Mexican Burrito that was one of my favorite meals in Pokhara, and potato salad). One of our lunches at The Juicery was on a day when it totally down poured – we had to wait in a building entrance for a while to let the rain calm a little. As we were spending time at The Juicery, we met Yulia and Andrii (she is from Russia and he is from Ukraine and that creates a difficult subject for the two of them when it comes up so they try to avoid talking about it). They were very fun to talk with – she is a tour guide and was headed to lead a group in The Maldives the next day after having recently finished a trek in the Annapurnas. He was staying in Pokhara while she went to The Maldives – they have been travelling together full-time for more than five years. We learned that they were also staying in the Orange Apartments, like us. 

Dinners were mainly out, although we made veggie omelets at home one night. Our dinners included a really fun time at Relax with our friends from Utrecht, Evi and Okke. I had the BBQ Chicken Burger and Sandy had veggie momos with buckwheat fries. Evi’s birthday was the next day, so we went to the ice cream shop afterward to celebrate.

The ice cream shop had the Nepal-Bangladesh women’s football match on and sadly, Nepal lost. This was the final of a south Asian tournament. Nepal beat India in the semi-final in what was one of the craziest matches anybody has ever seen. Check it out if you are interested in crazy football matches – the craziness starts late in the second half. We can’t wait to meet up again with Evi and Okke and our friend, Pieter who we met in Mongolia. They are all from Utrecht.

Another dinner was at Little Windows (I had a chocolate banana crepe and Sandy had eggs, avocado, and spinach). My favorite dinner restaurant was Moondance and we ate there twice (Sandy had fish n chips and I had my first beef steak since Europe, I think, and then the second time we both had lasagna, which was fantastic). There is an OR2K location in Pokhara and we ate dinner there (Sandy had a goat cheese salad and I had the stuffed veggie peppers). Amici was another dinner spot (I had chicken mushroom pasta, Sandy had chicken avocado pasta, and then we shared a pineapple and ham pizza – better than what I thought because I don’t think I really thought pineapple belonged on a pizza). On my dad’s birthday (he would have been 82 this year), we went to The Irish Pub and toasted with a Guinness and a Ghorka; Sandy had a club sandwich and I had a beef burger. Royal Pizza was right by our apartment and we had chicken sizzlers with mashed potatoes and vegetables one night there – super friendly people. Finally, we were able to have a beer at Nepal Micropub (they have another location in Kathmandu and we went there when Sarah was visiting us) as well as check out Blues House, where they were playing blues music (not live) – Sandy had fish and I had spaghetti. French Creperie was always a good option when we wanted dessert – Sandy would get hot chocolate, banana, and coconut on a buckwheat crepe and I would get banana and Nutella on a regular crepe.

When we were hanging out, our tv shows of choice right now are Cheers, So You Think You Can Dance, and Masked Singer. I’ve been watching the Bucs games, Arsenal matches, South Florida games, and Florida State continue to lose.

The Tihar festival took place while we were in Pokhara. Tihar is the second largest festival in Nepal after Daishan and is a three-day national holiday. The festival is considered novel in that it shows reverence not only to the gods, but also to animals such as crows, cows, and dogs that have lived alongside humans for a long time. Homes and businesses are decorated with lights (much like Diwali). They also create artistic displays on the ground outside the business or home and light them with candles. There is a lot of singing and dancing, gambling and feasts and firecrackers. It was a good experience.

During our time in Pokhara, we found a really cool movie theater that is positioned in a beautiful outdoor garden (called The Movie Garden). They show a different film each night and we went to see Mama Mia – Here We Go Again and enjoyed popcorn and a large bottle of water. We weren’t underneath the roof, so there were a few small raindrops but nothing too bothersome. It was a really fun night and all for the total of $7.50 for both of us.

One of our sightseeing spots was the World Peace Pagoda. It is built high on a hill overlooking the lake and Pokhara. We hired a boat to take us across the lake to the trail to walk up the 40 minutes to the pagoda. There is a goal to build 100 of these around the world – several have been built in the United States and I believe around 80 have been built so far around the world.

Before we walked back down to town, we had lunch at a café near the pagoda – Sandy had veggie thulka and I had veggie chowmein. The walk down was steep but it was very interesting as it took us through a very nice residential part of Pokhara. We met Rashid on our way down – he is from India and was such a polite young man who was traveling for a few days by himself to Pokhara.

The US presidential election took place while we were here. I wanted to watch as much coverage as I could and the timing was good. The results were starting to come in late night in the US, which was morning time in Nepal. I watched several hours of coverage and regardless of the players, I am always fascinated by our unique process in America.

One of our biggest highlights took place on Thursday and Friday of this past week. Dikesh and his friend Bidhan arranged for us to spend a night at the ashram where Bidhan volunteers. The ashram is led by an enlightened master (a Guru) and courses are offered to help people achieve more out of their lives – help them on their personal path toward enlightenment. The courses range in duration – there was a five-day course taking place while we were there with people mostly from Nepal, although there were a couple of Americans (of Nepalese descent) and some other countries. Bidhan picked us up with a taxi a little after 11am on Thursday and we arrived at the ashram (Eco Spiritual Yogashram) a little before Noon. We had tea and fruit in our room, which was great – it was on a corner and had windows overlooking the valley and the Himalayas in the distance.   We have slept on some very hard mattresses during our travels.  Although this one was several inches thick, it truly felt like we were sleeping on a yoga mat (which is probably intentional). 

Bidhan came with sugar cane freshly cut for us to try and then we took a tour of the ashram with Bidhan and Aloka, who lives in Kathmandu and speaks very good English. We had dal bhat for lunch and then went on a hike to the cave in the afternoon. We all meditated for a short time inside the cave.

Dinner was one of the best dishes we have had in Nepal – it was pea paneer and tortillas. We went to watch the group chant for a short time before calling it a day. We were up early Friday morning. While Sandy stayed to watch sunrise from the room, I went on a hike with Bidhan.

It was a cloudy and foggy morning, which meant that we didn’t get great views of the mountains or the lake, but there were hot air balloons that were relaxing to watch. On the way back, Bidhan stopped at a friend’s house and I met Garret and his wife. He is from Germany and they have built a beautiful home in the middle of nowhere, on the side of a mountain overlooking a stunning landscape. Back at the ashram, we had breakfast and then had a chance to meet the Guru. He spent around 45 minutes with us and we covered topics such as Trump and his clumsiness (loved that word), no war, Elon Musk and how he is like a Messiah, and Leonardo DaVinci. We also talked about relationships and how his is smooth as silk with his wife, and how one of his students set a Guinness World Record for the longest time holding the yoga tree pose in 2021 – an incredible 3 hours and 50 minutes!  We then had a chance to meet the Guru’s wife and talk with her – she is a reiki teacher and we talked about natural energy. After changing clothes, we walked down to the river and enjoyed the cascading water and then back up to have lunch (dal bhat) and get our taxi back to Pokhara.

On the short walk to the taxi, Bidhan had another of his friends at a farm give us some of her homemade yogurt made from buffalo milk. We were back in Pokhara at 3pm and we were so grateful to have been able to have this kind of experience.  We will always remember Bidhan’s abundant energy (oh, to be 19 years old!)!  He ran everywhere and was continually saying “let’s go”. 

We could easily stay in Pokhara for a much longer time frame. It seems to be one of those places you can find and end up not ever leaving.