Pokhara, Nepal.


Relaxy lakeside tourist resort with lots of time to do nothing. Heaven. There also seems to be a local greeting to foreigners we hadn't heard before - "Namaste. Cannabis."

Stayed a few days before our trek and now a few more days of super-relaxy times, fancy food with wine and cocktails (sometimes simultaneously) in civilisation after the trek.
 
 
Pokhara's a popular destination for domestic tourists also and everybody basically hangs out on the lake. Domestic tourists go to a temple on an island and westerners just potter about. Nepalis also seem to manage to fit more people in their boats.


Pretty relaxing......

Karl is king of the lake.




 
 The boats are ridiculously unsteady and flat-bottomed but thankfully the rescue boat is positioned for a quick response to any emergency.









This relaxation was all too much for Karl and he started looking for adventure. Karl did a microlight flight (death wish?) and then conceded that we really needed ride on a Royal Enfield!!!!! Yay!

Would you trust your life to this?

 Karl cunningly disguised as a 16th century puritan woman.

Karl high up in the mountains in a paper plane powered by a hairdryer.

Karl survived so we celebrated with a motorcycle ride.



The Enfields were great, noisy, vibratey, temperamental characters but absolutely wonderful.
Gear changes were not the most reliable, often didn't happen and Karl spent extensive periods as Karl "Third Gear" O'Neill. That was after not having been able to find third for the first half hour. This is how he also became Karl "not stopping for shit" O'Neill ploughing through the groups of kids ambushing traffic for Dipawali. And finally he became Karl "smokin' brakes" O'Neill after a long downhill section.



Our favourite was called Che. He kindly gave us the opportunity to practice patience, tolerance and tire changes.

Karl helps.

Stay tuned to Facebook for the four-part video series of Karl's Guide to Starting an Enfield. I'll put it up as soon as I find a fast enough internet connection. It's a classic.

It's been festival time in Pokhara. First time around it was Dashain and now Dipawali (Nepali version of Diwali) so lots of very loud, mostly terrible music and the whole spectrum of dance quality.
Dance troup taking selfies.


Footpath decorations for Dipwali - candles are added at night. Also Karl's big toe for scale.


And Karl found a very little banana tree that's producing (very little) bananas and he's now jealous/confused/desperate for updates (Miguel?) on his own plant back home.

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