That whole waking up at 4am was a bust. It was cloudy and rainy. There was so sunrise to see. Too bad for me, I didn't realize this until I stepped out of my room, dressed and ready to go, when I ran into Abhi and he told me. I went right back to bed-
-and woke up at 8. We had breakfast at the hotel and it was really good. They had fresh watermellon juice which I've never had without alcohol and it's very refreshing. There was also rosemary roasted potatoes, chocolate pancakes, and pasta. Kind of a weird breakfast.
I brought my kindle with me to the table to try to get more blog stuff done.
At 10 Abhi took us through a walk around Pokhara. There is a lake across the street from us so we walked over to it.
You can rent boats but Abhi suggested we don't. They tip over very easily.
We walked around and looked at shops. The weather isn't so hot here. I'm not dying anymore and that's a good feeling. I've noticed I have over a dozen bug bites, most on my legs. They're terribly itchy. I blame Chitwan.
I shadowed MJ and Sam while they bought some stuff. Nothing really spoke to me so I didn't get anything (also I'm fucking poor). The shops were fun, but after a while you notice a pattern. They have the same things. To get the best deal you have to haggle with the shopkeeping. MJ pointed it out to me. They give us firangi price. Firangi means foreigner in Hindu. But even the firangi price was cheap so it feels silly to haggle for lower.
Sam, MJ, and I had lunch at a place called Moon Dance. We ordered tandoori chicken pizza and a greek salad. This was a risk and it paid off.
It was all delicious. I had like 3 slices of pizza. We had to get back to the hotel at 1. Our group had 3 options for what to do today. We could either go parasailing (which I would have loved to do, but it cost $100 and I'm poor), go to a mountain museum, or hang out at the pool and eat ice cream. I went to the mountain museum.
MJ and Sam stayed behind, so I took a cab with Theresa to go to the museum. Abhi told us it would cost 300 rupees but the drivers were firm about 600. So we walked away and they magically remembered they could do 400. That's only $4 US dollars. Splited between Theresa and I, it cost me $2 dollars for a taxi ride to the museum. Once we got there our driver kept telling us he would wait until we were done for an extra 500 rupees. We said no, we would find our own taxi.
The International Mountain Museum looks huge from the outside. It looks like a space museum.
There was a movie showing on the hour which we were just in time for so we made our first stop there.
The movie was... ok. There was no dialogue and it was a little dated (they had Americans in the film and the looked fresh out of the 90's). It was footage of the mountains and the work that goes into preparing for a climb from a sherpas perspective. They showed a dance that goes on before a mountain climb. It had these slow and deep pounding drums, people moving slowly in a circle wearing these horrific demon masks. It was quite the nightmare and my favorite part.
We finished the film and Theresa and I split up. They had traditional outfits of the Sherpas, the Tamang, the Thakali, and Taiwanese. The Taiwanese had the coolest outfits.
And they had a big display of colorful sand artwork.
There were a lot of kitchenware used back in the day.
And pots and pans and kettles and everything used in day to day life.
Once I got out of that section they had stuff on rocks, how himalayas are formed, all the mountains (at least 12 of them. I only care about Everest), a section for wildlife found in the himalayas, fauna found in the Himalayas.
They had sections on specific mountaineers who made the treks. I didn't find this interesting. There would be a whole display on one person, like "First Asian to climb every big mountain" or "First female to climb this one mountain". Unless you're the first of the firsts, I don't care. They did have a lot of hikers old gear on display.
There was many a display of tools used to climb the mountain.
What I wasn't expecting was a section on the mountain pollution. So I'm kind of a fan of Everest and have written reports on it in college, specifically about the harm of tourism. They had a display of the garbage on Everest and talked about the efforts done to clean the mountain. There were gas canisters collected from the mountain-
They talked about how climate change has affected the area too.
Finally, what we have all been waiting for, I found the section on the yeti. It was rumored there was a yeti display but it wasn't on the map the museum provided so I wondered if it didn't exist. The yeti display was a bust! They had black and white grainy photos of yeti footprints and body parts. One photo was of a yeti head but it was more his scalp. They scalped the beast!
In the corner was a yeti replica. It looked like an old dog toy you would feel guilty about your dog playing with because it's so ratty and gross, but you keep letting them chew it up because that's their favorite toy.
They talked about how some believe the yeti can't be seen by the human eye as it's like the wind (which contradicts the scalp and hands they seem to be holding). Some think it is a Tibetan brown bear. Anyways, Disney World has a better yeti display on Expedition Everest.
Lastly there was a library with over 3,500 books on mountains, mountain climbing, geology, zoology, botany flora and fauna. Next to the library was a Lakhang. In Sherpa language, 'La' means God and 'Khang' means room, so it's house/room of god. A lot of Sherpas have rooms in their house where they pray to god, Buddha. It's a place to perform religious activities or ritual performances before a trekking or climbing mission, or if you have respected guests a place to welcome them. It was a very beautiful room.
I got bored and waited around for Theresa to get done. Then I got bored of waiting and went outside. There's a replica of Mt. Manaslu you can climb and take pictures on.
I climbed it and coming down was very slippery.
After that I met up with Theresa and she took my picture on top of a metal yak!
We found a cab to take us back. I had to haggle the price so he wanted 600 rupees and I wanted to do it for 300. We agreed on 500 rupees which is only $2.50 dollars a piece. In the cab, he tried talking to me but I could barely understand him. He asked if I was going to see the sunrise tomorrow. I told him no. He said he could wait and pick me up and give me a ride to the mountains to see the sunrise. Hahaha what the fuck dude.
We got back to the hotel and MJ wasn't in the room (she had the key and hotels only issue 1 key) so I hung out by the pool with a couple people from my group. I sat under a mango tree and a mango fell literally a foot away from me. It was raining mangos! Time to go.
I had front desk let me in the room. Pretty much every hotel I've stayed at outside of the States require you to put your room key in a spot in the wall to turn on electricity. Since I didn't have an actual room key, I didn't have power. I took a cool shower in the dark and played on my kinde until MJ got back. I watched some TV. I don't know if it was in Hindu or Nepalese, they sound very similar.
Mary Jo mentioned to me that earlier Sam had little bumps all over his hands and she had them too. Weird, I checked my hands and didn't have any.
It began to pour rain. Not like thunder showers rain but like "Hey, it's monsoon season" rain which is way more extreme. We met up with the group in the lobby and the hotel provided us umbrellas. We had a short walk to the restaurant but with the rain we kept having to stop to find ways around flowing water or to take shelter under clothing stores. We finally got to the Rainbow Restaurant at 7:30.
I ordered a spinach mushroom lasagna. It was a risk ordering Italian, but I was pretty sure it would pay off. I was wrong!
It was terrible. My garlic bread had actual shavings of garlic the size of cloves on the bread and the lasagna was a brown sauce. I ate the cheese off the top and didn't touch it again. Vanessa gave me a slice of her cheese pizza.
While I was waiting for everyone to get done eating, I checked my hands again and god dammit I had tiny bumps on one side of my pointer fingers. What is this?! They don't hurt or itch. Do I have malaria?
After dinner we were going to a hookah lounge but I changed my mind last minute. I forget, I don't even like hookah. And I had just eaten cheese for dinner and thought I should get myself someplace safe. I'm so mature.
I walked back to the hotel with a few other ladies, thank god. Pokhara is a more tourist town and there are more white people (although they all look like dirty hippies) and lots of Chinese but I wouldn't have felt comfortable walking back by myself. There were some sketchy men.
I wanted to go to sleep but MJ had gone with the hookah gang and now I had the room key. I waited until 11:30 before falling asleep.
-and woke up at 8. We had breakfast at the hotel and it was really good. They had fresh watermellon juice which I've never had without alcohol and it's very refreshing. There was also rosemary roasted potatoes, chocolate pancakes, and pasta. Kind of a weird breakfast.
And I ate it all
I brought my kindle with me to the table to try to get more blog stuff done.
At 10 Abhi took us through a walk around Pokhara. There is a lake across the street from us so we walked over to it.
You can rent boats but Abhi suggested we don't. They tip over very easily.
We walked around and looked at shops. The weather isn't so hot here. I'm not dying anymore and that's a good feeling. I've noticed I have over a dozen bug bites, most on my legs. They're terribly itchy. I blame Chitwan.
I shadowed MJ and Sam while they bought some stuff. Nothing really spoke to me so I didn't get anything (also I'm fucking poor). The shops were fun, but after a while you notice a pattern. They have the same things. To get the best deal you have to haggle with the shopkeeping. MJ pointed it out to me. They give us firangi price. Firangi means foreigner in Hindu. But even the firangi price was cheap so it feels silly to haggle for lower.
Sam, MJ, and I had lunch at a place called Moon Dance. We ordered tandoori chicken pizza and a greek salad. This was a risk and it paid off.
It was all delicious. I had like 3 slices of pizza. We had to get back to the hotel at 1. Our group had 3 options for what to do today. We could either go parasailing (which I would have loved to do, but it cost $100 and I'm poor), go to a mountain museum, or hang out at the pool and eat ice cream. I went to the mountain museum.
MJ and Sam stayed behind, so I took a cab with Theresa to go to the museum. Abhi told us it would cost 300 rupees but the drivers were firm about 600. So we walked away and they magically remembered they could do 400. That's only $4 US dollars. Splited between Theresa and I, it cost me $2 dollars for a taxi ride to the museum. Once we got there our driver kept telling us he would wait until we were done for an extra 500 rupees. We said no, we would find our own taxi.
The International Mountain Museum looks huge from the outside. It looks like a space museum.
Dedicated to mountaineers who lost their lives
There was a movie showing on the hour which we were just in time for so we made our first stop there.
The movie was... ok. There was no dialogue and it was a little dated (they had Americans in the film and the looked fresh out of the 90's). It was footage of the mountains and the work that goes into preparing for a climb from a sherpas perspective. They showed a dance that goes on before a mountain climb. It had these slow and deep pounding drums, people moving slowly in a circle wearing these horrific demon masks. It was quite the nightmare and my favorite part.
