Nepal 2023 Blog
Made it to Pokhara
By Jenna McCarthy
March 13, 2023
Today, we woke up at 5:00 AM for breakfast at 5:30 AM. Then, we drove back to the Kathmandu airport for our 7:30 AM flight. We had to wait there for a bit, but we saw a pretty sunrise that created a silhouette of the city’s skyline.
The breakfast had instant coffee, toast with jam and butter, cereal, hard-boiled eggs, bacon that resembled American bacon but was definitely not American bacon, roasted tomatoes, and boiled potatoes. There was also watermelon with black seeds and ripe papaya. We also had mango juice, which I've decided is my new favorite thing!
The flight to Pokhara from Kathmandu was only a whooping 25 minutes! I was worried that there would be a lot of turbulence because the plane was so small but that didn’t end up happening. The only thing that ended up happening was that some people had to switch seats to balance out the plane. We also caught a sneak peak of the snow-covered peaks of the Himalayan mountains as the plane offered an incredible viewpoint. As I mentioned, the plane was tiny. I don’t even think there was a bathroom on it. I made a joke that we were taking the PJ (private jet) to Pokhara. When we got to Pokhara, we grabbed our bags and jumped into the jeeps. The jeep ride was 2.5 hours, but my van made a surprise pit stop at the driver’s house! He ate some lunch, and I was relieved we stopped because I was starting to get car sick from sitting in the trunk.
Then, we kept driving up and down through windy mountain dirt roads until we stopped at a river where the runoff from Annapurna flows. We waited for the other Hamilton jeeps to meet us on the side of the river and ate some bananas as a snack, given to us by our guides.
Then, it started to rain, so we waited for a bit in the hopes that the rain would pass. We started trekking later than expected, but the jeeps also drove us farther than expected due to the inclement weather. As soon as we started hiking, a train of donkeys with packs on their saddles strolled by in a single file line - clearly, they knew what they were doing unlike us beginners. We hiked up a lot of stairs, but the hike was very brief. Finally, we got to our first tea house, ate lunch (egg spring rolls and French fries), hung out all afternoon (people napped, people walked around the village and took in the surrounding area, people read, people played games, you know the vibes), ate dinner (chicken, rice, lentils for vegetarians, collard greens, cooked potatoes/cauliflower), and drank lots of tea!
It’s colder here than expected, so it was nice to have the tea to warm up. We’re all looking forward to tomorrow!
Jenna ("No landlords here, only electricians") McCarthy '23
