Pokhara, Nepal

[J.] After our hike in the mountains, we spent some days in Pokhara, a very calm and laid back town. There are plenty of things to do here, going on a boat ride onto the lake, hiking up to the beautiful Peace Pagoda which also offers a beautiful view onto the mountains and is ideal for taking scenic photos, as well as activities such as paragliding.  We had all intentions to go for these options but well... we were dead lazy instead and the best we managed was having a stroll down the main road along the lake and going for a massage. Hmmmm...
In our defense, the weather was quite cloudy/foggy, so the view onto the mountains clearly could not have been that great and served as our excuse. And the boat ride simply did not feel too appealing, but we might have been completely wrong, who knows...

Something funny we discovered in Pokhara are that the maps of this town that are simply not accurate (similar for Kathmandu). In fact, at some point we looked at two different maps that for sure were showing different streets! Google maps is also generally off several streets, so finding specific places becomes an afternoon long hunt along the streets.
One afternoon, we were so keen to find a sandwich bar, only a tiny shop somewhere off the main street, we literally ran around in circles for quite some time. And we were craving these sandwiches after having eaten from the same menu in the mountains for days (which was good, but we needed something different in taste). When we finally gave up, quite frustrated, we stumbled past this place on our way back to the hotel. We could not believe it! We had passed this place at least 5 times before without noticing it and it was literally only 150m away from where we stayed.... aaaaaaah!
However, it felt like we had the best sandwiches that evening for dinner ever. The shop owner was such a lovely guy. He also owned a dog which was the most charming dog in human terms we ever met and I still regret not having taking my cam with me that evening. The dog came close to us while we were waiting for the sandwiches, sat next to my husban who had his legs crossed and put one leg onto his shoe that was haning in the air, then sitting there as if this would be the most normal thing in the world while looking down the street. I could not stop laughing...
Another great shop food-wise was a German bakery that sold the most amazing apple pies, and I had my fair share of them during these days...

We left Pokhara for some final days in Kathmandu to do some shopping before heading off to Sri Lanka via Bangkok. For whatever reason, we did only apply for a single entry visa in India months ago and could not manage to find an acceptable flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka where our luggage would be checked through in Delhi. Hence, we would have needed a transfer visa for India which due to the paperwork and time involved has not been an option for us. Therefore, we decided to fly via Bangkok.

Bye Nepal, we will miss you for sure and hopefully will be back one day. But we are also looking forward to unpack our beachwear which has been locked in our luggage for more then 5 weeks now... Hello Sri Lanka, here we come...  ;)