On our way from Kathmandu to Pokhara,  we follow the river, which runs far beneath the road, which we use. There is little melting water and the monsoon has not started yet, so there is only a small stream of water. De pieces of the mountain, which the river has carried away and left behind, are clearly visible. The water has turned them into smooth eggs in the course of time, which grow bigger, the further we go to the north. After a few hours, some boulders have a diameter of a few meters. The water level increases as well, the further we move to the north.

Pokhara is a small city to the north-west of the capital close to the Himalayas, and a famous starting point for trekkers of the Annapurna circuit. It lies at 827 meter, in the shadow of some famous majestic mountains, like the Annapurna II (almost 8,000 meter) and the Dhaulagiri (more than 8,000 meter). The Machhapuchhre or Fishtail Mountain is, with its almost 7,000 meter, one of the smaller ones, but its form has prevented all climbers to plant a flag on the top.
 

Pokhara is 200 kilometers west of Katmandu at an altitude of 827 meter, in the middle of beautiful lakes and the Himalayas. It was on the historic trade route between India and Tibet, until the Chinese invaded Tibet. Up to 1960, the city could only be reached on foot, but within half a century, it has developed itself into a busy tourist place with several kinds of transport arriving. Nowadays, the city has 190,000 inhabitants, with tourism and mostly trekking being its main source of income. In that sense, it remains on the trading route, exchanging mountainous beauty for money.
The main lake is called Phewa lake, and it is the second largest lake in Nepal (1.5 km by 4 km). It is full of small boats, their captains eager to bring you to the other side or just tour around the lake, or even to have you row the boat yourself for a tiny bit of money. In the middle of the lake is a small island with a temple, and on the border there is a royal building, heavily protected by a guard, who starts shouting at us already even though we are far away on the lake and do nothing but look.
There is also a large power providing dam, which collapsed in 1970 and had to be rebuilt. The tourist area is now divided into "dam-side" (Pardi) and "lake side" (Baidam), with the latter being the most popular.
 

Nepal is a landlocked country. That is obviously not as rare as being doubly landlocked, like Uzbekistan is. After all, there are 43 land locked countries and only two are doubly landlocked (Liechtenstein is the other). Nepal borders Tibet on the north side  and is largely carried by the shoulders of the Himalayas. Eight of the world's highest mountains are here; the famous Mount Everest forms part of the border between China and Nepal. Bangladesh is not far away: only a small 21 kilometer strip of Indian territory called "chicken's neck" separates the two countries and from the Bengali district Panchagarh, you can see the Himalayas on a clear day.
We drive per minivan to Sarangkot, about 1,000 meter higher than Pokhara, to see the sun rise over the mountains. After this unforgettable experience, we are prepared to descend on foot. There is a very long stairs, all the way down. First the physical exercise seems good, because we were completely frozen, looking at the mountains. The next day however, I suffer from an enormous muscle pain. I am afraid I will have to start a very intensive training, before I can join all the others in the Annapurna circuit. Above are two pictures of the Fishtail mountain. It seems very small because of the distance between us and this impressive giant, and that is why it is often difficult to picture it clearly.

We also participated in some tourist activities, such as rafting, and visiting of places like bat caves, a museum and a waterfall. We decide to skip the temples, as we can hear mutiny arising in the children's camp. The waterfall we visit is named “Devi’s Fall” and there are several explanations for this name, but the signboard close to the attraction itself states, that it refers to an expat named David, who was washed away by the water once on that very spot. Unless this David was a dwarf, however, this must have happened in another time of year, because when we were there, the waterfall had almost dried up.
 

Our stay in Pokhara coincided with the arrival of the participants of the Himalaya-rally. Well, honestly and obviously, it was not a coincidence, that the participants stayed in the Fishtail Lodge (the hotel which was named after the majestic mountain in the pictures above)  just like us. In a way, the cars seemed to belong there and blended in well with the ocal traffic and animals.
 

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