A few days before I was to leave I got an email from Etihad airlines reminding me of my trip and informing me that I could "bid" to upgrade my flight. I've never had that happen on previous flights. At first I didn't want to because I had taken great pride in the fact that I got those tickets for CHEAP! Then I started to look into it and think about it. They had a minimum bid- about $150 each leg in my case. I knew it would almost double what I had paid but I figured that I would pretty much never be able to buy business class that cheap and I'm always SOOO jealous when I walk past them. I put the minimum bid in on the Abu Dhabi to Kathmandu and the Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi legs of the trip and both were accepted! Overall Etihad was actually a pretty nice airline to fly. Even the economy class was pretty nice.
I got into Kathmandu in the evening, around 8 I think, so there wasn't really time to do anything other than go to my hotel. Earthbound had someone meet me at the airport and take me to the hotel. There was someone at the hotel who gave me a rundown of the schedule and it was basically like having a fixer. I didn't have a group I was with the whole time, or a tour guide that stayed with me. They made sure I got from place to place and had people at each place to help me and guide me.
I had to get up early the next morning and leave by 6:30 to catch a tourist bus to Pokhara. Someone walked me to where a HUGE line of busses were and made sure I got on the right one. It was 7 or 8 hours to Pokhara. The buses were full of other tourists. They were a little different from other tour buses I've been on. They had this area/separate room up by the driver where any tour guides that were with people on the bus rode. This bus wasn't terrible, but it wasn't really nice either.
I had to get up early the next morning and leave by 6:30 to catch a tourist bus to Pokhara. Someone walked me to where a HUGE line of busses were and made sure I got on the right one. It was 7 or 8 hours to Pokhara. The buses were full of other tourists. They were a little different from other tour buses I've been on. They had this area/separate room up by the driver where any tour guides that were with people on the bus rode. This bus wasn't terrible, but it wasn't really nice either.
Someone met me at the bus station in Pokhara and took me to the hotel. I was told they would pick me up at 5:30 the next morning so I could see the sunrise on the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. It was overcast and raining when I got there but I ventured out and walked along the main street. It was pretty much full of tourist shops and since I was traveling on the cheap there wasn't really anything I was interested in.
The next day I had my alarm set for 5:15 and at about 5:10 I heard a car pull up to the hotel and honk. I got dressed and went down as quickly as I could. We drove about 30mins to a little tourist shop/viewing place with about 30 other tourists and waited for the sun to rise. True to my bad luck with sunrise shots on vacation it was totally cloudy and we couldn't even see the mountains. Bummer!
After that let down, the tour guide took me to a Hindu temple which was pretty busy and that was pretty cool. People were lighting incense and putting stuff on statues. Kinda made up for the lack of mountains... kinda. Then it started to rain- this was about 7:30am. It didn't stop ALL. DAY. LONG. We planned to possibly meet up later in the day if it did stop, but it didn't so we didn't. There's hiking and taking a boat to an island in the middle of a lake and seeing a temple or something- all stuff I was not interested in doing in the rain. So instead I just chilled in the hotel room on the internet and watched tv. I wondered around town a little- very little- and I got a nice 1.5 hour massage.
Since I didn't do anything the day before and since I didn't get to see the mountains, the guide arranged to pick me up at 5:30 the next morning so I could try to see the mountains before catching my bus to Chitwan. He was an hour late picking me up, but I'm so glad I was able to go back. The next morning was BEAUTIFUL! The mountains were amazing! This time he took me to a different spot where we hiked up to a flat grassy area and there were only about 5 other tourists there. He also took me to a location in town where we could see the mountains reflected in the lake. I also discovered that right outside the door to my hotel room was an amazing view. I didn't notice because it was all clouds the day before. I didn't get much time to enjoy it because I had to catch the bus to Chitwan at 9... or 8... I don't remember now.
After that let down, the tour guide took me to a Hindu temple which was pretty busy and that was pretty cool. People were lighting incense and putting stuff on statues. Kinda made up for the lack of mountains... kinda. Then it started to rain- this was about 7:30am. It didn't stop ALL. DAY. LONG. We planned to possibly meet up later in the day if it did stop, but it didn't so we didn't. There's hiking and taking a boat to an island in the middle of a lake and seeing a temple or something- all stuff I was not interested in doing in the rain. So instead I just chilled in the hotel room on the internet and watched tv. I wondered around town a little- very little- and I got a nice 1.5 hour massage.
Since I didn't do anything the day before and since I didn't get to see the mountains, the guide arranged to pick me up at 5:30 the next morning so I could try to see the mountains before catching my bus to Chitwan. He was an hour late picking me up, but I'm so glad I was able to go back. The next morning was BEAUTIFUL! The mountains were amazing! This time he took me to a different spot where we hiked up to a flat grassy area and there were only about 5 other tourists there. He also took me to a location in town where we could see the mountains reflected in the lake. I also discovered that right outside the door to my hotel room was an amazing view. I didn't notice because it was all clouds the day before. I didn't get much time to enjoy it because I had to catch the bus to Chitwan at 9... or 8... I don't remember now.
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| A pocket just for my phone :) |
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| "Cut here in emergency" was my window |
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| tourist bus-- special room up front for local guides |
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| country side on the way to Pokhara |
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| reststop on the way |
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| this was some type of curry and these little stations were totally portable |
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| Close.... since the only other name on a sign was "Susan" I figured this must be me. |
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| just chillin watching the boys play soccer |
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| the tourist viewing deck with 20 other tourists |
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| it had multiple levels... and a shop |
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| but no mountains for us! |
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| this was the closest thing to a sunrise we got |
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| I was afraid I would have to settle for this as my mountain shot |
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| lots of the shops had a resident dog |
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| all the cars lined up for the tourists |
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| Hindu temple |
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| guns too |
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| don't even have to take off your helmet |
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| oldest building in Pokhara |
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| outside of my hotel |
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| lots of plants and flowers-- nice change from the sand :) |
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| Ok- this is not the first time I've had this, but I can't remember where else they did this, but seriously, no Americans put hot milk on their cereal. That's not American. I had to ask for cold milk and they acted like that was odd. |
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| In India and Nepal (possibly other places) this is a garden salad. I forgot and was expecting lettuce. There's no dressing of any kind either... |
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| just a woman at a shop-- she's beautiful- look at her eyes! |
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| stairs I hiked to get to the viewpoint on day 2 |
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| BEAUTIFUL! |
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| That's Pokhara down there by the lake |
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| the view from my hotel on the first day... |
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| the view the next day-- the day I had to leave :( |
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