Only a few days left....already?

We are back in Kathmandu after spending some time in Pokhara and the Annapurna region.  We left for our trek on the 18th and were supposed to end our trek in Phedi and return to Pokhara on the 23rd.  We had started at Nayapul, stayed in Urellli (sp?), then Ghorapani (and went to Poon Hill for the views), over to Tadapani and then Ghandruk (really unique village) and then somehow (not difficult to do with all the trails leading every which way) we didn't take a left to head down to the river and across for our last night so we ended up cutting the trek a day short and heading out through the town we came in through....oh well.

The area definitely had a different feel to it than the Khumbu region where we spent most of our time.  Since it was so much lower in elevation (the highest we got was only about 10,500 feet) there was a lot of farming which was beautiful to see.  I started reading The Snow Leopard as soon as we ended the trek which was written in the late 70's about a trip in the same general area and even though it is 40 years old the descriptions of what you see, and how people go about their daily life is exactly the same....it was really neat to read it after just being there. 

Since we now had an extra day in Pokhara we spent Monday visiting one of the Tibetan refugee settlements just outside of Pokhara.  We walked there which was interesting making our way across some of the people's land but it was a short walk and beats having to hassle with a taxi driver.

On Tuesday we took a taxi out to a couple of other lakes about 20 km outside of Pokhara, Begnas Tal and Rupa Tal.  The night before I felt adventurous and tried fish from Begnas Tal at one of the restaurants thinking that I'd better do that before I see the lake (there is trash everywhere and after I saw a lot of the lake at Pokhara I opted to not try the fish that had been caught there).  But, the bigger of the two lakes was actually really nice, and clean-looking.  We walked around there for a while, stopped for tea and to identify the mountains that we could see peaking out of some of the clouds and then decided to try to walk to Rupa Tal....not so straightforward.  We ended up taking a road up as high as we could and when we got there and couldn't see the lake.  We got off the road, battled a couple of mischief monkies, and found a sunny opening on someone's land with great views.  Hung out there for quite some time then decided to follow the signs to this lodge for some lunch.  Three girls were walking down the road from school, probably 3 years old to 6, and made sure to hold both my hands the rest of the walk there giggling all the way.  It was nice that they weren't just begging for sweets, school pens, and rupees like a lot of the other little kids that you see that whitey has conditioned to beg.  We got to the small lodge and what do you know, could see down to Rupa Tal.  It looked murky and not worthy of walking down to and the guy told us that it is only about 4 meters at the deepest but has 28 species of fish that they eat.  It was a great little place with almost 360 views.  After lunch headed back down the road and caught a bus back to Pokhara in time for dinner....if there is one thing we haven't been skimping on it is the food. 

Yesterday was the bus ride back to Kathmandu.  And today, Thanksgiving, we are going to spend out at Bodhanath which is one of the world's largest stupas and is a religious center to the huge population of Tibetan exhiles and monks.

I leave tomorrow evening but have about 30 hours to spend in Bangkok so will probably find a hotel and do a little bit of site seeing on Saturday before my 3 flights back to Seattle from Bangkok. 

I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving!....and I wouldn't object to someone saving me a little bit of turkey and stuffing;)