"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who pointsout how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Roosevelt

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Easy days in Pokhara


 I’ve been in Pokhara now for 10 days. I’ve been having enough fun that I’ve put this off for almost two weeks. Sorry.


Most people who come to Nepal funnel through Pokhara because it’s beautiful - on a lake in the shadow of 7000 meter mountains - and because it is one of only a few places from which to start a trek in Nepal. As a result Lakeside Pokhara is like the Disneyland of the Indian subcontinent…I would guess that nowhere in India approaches this concentration of tourists. There are dozens of restaurants, cafés with real coffee, outdoor shops, bars and gift shops. Everyone in this part of town speaks English but the salesmen are not rabid like they were in the parts of India where I was, so one can actually enjoy a walk down the street. It’s outrageously expensive, relatively, but still cheap compared to any such western resort town. On the whole it is glorious and the days just melt away.

My first day I though, Jeez, how do people make friends here? It seemed like everybody coupled up and kept to themselves. But my second day on the way back from my adventure to find the camera repair shop in the city, some other tourists joined me as I was eating momos by myself and I haven’t looked back since. Sometimes people who are overeager to make friends with me sketch me out, not the type of people I want to spend my time with, but these guys were great. They were all single travelers and they just rolled around collecting other single travelers like a human snowball. We congregated at the Busy Bee Café every night to drink two-for-one happy hour cocktails and listen to the cover band. There was an Australian woman and a Pilipino man who were sorta Mom and Dad of the group, plus a Dutch girl, an Austrian dude, a couple of British guys…I’m blown away by how friendly everyone is here. Travelers can get quite competitive especially when it comes to which routes you have trekked but I have encountered none of this.

Irish Laura and Scottish Dave. Best people to pass a day with.
 These guys have all gone their separate ways but through them I met Laura and Dave, my new best friends. Laura is Irish but lives in London and Dave is Scottish but also lives in London and I’ve done most everything with them the last 5 days...we more or less eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together. They are 30 and 32 so I’m the baby of the group but they treat me as a peer and I like them all the more for it. I don’t speak with a British accent yet but I’ve adopted all other British manner of speech, something I hated when my sister came home from England. Laura and I spent a morning watching the sunrise over the huge Fish Tail mountain, then climbed up to the World Peace Pagoda overlooking the lake in the afternoon. Dave and I rented a boat and paddled around the lake for two hours and had a great time talking about all kinds of stuff. Dave said at least 10 times that he was Definitely coming back here. This place is so comfortably and cheap that I may join him. The three of us also went paragliding a few days ago...running off a cliff until the wind lifts your feet off the ground is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever done, probably the closest thing you get to being a bird.
That's what my face looked like for 30 minutes.
 Dave and I were meant to go for a four-day trek two days ago but he got a stomach bug and today is a national transportation Bundt so no busses or taxis are running. We decided to shorten the trek by a day to see the famous sunrise from Poon Hill so Dave can get back and catch his flight to Kathmandu. Laura’s trying to get in gear to trek the Annapurna Circuit so we’re all sorta sitting around tapping our toes. 

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4 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 10, 2014 at 5:10 AM

    Hi, i just google where to have my camera repair in pokhara and i found your blog. Would you be able to tell me where i can send my camera for repair in lakeside or pokhara city ? Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shaffer SpaethNovember 10, 2014 at 9:01 AM

    Alright, I think I can give you directions. Get yourself to the intersection of "New Road" and "Chiple Dhunga Rd" via bus or taxi. This area of town is called Mahindra Pul, or the Chipledhunga area of town. Google map Chipledhunga, and to the east of the statue in the middle of the road is this COLOR LAB sign (see link, upper right corner). The camera repair shop is down a dark little alley/hall way under this sign, though it is a different shop. If you get lost, which is fairly likely, ask the people working at Gautam Electronics where the camera repair shop is.

    Be warned, you will pay western prices for camera repair. I paid $50 or so, but it was worth it.

    http://www.pokharaphotogallery.com/mahendrapul-chipledhunga/mahendrapul11.htm

    Let me know if this is helpful.

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    Replies
    1. UnknownNovember 11, 2014 at 4:37 AM

      Thank you for your prompt reply. I actually didnt expect that. You know what. You had just saved my life. I found the shop and got my camera repaired in 3 hours. I had to pay usd60 though. The shop is called Kiran Electronics & Service Center. My taxi driver helped me to ask about the shop at Gautam Electronic but they didnt know anything about it. Then, I showed my taxi driver the picture you showed me and almost instantly, he knew the place. I went to the pokhara color lab to ask about the camera repair shop and the guy told me it was 2 shops away inside the alley. That's how i found it and my taxi driver was very helpful too. Yes, and thank you Shaffer, for your help. Thank you very much. May God bless you.

      Delete
  3. Shaffer SpaethNovember 11, 2014 at 7:26 PM

    Extremely happy to help! It was a fun challenge trying to remember how to get back there. I had to ask about 10 people to find it, so I'm happy to make your experience a little easier!!

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