Pokhara & Dhampus, Nepal
Pokhara is the 3rd largest city in Nepal and is known as the tourist capital. It is the access point to the Annapurna Range and other popular trekking routes in the Himalayas. We spent a little over a week in Pokhara resting and recovering from our trek in the Himalayas. We went to a an open air amphitheater movie night, treated ourselves to a local spa twice, visited the International Mountain Museum and took walks along Lake Pewa. Our very first night in Pokhara before the trek, there was a Hindu ceremony on the lake shore that we were able to watch. The music, dancing, and costumes were very mesmerizing to witness.
Since our hike was cut short by a few days, our guide Dinesh wanted to give us some more time up in the mountains. He set up a homestay for us and we lived with the Gurung family in the mountain village of Dhampus. Dhampus is located at the base of the Annapurna range and had some amazing views. From the front yard of the homestay, we had views of Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I, Annapurna South, and Fishtail! During the day, we spent time picking fresh vegetables from the garden and learning how to cook Nepali dishes. The dishes we made were: Dhal Bat, chopati, Gurung bread, vegetable fried bodies, vegetable momo, fresh mint tea, and several different vegetable curry dishes. The Gurung’s invited their neighbor and her daughter over one night to teach us all how to properly make momos. It was such a relaxing weekend in the mountains!
After our homestay, Susan found an amazing yoga retreat that allowed day visitors, since many of the yoga retreats are 1+ week commitments. Sadhana Yoga Retreat was a little outside of Pokhara with amazing views of the lake and town below. Matt and Karen joined for the morning Neti pot + yoga session. Susan stayed for the all day yoga & chanting sessions. She also was able to help out in the kitchen and learned some new dishes! Durga is one of the founders of Sadhana Yoga Retreat and also has a reputation as an amazing cook!
Once we had recovered more, we did get enough energy to go be tourists for a day in Pokhara. One morning, we woke up early and took a canoe to the other side of the lake to a trail. This trail led up the mountain to the World Peace Pagoda. This stupa (Buddhist temple) is one of 100 built around the world by the Japanese Buddhist community to promote world peace. While we were visiting, a two day fast & meditation in honor of world peace was going on and was very interesting to watch and talk to the participants!
After this temple, we went to the new Lord Shiva Hindu temple nearby. This temple is also on top of a hill and was massive! Our guide Dinesh did a great job teaching us about both Hinduism and Buddhism so we could better understand what we were visiting.
On our way back to town, we stopped at Devi Fall & Gupteshwor Maharev Cave. I thought it was strange how close together these two were (the entrances are across the highway from each other). We started with Devi Falls, a pretty stream cutting through limestone that falls down into oblivion. Then we crossed the street, entered an elaborate set of stairs spiraling down to the cave entrance. Once in the cave, I realized that Devi Falls goes down into the cave! So we saw the bottom of Devi Falls while 100ft below ground (aka below the highway...) in a massive cave! But not to worry, they built stone "arch supports" across the top of the cave. We finished off our tourist day by stopped for some local sel roti (sweet fried dough) that our taxi driver recommended. We enjoyed our treats while the local bankers enjoyed a mid-afternoon break. The Nepali people were so incredibly kind and welcoming to us and really made our experience that much better.
We really enjoyed our time in Pokhara and it was probably our favorite city we visited in Nepal! It has a little bit of everything: good food, historic sights, and right at the base of the Himalayan mountains. We were sad to say goodbye, but ready to see what else Nepal had in store for us!