Nov 1, 2014 Saturday Pokhara

It was pretty hazy/foggy when we got up but by the time we left the hotel you could see some of the mountains from our balcony.  This is what we had hoped to see in Pokhara.  Just beautiful. 

Mountains from our balcony

We stopped briefly at a temple on a hill that supposedly had mountain views.  However, only one mountain could be seen.  The rest were behind the trees and the temple.

  

The next stop was the World Peace Pagoda on the other side of town.  It was high on a hill with lovely views of the mountains. 

World Peace Pagoda

View of the Annapurnas and Lake Pewa



Barahi Temple on the island

"Stairs" from Hell

Unfortunately the road stopped well short of the site so we had a number of stairs to climb to get to it.  It was worth the hike up but even more unfortunately our driver had another client to get to so we agreed to hike down from the pagoda to the lake (big mistake).  We enjoy hiking but this was brutal…steep, uneven packed stones, often wet and slippery.  







Monkey on the "Stairs" from Hell

Hated the walk as it took every bit of our attention to avoid falling, making it difficult to enjoy the forest.  We did run into a band of monkeys and watched their antics for a bit.

  

Barahi Temple

Once we got to the bottom we boarded a row boat for a trip across the lake to our hotel.  The trip went by the Barahi Temple in Lake Pewa, located on an island in the middle of the lake.  With boats going around it, clockwise.

Collapsed when we got back.