Slowing Down in Pokhara

“Imagine a perfect triangular mountain, capped by snow and buffeted by the icy winds of the Himalaya. Imagine a millpond calm lake, perfectly reflecting the snowy peaks. Now imagine a village on the lakeshore, thronged by travelers and reverberating to the sound of ‘om mani padme hum’ from a hundred shops selling prayer flags, carpets, masks, singing bowls and CDs of Buddhist mantras. That’s Pokhara.” (lonelyplanet.com)

Pokhara, Nepal

The name of the town itself sounds excitingly exotic: Pokhara, with its hard ‘k’ and trilled ‘r,’ conjures mystery and adventure, a combination I find hard to resist. And when I caught my first glimpse of this Nepali town, I knew that it's my kind of place.

Still dizzy from rushing from one temple to another in psychedelic Kathmandu Valley, we flew to Pokhara where we got our bearings back.  Its soothing, laid-back atmosphere gave us the perfect reason to stay, slow down and practically do nothing.  Unhampered by the fetters of a guidebook or an itinerary, we were free to lose our way in the old village; we had time to go around on foot instead of public transport; we could afford to take pleasure in the daily power outages by idling our time in the balcony, watching the Himalayas play hide and seek with the clouds. It is in Pokhara that I realized that it is really more satisfying to have an unhurried experience of one place than a rushed taste of several. 

Lakeside, where we whiled away the time, is settled along the serene waters of sparkling Phewa Tal