We finished the film and Theresa and I split up. They had traditional outfits of the Sherpas, the Tamang, the Thakali, and Taiwanese. The Taiwanese had the coolest outfits.
Vogue
Serving mountain realness
And they had a big display of colorful sand artwork.
That's sand!
There were a lot of kitchenware used back in the day.
And pots and pans and kettles and everything used in day to day life.
Once I got out of that section they had stuff on rocks, how himalayas are formed, all the mountains (at least 12 of them. I only care about Everest), a section for wildlife found in the himalayas, fauna found in the Himalayas.
They had sections on specific mountaineers who made the treks. I didn't find this interesting. There would be a whole display on one person, like "First Asian to climb every big mountain" or "First female to climb this one mountain". Unless you're the first of the firsts, I don't care. They did have a lot of hikers old gear on display.
There was many a display of tools used to climb the mountain.
What I wasn't expecting was a section on the mountain pollution. So I'm kind of a fan of Everest and have written reports on it in college, specifically about the harm of tourism. They had a display of the garbage on Everest and talked about the efforts done to clean the mountain. There were gas canisters collected from the mountain-
They talked about how climate change has affected the area too.
Finally, what we have all been waiting for, I found the section on the yeti. It was rumored there was a yeti display but it wasn't on the map the museum provided so I wondered if it didn't exist. The yeti display was a bust! They had black and white grainy photos of yeti footprints and body parts. One photo was of a yeti head but it was more his scalp. They scalped the beast!
And they cut off his hands!
In the corner was a yeti replica. It looked like an old dog toy you would feel guilty about your dog playing with because it's so ratty and gross, but you keep letting them chew it up because that's their favorite toy.
Good lord
They talked about how some believe the yeti can't be seen by the human eye as it's like the wind (which contradicts the scalp and hands they seem to be holding). Some think it is a Tibetan brown bear. Anyways, Disney World has a better yeti display on Expedition Everest.
Lastly there was a library with over 3,500 books on mountains, mountain climbing, geology, zoology, botany flora and fauna. Next to the library was a Lakhang. In Sherpa language, 'La' means God and 'Khang' means room, so it's house/room of god. A lot of Sherpas have rooms in their house where they pray to god, Buddha. It's a place to perform religious activities or ritual performances before a trekking or climbing mission, or if you have respected guests a place to welcome them. It was a very beautiful room.
I got bored and waited around for Theresa to get done. Then I got bored of waiting and went outside. There's a replica of Mt. Manaslu you can climb and take pictures on.
I climbed it and coming down was very slippery.
After that I met up with Theresa and she took my picture on top of a metal yak!
Ow it's hot!
Strike a pose
We found a cab to take us back. I had to haggle the price so he wanted 600 rupees and I wanted to do it for 300. We agreed on 500 rupees which is only $2.50 dollars a piece. In the cab, he tried talking to me but I could barely understand him. He asked if I was going to see the sunrise tomorrow. I told him no. He said he could wait and pick me up and give me a ride to the mountains to see the sunrise. Hahaha what the fuck dude.
We got back to the hotel and MJ wasn't in the room (she had the key and hotels only issue 1 key) so I hung out by the pool with a couple people from my group. I sat under a mango tree and a mango fell literally a foot away from me. It was raining mangos! Time to go.
I had front desk let me in the room. Pretty much every hotel I've stayed at outside of the States require you to put your room key in a spot in the wall to turn on electricity. Since I didn't have an actual room key, I didn't have power. I took a cool shower in the dark and played on my kinde until MJ got back. I watched some TV. I don't know if it was in Hindu or Nepalese, they sound very similar.
Mary Jo mentioned to me that earlier Sam had little bumps all over his hands and she had them too. Weird, I checked my hands and didn't have any.
It began to pour rain. Not like thunder showers rain but like "Hey, it's monsoon season" rain which is way more extreme. We met up with the group in the lobby and the hotel provided us umbrellas. We had a short walk to the restaurant but with the rain we kept having to stop to find ways around flowing water or to take shelter under clothing stores. We finally got to the Rainbow Restaurant at 7:30.
And the rain rain rain came down down down
I ordered a spinach mushroom lasagna. It was a risk ordering Italian, but I was pretty sure it would pay off. I was wrong!
Pile of slop
It was terrible. My garlic bread had actual shavings of garlic the size of cloves on the bread and the lasagna was a brown sauce. I ate the cheese off the top and didn't touch it again. Vanessa gave me a slice of her cheese pizza.
While I was waiting for everyone to get done eating, I checked my hands again and god dammit I had tiny bumps on one side of my pointer fingers. What is this?! They don't hurt or itch. Do I have malaria?
After dinner we were going to a hookah lounge but I changed my mind last minute. I forget, I don't even like hookah. And I had just eaten cheese for dinner and thought I should get myself someplace safe. I'm so mature.
I walked back to the hotel with a few other ladies, thank god. Pokhara is a more tourist town and there are more white people (although they all look like dirty hippies) and lots of Chinese but I wouldn't have felt comfortable walking back by myself. There were some sketchy men.
I wanted to go to sleep but MJ had gone with the hookah gang and now I had the room key. I waited until 11:30 before falling asleep.
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