Travel Journal Overview:Though Nepal had given me the feeling of home, it was not home. We were rubbing each other the wrong way. Isn’t that what families and home do? Then, we got used to each other. And things started to work out.
Nepalese Girl enjoying the holidays in Nepal (click to enlarge)
It was Myoko’s last day today. She was leaving on a plane for Kathmandu in the evening. It was also the first day of the annual Pokhara new years festival and my last day before the trek.
As festivals go, this one was as disorganized as most Nepalese activities were. Still, each restaurant had rented out double their indoor seat numbers worth of plastic chairs and tables to line out outside the restaurants. Prayer flags fluttered from every conceivable hanging points. And everyone was smiling. There were still not that many tourists around, so it had a good local feel to it.
The Annual Pokhara New Years, Christmas Parade
A small parade involving a single large male elephant with quite the bowel disorder was amusing. Myoko was set upon by men dressed in a buffalo costume that brought about shrieks of laughter from the crowd. It was here I spotted Narayan. He was with his two year old son Narwin. It was a major relief for me to see that my guide had a family here in Pokhara and a good opportunity to see if there were any misguided feelings about the ‘eye’. It all seemed fine.
Elephant in Pokhara Parade
Myoko joined me at the Pokhara Steak house for possibly my last taste of beef, or good meal, for quite sometime. I didn’t know it yet, but I was enjoying Pokhara now. Maybe it was the company. Maybe it was the feeling of the upcoming trip. But something was changing. The place was growing on me.
Some related links on this website that you might like: (including a lot more photographs from Nepal)
