Sarangkot

After my friend left I decided to go up to Sarangkot for the day. It's a little village on a hill outside of Pokhara, and it's the thing to do outside of the main city. The drive up was so beautiful I either had to ask the driver (supplied by my hotel) to stop every minute so I could get out and take a photo, or just give up on the whole thing. Unfortunately for you lot, I gave up on the whole thing.

A quick word picture of the best though - on a bend in the road, a Nepali guy in normal Nepali clothes (shirt, vest, topi) reclining on a tussock, the perfect triangular snow-covered peak of Machhapuchhre behind him.

Sarangkot is another one of those Nepali village paradises, a little touristy, but still the sort of place where everytime you look around you go 'ahhhh....' it's the visual equivalent of the feeling you get after lying on the beach a few hours during the summer holidays. On one side you look down onto Pokhara, the lake, and the valley, on the other you get an un-interrupted view of the Annapurna's (well, they were only totally clear the day I came up and didn't take photos, but you get the idea). You know those pictures of French or Swiss villages you get on puzzle boxes? The place is like that.

In the midst of all this eye candy, I was able to internet people. "Hi Benny, I'm on a hilltop gazing at the Himalayas in a beautiful village. What are you up to?" Incongruous.

The first night I had the guest house to myself, the next night an Aussie girl and an English girl joined me, then they paraglided back down to Pokhara the next morning. I thought about it, then thought about it some more, then decided there's no way I'd pay to do that. I wanted to get a flight around the Himalayas, but that crashed while I was there too.

Also, I have my first grey hair. Here's some pictures of Sarangkot:


From the lookout. It's also an army outpost, with one guy, a tin shed that says 'Army' on the side, and some barbed wire:


Clouds are intense there. Those are eagles:


View from my guest house. They wake up to this view every morning. That's Maya on the left, she gave me some recipes:


Taking it easy...


The big paragliding expedition. Would I go?

No, no, I would not go, I would not go for all the dough.

On the way back up I saw this happy looking goat. Why so happy, Mr. Goat?

'Cause he escaped this fate, I think:

Wild flowers of Nepal:

Me on the way down, all tikka'd up for Dassain (big Nepali festival):

Wave goodbye, little one, see you next time: