Two days of sightseeing in Pokhara 

What do you think annoys me more? No hot water?

Or the wi-fi that sometimes doesn’t connect, then often disconnects almost as soon as you put the phone down, and then doesn’t automatically reconnect, so you have to put the username and password in every time you want to use it?

No prizes for the correct guess! 

There’s nothing I can do about the wifi,  but the very obliging young man who went  off to fix the hot water problem knocked on my door and with a large smile assured me “The hot will be coming soon Madame, we will see now”

So we stood in the bathroom for 10 minutes with the tap and shower running (I kid you not, 10 minutes) and the young man smiling and nodding “Hot will come soon Madame ” Well lukewarm turned up, but hot never arrived. Never mind, may be hot will arrive tomorrow!

Lodge accommodation on trek is pretty basic, two beds and a wooden table; on the Everest Base Camp trek there were usually no showers in the lodges and one squat toilet between about 20 people. I did what I usually do in the evening on trek, roll my sleeping bag out, toiletries ready, clothes and blister pads laid out for the morning. I then noticed a door tucked away in the back corner. Oh, I thought idly, a wardrobe, how fancy. Opened it to have look, OMG, this  is what trekking heaven looks like. I can’t fully explain the joy this brought to my heart

 
Our trek back was mainly downhill so we planned a leisurely breakfast. Which was lucky because we waited 20 minutes for the toast which turned out to be slightly warmed bread, and another 20 mins for the fried potatoes with fried egg. Nepal has the best potatoes in the world, it was worth the wait. 

We watched another trekking group head off, the porters are just amazing 

I really enjoyed the walk back, it was a lovely crisp morning, the sun was shining and all was good with the world

One last rocky climb and the trek was over! 

Thanks to our guide Biru,our  porter Vision and our taxi driver

 

I came on this trek with my English friend, her Nepalese husband and their two year old son. As it turned out, taking a two year old trekking  wasn’t the best idea in the world. As she said “I don’t know why I thought he would sit happily in the backpack on Daddy’s shoulders while we trekked up and down mountains for 5 days” 

Well things don’t always turn out the way we imagined. When I decided to do Hadrian’s Wall in the UK I imagined blue skies and green fields as shown in the internet ads. The reality was muddy fields which I had to trudge through, stiles I had to haul myself over, it was bloody cold and I discovered I actually preferred sitting in a pub in front of a fire drinking cider. 

So back to Nepal. I just never learn do I? About an hour in I’m thinking “why didn’t I train more, next time I’m going to train, like really train, lunges and squats and all that” Because no matter how much you say to yourself as you gaze up the first upward track” You can do this, just take it slowly, you’ll get there” by the time you do get there your lungs are bursting, you legs are weak and your heart’s pumping like it’s going to jump out of your chest. 

And as you stand there huffing and puffing you know you’ve got to get down the other side, with every step jarring through your whole body and your knees saying really awful unkind things to you. 

And there’s this nagging worry about the three hour steep ascent. Because I have a feeling it’s going to be like Crocodile Dundee “That’s not steep, that is steep”

But it’s not all like that of course and there’s nothing like that feeling when you’re out trekking whether it’s through a field in Spain or a mountain in Nepal, pack on your back, sticks in hand, loving the scenery. It just feels so right, like this is what we were meant to do. 

Anyway, mid afternoon when we had only just reached our lunchtime destination and still had the “3 hours steep ascent” to go, it was decided that we would stay the night at one of the lodges we had passed earlier, and head on back to Pokhara the next day. 

Which just goes to show you shouldn’t worry too much about things, because they might just not happen!! Part of me was disappointed that we weren’t continuing the trek, while a part of me was doing the clenched fists, eyes raised, “Yes! Thank you God!” sigh of relief! But one day, when I’ve done more lunges and squats, I might find out just how steep that 3 hour ascent was!