May 15, Kathmandu to Pokhara

Day 1: My trek to Lo-Manthang begins. It started off with an early flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, which is the third largest city in Nepal situated about 200-250km west of the Kathmandu valley.

For this trek to Lo-Manthang, let me introduce you to the team: I did this trek with a trekking company called 'Royal Mustang Trekking' which is actually owned and operated by the future king of Mustang, Jigme Bista. Jigme has actually been inaugurated as the King of Mustang some years back, however, in keeping with the culture of the kingdom, since the King himself is still alive, Jigme's title for now is the 'Crown prince of Mustang'. I first met Jigme a few days prior to my trek, dressed in plain clothes of jeans and a t-shirt one -- really not the royal dress code one would expect for a first meeting. But I was soon to learn that Jigme is an intelligent and down-to-earth man. It was refreshing and most welcomed. You will certainly hear me talk about Jigme a lot more in my future blog postings. Then there was Kunga Bista, my dedicated guide. His English was excellent and his knowledge base so vast and educational that everywhere we stopped this trek, every foreign person trekking to Lo-Manthang was impressed with him and his explanations. Then there was Gopi, my porter who complained that my bag was too light....lol!

At the airport in Kathmandu, I met a group of about 6 individuals largely from Taos, New Mexico aged between 60 and 78. They were a great bunch of people to chat to. On arrival in Pokhara (820 meters in altitude), I decided to branch out on my own and spend the day sight seeing in Pokhara. I hired a driver and headed down to Phewa Lake and ventured off in a dugout canoe across the lake to hike to the World Peace Pagoda. The pagoda was described in the brochure at the hotel as being a 'Buddhist monastery with an idyllic location on a high ridge overlooking the himalaya range' - and that it was!

My hike to the holy shrine was about 35 minutes or so, but provided a scenic view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. The hike weaved its way up and in-between a forest that echoed with the sound of birds chirping and nothing but a slight cool breeze. Once I reached the top I took a few minutes to enjoy the view down below, Pokhara (reminded me of little Britain - 'If you look to the right, you will see Pokhara. If you look to the left you will see Pokhara.'.....lol) stunning. It was amazing how different this city was from Kathmandu, firstly purely on a visability perspective, much more green spaces and the air OMG, I was beginning to forget what breathing in fresh air felt like. And literally all you could hear for miles on end, was birds and prayer flags waving to the wind, cows and goats in the fields with the ringing of their neck bells. I could very easily have laid down on the ground and fell asleep :-) Instead I walked around, had a snack and took advantage of the 360-degree view on offer and then hiked back down a different route to my waiting car and driver.

Next stop was Tibetan (refugee) village in Pokhara, which was interesting as a workshop for the manufacture of Tibetan arts and crafts and perhaps more so for the production of hand woven Tibetan rugs. Next I stopped off at 'Patale Chhango-Devis Falls' (strange rock formation which leads to a dramatic waterfall several meters below land level). As interesting as that was, I headed across the road to 'Gupteshwar Mahadev Cave'. As I walked through this damp cave with bat dung-covered floors and walls, I made my way to the bottom and towards the 'light'/end, which proved to be rather quite surprising. What appeared to be light, turned out to be a crack in the cave's core and provided a view of the Patale Chhango-Devis Falls hitting the river bed as it rushed further below the earth's crust - surprising and awe-inspiring all at the same time.

For me, that was enough of Pokhara for one day and I headed off back to the hotel to rest my feet alongside the pool and watched the clouds disappear and expose a mountain range with snow covered peaks. What a sight :-)!