Nepal - Apres Trek

So, after spending almost 3 days in Jomsom, we left, happily, at 7 am on Sunday, for a 20 minute flight to Pokhara.

Jomsom is really in quite a nice setting.  Straddling the Kali Gandaki, almost below Nilgiri and within sight of Dhaulagiri, it seems like it should be a great place.  But like many of the villages we visited, it looks better from a distance, and there are a couple of nearby villages that are much nicer and much less noisy, such as Thinigaon and Marpha.

For part of one day, we hiked to the nearby village of Marpha.  Lots of farming in Marpha and a scenic little village as well.

The big problem with Jomsom becomes abundantly clear sometime after 11 am.  Light valley breezes become a howling gale, complete with clouds of blowing dust.  The only sane thing to do is hide inside.

That strategy, however, presents it's own problems, chief being how cold it is inside most buildings.  The solution is to crawl inside your sleeping bag.  And that is how we spent 3 afternoons.  It's enough to drive you to drink, but my drink of choice is beer and feeling frozen is not conducive to beer drinking, at least for me.

Our last day in Jomsom was half nice.  We walked across the river and hiked to Thinigaon, then on to Dhumpa Lake and a monastery overlooking the town of Jomsom, Marpha and area.  The morning flights between Jomsom and Pokhara went right by us.  The picture attached shows Thinigaon, by the way, not Jomsom, which is mostly out of sight to the left.

However, enough time is enough time, and a 20 minute flight later, by 7:30 am the next morning, we were in Pokhara, where it was warm, flowers were blooming, plants were green, no wind was blowing and we were 2000 m lower.

We discovered almost immediately one of the less pleasant facts of Nepali politics.  One of the disgruntled political parties (Maoist, perhaps?), had called a general strike.  No taxis, no buses and many shops closed.  Nobody seemed to know why, though.  Just a number of cars sporting banners and flags and carrying  self-important functionaries up and down the main street.  These were the same nitwits who foiled our attempt to go trekking in the Annapurnas three years ago with a multi-day strike.

Anyway, our guide got a fellow with a car to drive us to our hotel.  Once breakfasted and established in our room, with the laundry done, it was time to get down to business: shopping, finding bakery goods, enjoying the warm temperatures by wearing shorts (first time in 2 weeks) and sandals.

Happy "hour" at a nearby restaurant starts at 4 pm, after which there is a good Indian restaurant not too far away.  And then sleep, when I won't need to sleep in my socks and fleece sweater for the first time in 2 weeks.

Tomorrow we may hike to a set of falls on the river that drains Fewa Lake.  Some shopping in the afternoon and then we leave for KTM Tuesday morning.  A 200 km bus ride that will take 8 hours.