White snow bright sheets and doona, plus soft pillows, plus hot water. Died and gone to heaven. As Pokhara is on it's off season it is also fairly quiet. Season starts to wind down in November and cranks up again in February all based around trekking into the hills. This also means that there are zillions of hotels, restaurants and stores all that little bit more desperate for your cash. Which is good and bad. Having been through some desperately poor parts of nepal, you sense desperation, and it is not something that you want to be part of.
It is also an aspect of want and need. Many villages we have passed are subsistently okay, sure some possibly frugal and limited options but without exposure to unusual weather or external forces they can get by. But exposure to alternate options and lifestyles creates desire and a desperation for a better life. The recurring difficulty is in putting a finger on better. Easier and increased life of leisure, maybe, but there is plenty of downtime for a lot of people, driven by season or need rather then choice. In the main this is not world aid territory, yes developing but the people with great pride get on. The problem being the gap and disparity of shared wealth.
In India the population felt overwhelming and you still had a sense of breed for survival in certain sectors. But in Nepal there is an aspect but as a smaller country and smaller spread of population the exposure to it is less significant.
First stop AM/PM for a flat white followed by a machiatto, cinnamon roll and granola. The same value for what would have fed us fried (which a lot of the early morning snack food is) food for four breakfasts. As mentioned before many traditional nepalis eat breakfast at ten, dhal bhat followed by dinner at 6pm, dhal bhat. The dhal bhat is a very big meal with plenty of rice for fill. In between these times depending upon access all that is available are snacks such as samosa, doughnuts Nepali style, sweat treats.. (if affordable) or tea for most.
Today we have named a rest day to get a feel for Dam side and Lake side, the location of the tourist end of Pokhara, which is Nepal's second largest city after Kathmandu.
A few things being on the shopping list, trekking options/details, trekking pant/shoes, toilet paper etc. Oh and possibly a massage. We headed in the direction of the Nepali Tourism office first to address the first. This brought us into the immediate realization that trekking stores here have bred like rabbits and North Face is an extremely popular brand to rip off. As I think mentioned at McLeod Ganj. Same with Mountain Hardware and Mammut. (but nothing compares to North Face) Someone somewhere has the logos programmed into their embroidery machines and are going nuts, in fact it doesn't matter where on the clothing, but the logo will be there. Buttons sometimes logo sometimes not.
Not to say that the brand makes the clothing, but it helps with the cut and fabric, let alone pricing. I saw a pair in the morning and by evening had purveyed hundreds of similar pant/short combos all very similiar but different in small ways such as level of finish, zips etc. Generally the one you picked was the "original" versus the other cheaper options, and if morning then morning special was applicable. Initially I thought this was one store's peculiarity to start a selling trend, but it was repeated in many locations, excluding food where discounts are not discussed. In fact the majority of food places here have an automatic service charge of 10%. In someways I prefer the service free locations further south, that way it was up to them if they wanted to be nice. Soph definitely riles at the concept, still in many situations I guess I may have tipped similar. But it is the places that charge almost european prices and then whack you with the service charge that give you the &@$^s. It's like double dipping.
There is some great crafty sort of stuff here, for some reason a hemp and organic industry has also grown up in pokhara. Whether earthy types also come to the mountains or one goes into the mountains in trekking clothes and comes out in hemp I am not sure. It is actually quite cool, but seems at odds with the commercialism in other sectors, not to mention the true earthiness out in the villages. The same when you consider is repeated in other touristy towns, Byron or the Blue Mountains for example.
Great felting, book stores,Tibetan thanka painting, Tibetan Knicks knacks, natural papers etc. But for every one of these there has to be three trekking shops. Also paragliding, mountain biking and kayaking. Mountain bike wise there are commercial, giant, trek etc. Kayaking is mainly connected with the rivers when they run higher and paragliding from Sarangkot which I imagine gains fantastic views of not just the Annapurna behind but also Phewa lake, peace pagoda etc.
Settle into the German bakery over on Dam side for apple crumble, a salad,cheese and meat platter and a banana lassi. Great food, Soph also has a sesame topped brown bread roll, as it is not common to find, if good baked bread. Backout onto the streets and around to the tourist info where the staff are particularly helpful, a nice change from official Himachal and Uttrakhand tourism officers who were, when found, generally so so. Turns out we will need to pay 2000 rup pp to enter the conservation area, plus as we will be going without a guide a TIMS card and a further 1600 rup pp. Sounds a lot but to assist manage the area, provide checks and maintain trails not too bad.
Instead of heading straight back into Lake side we head North to Shrijana Chowk before turning west to the lake again. The city outside of the Lake and dam side areas definitely has a more Nepali feel, though with a noticeable metro edge. No ox carts, but still these front wheel drive mini me tractors which pull freight around the city. Also taxi vans, that unless packed drive around with the sliding door open which reminds me too much of hostage movies to feel drawn to. If packed and I mean stuffed like a metal human sausage, sometimes the door is closed, whether as a safety precaution or ward against further stuffing I am not sure.
Soph is starting to grind her teeth at the never ending pant shopping, as we pass the thirtieth store mark which feels like one hundred. I can't hear the noise but extra sensory skills seem to come with marriage. Whether arch of the back or the eyebrow, it is time to throw in the towel for the day. Time out down by the lake side watching the paragliders come in over the lake with the sun setting to the side of the peace pagoda on the Rani Ban hill top.
Dinner at the Pokhara Pizza House just trying to make up lost time. I am craving non sweatened tomato sauce and crisp bases. We get tomato sauce, at least. Maybe tomorrow we should go to Fired Wood Pizza, sounds well cooked.
Back to the hotel as the stores start packing up, treks to plan and options to consider.