The next morning, kinda fuelled by our missed sun rise opportunity in Palpa, we decided to see the sunrise over the Himalayas in Pokhara.
And so, alarms set for 4am, off we set in search of that sun rise.
I can’t tell you how hard getting up for that was. 🙂 😀
There’s a reason why you don’t see a whole lot of sunrise photos on here – I’m just not good with early mornings. I can handle it when I travel but getting up really early, to watch the sun rise has never really been a big priority of mine when I’m travelling but this was Nepal, I’d wanted to visit for so many years and it’s so worth the effort to try to see as much of the country as possible!
By the time we arrived at Ananda hill where we were due to watch the sunrise from (it’s the same hill where the Peace Pagoda in Pokhara is), it had started to rain.
The rain slowed down a tad by the time we got to the top but, you guessed it – it was cloudy – again!
The sun came out slowly but the sun rise was barely visible behind the clouds.
There was nothing for it but to order up a batch of freshly brewed tea and take in the otherwise impressive view of Pokhara and the Himalayan mountains standing guard over it.
Once we gave up all hope of a dazzling sun rise, we headed up to check out the Peace Pagoda (which looked identical to the one in Lumbini – also built by Japanese) before heading back down to our hotel for breakfast and right back to bed.
Sometime just before noon, we woke up, thoroughly refreshed and ready to see even more of Pokhara.
Coincidentally, today was Everest day – a celebration of the first time Mount Everest was summited by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hilary.
Nepali Sherpa mountaineers have exceptional skills when it comes to scaling Mount Everest – the world’s tallest mountain and arguably one of the most difficult to climb.
On the day in question, Kazi Sherpa, the man who holds “the current speed climbing record on Mount Everest for the South Col Route, from basecamp to the summit, without oxygen from basecamp to the summit” – he did this in 20 hours and 24 minutes, was speaking at the museum so we had all the more reason to visit.
Kazi Sherpa isn’t a native English speaker and so had a translator but even just seeing someone who had achieved such an amazing feat, and done so in record time was quite impressive.
After hiking Peru’s rainbow mountain last year – the highest point of which was just under 6,000 feet, I have a new found appreciation for high altitude hikes. Rainbow mountain wasn’t even the steepest to walk. Mount Everest would involve not only hiking but also a great deal of mountain climbing.
And then there’s that whole lack of oxygen in the air thing. It’s one of the hardest feats a person can achieve and is absolutely deserving of the admiration and praise.
Anyway, after kicking about the museum for a bit, we had lunch nearby and headed back into town to explore more of Pokhara.
Exploring Pokhara pretty much involved lazy walks through its busy streets, stopping off for a drink or to haggle for some souvenirs before finally deciding that this afternoon should be a “treat yo’self” kinda afternoon.
For that, we booked ourselves into Jiva Cafe & Spa (it has the top ranking on Tripadvisor at the time – totally worth it by the way) for a 90 minutes massage session (pretty sure I fell asleep like halfway through it – it was that relaxing).
Jiva Café definitely has a very chilled rustic-chic vibe – something which meant that after our massages were done with and we were relaxing with fresh mint teas, we decided to stick around for drinks – which to my delight, after ordering a mojito turned out to be 2 for 1 hour (Lloyd got a milkshake – no 2 for 1 on those – hehe!).
We stayed here till long after sunset before heading into town to meet the others for dinner and a night of drinks, before having to say farewell to Pokhara the next day.
I don’t know if it was just being able to kick back and have a slow relaxed day or if it’s just the fact that Pokhara has a more laid back vibe but I absolutely loved the time we spent in Pokhara and would happily return here when we go back to Nepal!
It’s really is such a fun, cool city and a must-visit in Nepal!
Read more: Best things to do in Nepal
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