Beats a Pokhara in the eye

Pokhara's a fine town. It's all tourism, but that's still fine. I think it's mostly fine because the kind of tourists that go there are the ones who trek around the Annapurna circuit, so they're largely nice enough folks. I met a few single serving friends, folks I'd talk to at dinner or something, but nobody I hung out with over a couple days. I think part of that was because my guesthouse was not the most social place. (someone needs to figure out a way you can tell "how friendly" a guesthouse is, how much people hang around there. how much it's solo travelers or folks looking to meet up vs. couples/families/people who don't need any friends right now. and "go there and look at all of the guesthouses" is not an answer.)

I ate some great food. Pokhara's Lakeside is a little like Bangkok's Khao San Road: tons of tourism, insane little world apart from its enclosing country, and I want to eat everything. (and Thamel in Kathmandu is even more so.) As I've said, the Nepali coffee is good. There are two separate coffee shops that say "a proper coffee shop"; they are both great. And Nepali food is great, although that deserves another post.

I spent some time planning and some time sightseeing. I really need to remember that general sightseeing saps me fast. I can hit up maybe two, three "general interest" things in a city before I stop caring.

But anyway, I went to Devi's Falls, which is a kinda neat waterfall surrounded by way too many tacky souvenir shops.

I went to the Mountaineering Museum, which is not a very good museum. Some gear from great mountaineers, and a lot of dusty posters with too many words. Nevertheless, I love a good list, so I liked looking at lists of the tallest mountains and different ethnic groups, both inside Nepal and outside Nepal in other mountainous regions.

One ethnic group: the Pun Magar. Beej and Julie, I barely resisted emailing this to you.

No, I cannot!

Finally, and most spectacularly, I did that trip up to Sarangkot, where I didn't see any mountains, but I also went up to the World Peace Pagoda/Shanti Stupa, where I did see some mountains.

The pointiest one is Machapuchhare. I like that one.