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| Phewa Lake |
You are a traveller. You are sat on a rowing boat crossing Phewa Lake in Pokhara, Nepal. Your companions are balanced precariously on the opposite side. The bearded one is in the middle, anchoring his long-limbed weight to the centre. The curly-haired one is posing for photos on the other end, with panoramic views of the hills serving as a backdrop.
Your driver is about 90 years old. The wrinkles on his face are like rivers. He paddles slowly and with huge effort. About halfway through he stops rowing to dig a bit of chewing tobacco from his pack and carefully applies it to the inside of his cheek. The lake is peaceful, a welcome escape from Pokhara.
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| World Peace Pagoda, Pokhara |
On the other side of the lake you climb the steps to the World Peace Pagoda. It was founded by a Japanese man, Nichidastsu Fujii, who aimed to build 100 World Peace Pagodas dedicated to Buddhism. This one is the 71st.
Near the shrine there is an American woman with white hair talking loudly to her guide. The guide is not answering. Around the pagoda there are signs reading ‘SILENCE’ in English and Nepalese.
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| World Peace Pagoda, Pokhara |
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| View from the Peace Pagoda |
You eat at
Aniyor twice during your stay in Pokhara. This is an Indian restaurant with excellent curries and healthy portions. You share a delicious mutter paneer and aloo mutter. Your companions are delighted to learn that Aniyor has another branch in Kathmandu, your final stop.
You had planned to go to India after Nepal, but India is no longer granting visas to anyone who has travelled to Japan due to Covid-19. The Virus has cut your holiday short, now it hangs over your head like a guillotine.
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| Bandipur Gate |
You take a bus to Bandipur, a small outpost with dramatic views of the Himalayas. It takes you about thirty minutes to walk around the entire town and, throughout your stay, you meet the same tourists again and again. Your companions come up with names for them like "orange-trousers", "top-knot" and "dreads."
You visit the same two restaurants every day throughout your three-night stay.
Bandipur Bahidar is a small cafe with an owner who is always surprised to see you visit. Their masala tea is excellent, they bake their own bread and they have brownies with ice cream, making it a great spot for a tea-break or breakfast.
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| The view from Bandipur Bahidar |
For dinner,
The Samay Baji wins your custom. This is a small restaurant that is almost always full at dinner time. They serve traditional Nepalese food like dal bhat and momos (Nepalese dumplings), but the menu also features a few interesting innovations. There is the ‘momo chop-suey’, for example, which consists of momos mixed with al dente noodles in a rich broth. The curly-haired one chooses this dish twice. The host is excellent, too. He finds time to talk even as he rotates between cooking, ordering and serving.
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| Outside Siddha Caves |
During the day you walk to Siddha Caves, Nepal's largest cave. A holy man lives in the entranceway and chats to the local guides during the day. The entrance fee is 200 NPR, around £1.30, and you get a guide included. It's pitch black inside and you have to carry torches. Your guide points his light at different cave formations and says "cauliflower", or "duck", or "monkey". It’s like finding shapes in a cloud. He insists that the bearded one takes a photo of every rock formation he shows you.
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| Siddha Caves |
Bats flitter unseen above your head, sometimes flapping past your flashlight. Your guide takes you down a step ladder into a dark cavern beneath. The space is like an amphitheatre.
Your guide gets you to climb up to a small opening in the rock. Inside your light catches a thick mist of moist air. This small enclave is like an oven, heated by the natural formation of the rock. On the way out he lets the bearded one climb out using just a rope, clamping his huge boots ineffectively on the slippery rock. Halfway up the rope rattles as it moves and the bearded one freezes. "Shit, what was that?" He says. He scrambles hurriedly up the rest of the climb, thankful to be alive. If the rope had snapped, he could have slid down a soft slope maybe two meters.
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| Siddha Caves |
You exit the caves into bright daylight and begin the heavy slog up the hill. Your next destination was Chitwan National Park, but your companions decide against it and stay one more night in Bandipur instead. The next day you walk to Ramkot, an easy two-hour hike along high roads carved out of the hillside.
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| Ramkot walk |
Ramkot is a small town occupied by Newar people, who farm the land and shout namaste at nosey tourists. As you walk you see women carrying huge bundles of grass and leaves tied to their heads, collected from the hillside.
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| Ramkot walk |
Your Bandipur hotel room is fine, but it's not great. The shower is more than often cold, but if you ask for hot water to be turned on it will come out warm-ish. One night, the curly one lifts a damp towel from the bed and a fist-sized rain spider scurries out and hides under a shoe. Your companions trample around the room until one of them squashes it by accident. It's a traumatising scene, the kind of thing that will keep you awake at night, imagining eight-legged arachnids pawing at your face. For all the trouble it's worth, the view from your window is spectacular.
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| View from Bandipur hotel |
