Trip to Pokara

I can say one thing for sure - we have been making the most of all of our free time! This weekend Gasing, Kayun and I went to Pokara. It is the second largest city in Nepal - Kathmandu being the largest. It took 6 hrs by bus to get there. The weather was much hotter in Pokara. Actually, it was so hot that it was almost unbearable! I had a bad sunburn from when we went mountain biking last weekend - (that,s another interesting story) ! So, I had to wear t-shirts and long sleeve shirts which made it even warmer! I rarely wear tank tops around here - only sometimes when we are not volunteering and it is crazy hot - like when we went rafting and biking. Otherwise, I always wear a lot of clothes. It is not acceptable to show your shoulders or knees here. So, back to Pokara - I am getting terrible side tracked!! We took a taxi to Sarangkot Saturday moring at 4:30am to watch the sun rise and see if we could see any of the Annapurna mountain range. It was the most amazing morning - I was astounded. The sky was completely clear and we could see all of the mountains. I took a lot of pictures. I will post one on this blog in a few days. It was one the most beautiful landscpaes I have ever seen! Everyone was saying how lucky we were that the sky was so clear. The next two mornings while we were in Pokara were too cloudy to see the all of the mountain range. We went on a hike that morning through a village that was way up in the hills - as high up as the view point from Sarangkot. It was so cool. People's houses were up high in the hills with the Himalaya mountains as the backdrop. It must be incredible to wake up to that view every morning. It was so pretty. After the the 2 hr hike we got a bus ride back to Pokara. This is the crazy part - we didn't sit IN the bus! We sat ON TOP of this monster bus! Locals always ride on the top of buses - especially in the villages, outside of the valley. I have seen it several times and have taken picutures. However, I didn't think that I would ever be the one sitting on the top! The road was very rugged and had several twists and turns. I was very nervous first but then it turned into quite a lot of fun. It was a pretty cool way to view the beautiful scenery. However, I couldn't help but think, while I was sitting up there, what my mother would have said if she could see me! I can hear her now! We were sitting on metal bars - so we just held on for dear life. So, once again I have defied mother nature and am sitting here telling you all about my crazy adventure!

Pokara has 7 lakes unlike Kathmandu. We took advatnage of this and went boating one day. It was great - we visited a temple in the middle of a lake. We drank a lot of cold smothies in attempt to cool ourselves down and enjoyed the natural beauties af Pokara. Besides the fact that I missed Neer, DC and Jeannine terribly bad - it was a fun filled weekend! I made and documented heaps more incredible memories!