Shimmering peaks

We did make it to Pokhara last weekend so I will bore you with the holiday snaps.

We caught a pretty comfortable tourist bus which took about 6 hours – would be quicker without the 2 (3 on the way back) stops for drinks/lunch which I could happily have done without but I guess they have to make allowance for tourists with weak bladders (sorry Ma) or Delhi belly – to meet up with Sheila's sister and brother-in-law who had arrived there the day before having come directly from Chitwan.. After being hijacked by a tout on arrival at the bus park who tried to take us to his hotel, we managed to get to ours albeit at a rip-off fare. Following a friend's recommendation we had booked at the Hotel Fewa which is run by the same management as Mike's Breakfast, a legendary Kathmandu restaurant that dates back to the hippy days. It has a beautiful lakeside position with a tranquil garden and waterfront restaurant that makes you forget the road full of garish tourist shops and restaurants that is only a short walk away. Most tourists go to Pokhara for the trekking but as we only had one full day and I am not convinced that the pain of trekking is worth it (I imagine it to be like offshore racing – good when conditions are perfect but most of the time you wonder why the hell you want to go through so much physical discomfort in the name of fun), we only did a short walk along the lakeside. There were some great views of the mountains although these pictures may not do them credit.

All along our bit of lakeside were canoes for hire and directly in front of the hotel some sailing boats. I suppose I should have hired one to remind myself how to sail but the wind looked flukey and the boats flakey. I think the rigs must have been designed by the same person that does the plastic sailing boats that kids play with in the bath. It was fun at breakfast on Sunday watching the kids, some very young, paddling across from their homes on the other side of the lake to go to school our side. They were very skilled at getting ashore without stepping in the mud.

You might have seen news from Nepal that violence has returned in the south with 28 people killed and many injured at a rally. There were some demonstrations about this in Kathmandu last week which fortunately were peaceful. In other districts, Maoist soldiers left their camps to hold protest rallies which as the UN Representative pointed out is a breach of the Peace Agreement and gives people an excuse to claim that they are not playing by the rules. There seems to be no political resolution to these factional disputes which makes it increasingly doubtful that it will be possible to hold a proper election in less than 3 months time – the question is which will be worse, the backlash that will come from postponing the election or the arguments that will follow if there is a botched election. Also last week we had a business strike for a couple of days in protest against a Kathmandu hotel owner being beaten up. The Maoists were blamed for this and they did expel a couple of members for their involvement but they also claimed provocation because the owner mistreated his staff and pro-monarchy agitators stirred things up. This claim is no more unlikely than the business organisations saying that he was a saint who was subjected to an unprovoked attack.

Enough rambling, time to get the photos uploaded.

Cheers

Roshan

P.S. Happy sailing to those starting a new sailing season at Felpham SC – looks nice brisk weather for the first race!