Where We Be
This peaceful street in Pokhara runs next to
the lake, and most tourists stay on or near it
Views tend to be hazy in March and April in Pokhara, but if you look carefully,
you can see surprisingly tall white-capped mountains rising behind the lake
Nearby are dozens of good restaurants catering to Westerners
Robin composed this cool shot of colorful
rowboats arranged like the petals of a flower
Rowboats await near sunset
Pokhara, Nepal
All the hassles of a long 6-hour bus ride from
Tansen dropped away as soon as we reached
the Sacred Valley Inn in Pokhara. This became
our home away from home at both ends of our
month-long Annapurna trek. Pokhara is the
perfect base of operations for embarking on an
Annapurna trek, and we can't recommend the
Sacred Valley Inn enough as a quiet flower-
filled oasis. The rooms have decent wi-fi and
there's a small garden cafe on premises with
all sorts of comfort food. We enjoyed a cheese
omelet and potato soup with bread along with
sweet lassis (a traditional yogurt-based drink)
and instantly felt better after a tiring day. The
cost of lodging here? About $10 US per day.

We walked to the far end of the lake one
evening and were surprised to discover how
impossibly tall and up-close the snow-covered
mountains were. One looked Matterhorn-like,
and others looked more like cloud creations
than mountains in the haze. They must be truly
dramatic in clear weather during high season
(Sep to Nov). But haze or not, we're heading in!
It's a comfort knowing the bus rides are mostly
behind us. After tomorrow, for the next month,
we get where we're going on our own two feet.
Sacred Valley Inn offered us a lovely little oasis
[Not my photo]