Pokhara, Nepal – October 18th – 23rd, 2016

After yet another grueling bus ride, we shared a jeep with some other trekkers for the last leg to Pokhara, a touristy lake town and perfect place for a little R&R. Our time in Pokhara was mostly spent eating, sleeping, and hanging out with the friends we had made on the trek. It was glorious. Though, after four days of this, we were starting to feel pretty antsy and ready to start using some muscles (other than our mouths) to see more of the beautiful country we were lucky enough to be visiting.

I suppose we did actually do some notable things in Pokhara, first of which was splurge on massages! Set up through our amazing hotel (The Mountain House, if you ever go to Pokhara, stay here, the owners are unbelievably kind and helpful, and the rooms are enormous and clean). The massages were at a legitimate spa, Serenity Spa – unlike our massages in Peru a few years ago which were in a not-so-legitimate storage room. For ninety relaxing minutes, the masseuses rubbed away some of the aches and soreness from our exhausted bodies. Dani also got an interesting and hilarious “chest” massage surprise! Though on the pricey side, we were glad we gave ourselves the spa gift.

Our many pictures of Fewa Lake

We also did this fun little activity called PARAGLIDING!! It was such a blast, riding thermals and soaring higher and higher above Pokhara, the lake and surrounding hills. My pilot even allowed me to fly us around for a bit and do some aerobatics! It looks easy, but you have to pull pretty hard on those strings to deform the parachute enough to make a turn. I am also having a hard time suppressing my smugness about my flight lasting longer than Dani’s.

Our Pokhara paragliding extravaganza!

On one of our last days, we took a crappy two-seater kayak out onto the lake, which was very frustrating as it was missing a stabilizer fin and rudder and we kept going in circles and circles for no apparent reason. Much finger pointing ensued, but we could laugh about it in the end. The next morning, we caught a surprisingly nice tourist bus (again arranged by our spectacular hotel owner) to Chitwan National Park.