Two weeks ago I ventured west to Pokhara. It is the “resort” area of Nepal. Tourists never stay in Kathmandu, they only use it as the gate to Nepal. Once here, they go trekking and to Pokhara. Its a beautiful area, without the congestion and pollution of Kathmandu. It sits on a lake surrounded by mountains. Gorgeous. Wish I could have stayed longer…

There are a lot of things to do around Pokhara; hiking, sightseeing, paragliding, caving, boating, and loads of pretty interesting museums. I know a lot of people are not the museum types, but I enjoy them (I blame that on my Mom). The most interesting was the International Mountain Museum. It featured exhibits on the people of the mountains, the mountains themselves, and those that have climbed them. Even a bit on the Yeti.

This is some of the trash taken off Mt. Everest. There’s still a lot up there. Its called the highest trash dump in the world. Sad really. I guess the type of people that will pay $75,000 to climb a mountain don’t feel its their place to have to carry out their trash…

Devi Falls is a pretty spectacular waterfall in Pokhara. Its tough to see, however, because it falls directly into a gorge and goes underground 50 yards from its base. The cool part is that you can climb down a cave and see where it goes underground.

We took a side trip over to a small town called Beni. It was a three hour drive on some of the worst road I’ve ever encountered. Its always fun four-wheeling in a 1970 something Corolla…

There were waterfalls everywhere leading into creeks, many of which went over the roads.

Dirt roads + water = muddy roads

Muddy roads + old car + bald tires = car sliding through the mud

Car sliding through the mud + side of a mountain = white knuckles

But fun nonetheless. The picture below isn’t too bad. This was where a landslide had occurred. Many times it would look like this, but directly on the left side was a 100 foot or more drop.

All along the drive to Pokhara and to Beni, the mountainsides have been cleared and terraced for rice and corn. On some mountainsides there were, I would estimate, 75 or more terraces all the way down the mountain. That’s a lot of work.

There are also many hanging bridges along the drive. Farmers will live on one side of the mountain, but the towns are on the other side of the mountain. There were also many hand-powered gondola lifts crossing the rivers.

Pokhara is a very interesting mix of modern tourism and traditional Nepal. It really has balanced the two quite well. There are plenty of nice hotels and great restaurants in Pokhara. But once you get a bit out of Pokhara, it immediately goes to a more “traditional culture” of Nepal. I say that with a grain of salt, however. “Traditional culture” is really a misnomer when you speak of a country with over one hundred languages and people groups. Especially in a country only slightly larger than Ohio. It would be like someone from Cleveland speaking a completely different language than one from Cincinnati. Of course as my friend from Akron reminded me, if we included those south of the Ohio River it becomes a much more meaningful metaphor.