Pokhara
NEPAL
Laziness at it's Best
By LYNDI
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Pokhara is a relatively small town in the north of Nepal that has been overrun by tourism. What was probably once a nice, peaceful lakeside village has become a tourist and trekking metropolis – due to its strategic location at the base of hiking in the Annapurna region. Now if you walk from one end of Lakeside Drive to the other, it will take you a good half hour and you will literally see nothing but trekking shops, restaurants, bars, massage parlors, internet cafes and little markets – a.k.a. exactly where I wanted to be after hiking for 14 days.
I must admit, for a town that offers so much for the tourist, Aaron and I sure managed to not do a whole lot. What we wanted from Pokhara – and what we got – was relaxation. No getting up early, no walking in heat or rain, and plenty of time for reading and watching the new pirated TV series we’d bought in Kathmandu.
What surprised us was the relentless heat in the town. I guess I had this pretty picture worked up in my head that Nepal would be a mountainous country and cool, summer retreat – but in actuality only the northernmost fraction is mountainous and the rest is decidedly lush and tropical – and steaming hot!
One of the first things I tried to do when we got back into town was get a leg wax. Let’s be honest – 14 days of hair growth is not a good look. So I inquired at a local massage parlor if they did leg waxing and entered to enthusiastic nods of the heads all around. Alright! No shaving for a month!
I knew I was in trouble when a pot-bellied, middle-aged man came in to do the deed. I was slightly encouraged when he started by rubbing an assortment of powders on my legs to dry them out (though upon closer inspection, they were “whitening” powders that local women use to appear fairer-skinned).
Once the wax was warmed up, he took out a stick – not a flat tool used for waxing, but an actual stick – dipped it in the hot wax, and spread it all over the front of my shin. Almost like a child randomly scribbling in colors in a coloring book – it was everywhere.
By the time he was done spreading the hot wax as much as he possibly could in an effort to reserve as much as possible, everything had cooled off and the four, dirty linen strips he had would be completely useless. Add to that he would try to pull it off in the wrong direction, then use the used linen strip on a different part of the leg hoping the old wax would pull something out, and I knew the wax had hit the fan. I was outta there.
I told the man to stop what he was doing, it was completely ineffective, and walked out with wax dripping down my legs. The fact that he didn’t say anything or try to stop me told me he agreed. That’s what I get for attempting a beauty treatment in Nepal I guess. But hey – a girl’s gotta try.
We escaped the heat some evenings by trying out the local happy hours – most come with a nice, salty bowl of popcorn that helps the beautiful frosty beverage go down even smoother. We tried all those western foods we’d been craving on the trek – namely pizza, burgers and steaks, and just tried to lay low while the sun was out scorching the earth.
Since our room only had a fan to keep us cool (which is pretty ineffective when it’s just blowing hot air at you) and we had a screaming child next door who’s vocal chords were interminable (though he was named “Ben-Hur”, which we found endlessly hilarious), we finally decided one blistering day to rent a boat at the lake and enjoy the cool waters. So for about $5 for two hours, we took a small canoe out and literally spent the whole time swimming in the water – no unnecessary rowing or paddling once we’d gotten to a small, shady inlet.
Quite a few travelers we met were doing the popular paragliding activity, where on a clear day you can see miles and miles of snow-capped peaks surrounding the town. Problem was – in June there are no clear days in Pokhara and we often watched from cafes the dozens upon dozens of paragliders jump from the hillsides catching unforgettable views of clouds.
On Monday we took great care to avoid internet, television or international newspapers because we had big plans to watch Game 6 of the NBA Finals from our guesthouse which Nepali TV was showing a taped-live version of that night. Since one more win would secure an NBA Championship for our beloved Mavs, we wanted to watch with suspense and hope and not be tipped off by any media beforehand.
They game was slated to start at 6pm, so at 5:59 we turned on the TV… only to be greeted by images of Mavericks celebrating, Dirk being handed an MVP trophy and an announcement – “Now, get ready to watch the Mavericks beat the Miami Heat!!”. What kind of an intro to a game is that??? Well, we didn’t care too much since at least the game went our way, but the programmer is a fool. We bought a few drinks and ordered Pokhara Pizza delivery and celebrated the entire time.
But after four days of complete laziness, it was time to hit the road again. We had bought train tickets three weeks prior and had a ticket out of Varanasi in a few days’ time – and you never know how long it will take to get there on public transportation.
So despite my mother’s offer to stop taking the horrible local buses and she would buy us a short, painless flight instead – we hopped on a series of miserable, crowded, hot and leaking buses to get us to India’s most holy city. It took four different buses, two lying rickshaw drivers, one border crossing, and an overnight in a mudpot city, but we said our goodbyes to Nepal and looked ahead to whatever India had in store for us.
