boredom and cleanliness in pokhara

pokhara is a really boring place. but it's just what i needed after 21 days walking all around the annapurna massif. there is basically only 1 street to (the tourist part of ) pokhara, and only a few types of shops gracing it - travel agencies, book shops, clothes shops, cafes and tibetan handicraft shops. the confusion is that each type of shop is identical, so walking down the street is like being in a cheap cartoon with a repetive backdrop. the ready availability of quite delicious pizza, apple pie and coffee somehow makes things quite managable though. the most entertaining thing is the traffic dodging the 2 holy cows stoned in the same place in the middle of the road for at least the past hour now.

the annapurna circuit was sensational. from bessisahar on the southeast end of the massif we headed up the river valley from rice farming communities, up through subtropical rainforest, dry pines, and eventually to the high valley of pisang and manang. here was the most spectacular scenery of the entire journey, when we took the high route from lower pisang to manang, which took us 600m up the north wall of the valley for unbelievable views south to the north faces of the massive massif from gangapurna, annapurna II to glacier dome. the mountains just filled the entire sky. we waited in the relative luxury of manang for a few days as shell recovered from a nasty cough she'd picked up from the friendly dungdust of kathmandu before taking it slowlyslowly from 3500m the 2km (!) up to the 5412m thorung la (pass). being effected by altitude is quite a bizarre feeling. breathlessness when you don't expect it is at first quite scary, but soon becomes strangely normal as you adjust your walking speed to slightly faster than a holy cow in downtown kathmandu traffic. getting up to pee every 2 hours through the night as a side effect of staying properly hydrated, and having the most bizarre paranoid dreams are also rather undesirable. up and over we went though, and down into the desert landscapes of mustang. the next few days were a bit forgettable, down the flat, dusty windy and dry riverbed, but once we reached kalopani the reason for the jomsom trek's popularity was clear. the town sits at the feet of dauhlagiri, tukuche, nilgiri and annapurna, with quite amazing views of them all. there's even a new housing estate on the outskirts of the town. tatopani's hot springs were the perfect antidote for a couple of week's worth of accumulated dust and grim, but unforrtunately an hour on the trail the next day put us back to where we started. there's no staying clean! but of course as long as all around are of similar cleanliness and smelliness it's really not a problem. dawn on new year's day saw us on top of poon hill with a postcard panorama of mountains we'd been walking around and beneath, and was quite the spectacle. with plenty of time to spend, we also popped up to annapurna base camp in the "sanctuary" enclosed by the central peaks of the massif. the whole trip we were amazed not to have less than perfect weather, and that has held up to now, when we sit in pokhara under hazy and cloudy skies. i'm very glad we saved the wading through waist deep snows for some other time!

after more than enough relaxation in pokhara, we're back off on an exciting local bus to kathmandu tomorrow, and then on to india!