Pokhara, the novel.

On Thursday afternoon, five of us (Megan, Joyce, Nate, Amanda, and I) decided to go to Pokhara, Nepal. To get to Pokhara, one takes the same rickety bus down the same terrifyingly steep road out of Kathmandu, as if one were heading towards Chitwan. However, this trip is different, as it heads more west instead of south, and climbs higher into the mountains, instead of going into flat lands.

Pokhara is a small town located in the foothills of the Annapurna mountain range. On a good day, you can see many of the famous mountains, but more often than not, it's too cloudy to see a single peak (while we were there, we only briefly glimpsed Macchapucchre.) Besides the mountains, Pokhara is idyllic--the town is hidden away in the hills, and centered around a large, clear freshwater lake. In the middle of the lake is a small island, upon which a Buddhist temple is located, and perched on top of a hill, overlooking the lake is the World Peace Pagoda.

When we arrived in Pokhara on Friday afternoon, after a long, dusty and bumpy ride, we met up with two other interns, Carly and Melissa, who had stayed with us in Kathmandu a few days prior. They had been moved to Sarangkot, a little village on a hill above Pokhara, to work in the health clinic there, and were waiting in Pokhara to be moved to their homestay. After dropping off our bags, we immediately headed for the town to eat dinner, and then to the lake.

Some of the best Western food I've ever eaten in Nepal came from this one restaurant in Pokhara. In Nepal, if you want good food, your best bet is to order Nepali food, but often, places trying to cater to tourists will attempt to make Western food (note: not always a good end result.) But this place was so good, we actually didn't eat anywhere else the entire time we were there. After dinner, we grabbed Pringles, Pepsi, and whiskey, rented a boat and made it onto the lake in time for the sunset, which, I sure you can guess, was spectacular.

After we returned the boat, we wandered back to our hotel room (which was called 'the dormitory' because it was actually just three barren bunk beds), told stories and played games until one of us puked (they actually puked into my hands), one of us cried, and all of us fell asleep with no pants on.

The next day we woke up late, ate an amazing breakfast at our favorite restaurant, and immediately rented another boat. Carly had been feeling fairly nauseous after a rough bout with ED (or, explosive diarrhea) and this morning, she decided to sleep in.

Note: The moment we had arrived in Pokhara, Carly had started pushing the idea of staying later and trekking for four days in the Annapurna range, which none of us were expecting to do, or were prepared to do. Most people didn't want to go, and the idea of trekking with her feeling ill, and the rest of us also having bowel movements the consistency of water, was constantly on the back of my mind during the trip. Ignoring everyone else, she displayed how intent she was on doing it by yelling through the bathroom door to us about just, 'how awesome it would be.'

So while Carly was recovering (to make sure she could trek), we rented a boat and fishing rods, and headed out to a small cove across the lake. The poles were a mess, so we forgot them, stripped down to our undies, and dove into the water. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon swimming and climbing onto thick trees that hung out across the water so that we could dive in. Seriously, picturesque.

We dropped off the boat and picked up Carly, and wandered into town to do some serious shopping, which turned out to be quite fruitful ($56 North Face Jacket? Don't mind if I do!) We ate another great dinner, and then watched a cultural dance. At the cultural dance, we met another Canadian man, and Englishman, and a few drunk Nepalis. They wandered from touristy bar to touristy bar with us, telling us about how they too were interns, and they'd been living in Nepal for over 7 months. While we hadn't had much to drink, we were a smaller group of females (Carly had to run off to the squatter again) with a bunch of overeager men. And so Nate took care of us.

The next morning we awoke to Carly sitting on our beds, telling us that she was really, really sorry, but she just didn't think she could go on the trek. Nobody was too heartbroken. Instead, we decided to hike the two hours to the Peace Pagoda, which would be difficult, as it was 7:30, we still had no pants on, and she had to be back by 10 am to go to Sarangkot. We quickly got across the lake and started the hike at 8:40, and managed to make it to the Pagoda by 9:20 in what was probably one of the most intense and miserable hikes of my life.

Pokhara, like Chitwan, is very hot and very humid. The hills are covered in rainforests. But it is still at an incredible elevation. I hike a lot, but I have never sweat so much, and felt so out of breath in my life. I can't even imagine what those people taking pictures must have thought as I dragged my completely drenched self up to this pure, clean, white pagoda with this massive gold Buddha, trying not to simultaneously vomit and poop everywhere. I know they laughed. After a few minutes, Carly made her way up to me and said, "Maybe it's good we didn't trek--I feel like my water just burst."

We literally spent five minutes on top, took two pictures, and ran all the way down, where we caught a boat and made it back to the hotel by 10:15. The girls left for Sarangkot, while the rest of us hopped on a local microbus headed back to Kathmandu. The ride was wonderful, cheap, clean and fast. They even played Nepali pop music the entire way.