Amber's Travel and Life Adventures: Pokhara, Nepal

This is an overdue post, but I uploaded the photos awhile back and then never wrote about it. In case you don't remember, in February, I visited Nepal with my mom and sister. There are a couple other posts about it here and here and here. I realized there are still photos I want to share! So here's another installment.....

Pokhara is Nepal's 2nd largest city and it was a nice getaway from the noise of Kathmandu. There is a beautiful lake here and we stayed just across the street from it. Here is a nice photo of it.

While we were visiting, it was the end of the dry season and the air was full of dust and it was quite hazy. The day we left it rained and rained and I wish I could have seen the views afterwards--I heard they were beautifully clear and amazing.
Here are a couple images of the Himalayas from the airplane window on our way there (quite an adventure to fly on a domestic nepali airlines....). I think one of them is Annapurna, but I don't know which one.....

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On the top of a very large hill above the lake, there is a World Peace Pagoda. We decided to walk up there one afternoon. It was a pretty serious hike--clear path, sometimes wide & flat, but mostly very steep and full of steps.
This little guy was at the very beginning and he immediately told us we were going in the wrong direction. I guess he was right - I think there were many ways to get to the top and he told us about the steeper, possibly somewhat shorter route.
He (of course) held out his hand for a tip after giving us the information. He was so CUTE! He couldn't have been more than 5 or 6.

Here's a view of the top of the peace pagoda while we were about halfway up--it's still really far away!

And the view back down the hill into the kathmandu valley when we weren't very far up the hill yet.

And here's a couple view while we were a little farther up the hill--this one is looking back to approximately the level I was when I took the previous photo above. It's a nice shot of the cute little terraced gardens and huts on the side of the hill.

And a little farther up looking back at the pathway we just walked on--you can imagine the views were amazing!

It took us about two hours to walk from where we saw the cute little boy until we finally made it to the top!

And here's a closer image of the peace pagoda and some information about it. If you click the picture with the text and then click it again, it should be more than large enough to read.

The pagoda itself was just the white dome and a couple of statues. There was a little buddhist temple just below it on the path that had more of a prayer space and indoor shrine, but I didn't take any photos.

And here's the view of Pokhara the city and part of the lake from the top of the hill:

Then, after a short walk around the pagoda and a little rest, we had to walk all the way back down! This time, we walked down the greener side of the hill towards the lake. My legs were a little shaky after all that elevation up and then steps down!

On the way down, there was a little "restaurant"/ rest stop/shack where we got some cool drinks:

And some interesting cactus that were in flower:
Actually, I think this might be a euphorbia, and not a true cactus, but it's a cool plant anyway. This variety was growing over 6 feet tall!

We finally reached the bottom and were rewarded with a boat ride to reach the other side of the lake. Here's an image of the little hindu temple on a small island in the lake:

and some locals getting rides as well. I felt a little bad paying someone to row the three of us slim ladies in a heavy wooden canoe, and then I saw these boats loaded down with entire extended families! I really liked all the colors of their clothes.