Nepal Day 5

Early on the 5th day in Nepal, Natalie and I woke up. There is an extremely irritating habit that all people in Nepal participate in....can you guess what it is? I am certain that no one will get this one. All people in Nepal have the art of "hacking and spitting" down to a science. Now one might wonder, "How does this apply to a vacation?" Well, let me tell you about it. As I sat in the room working on my homework around 4 a.m. I started to hear the hacking noise. Natalie is a light sleeper, so she would also wake up while I was working. Together we began to enjoy a once in a life time experience. The sound of 50 men hacking a spitting simultaneously in the showers and bathrooms in the surrounding rooms. The walls were much thinner than we would have preferred. I showered and came out of the bathroom with Natalie attempting to catch the moment on video, but unfortunately she was unsuccessful. Nat thought there were less people, but I won the bet as well went outside at 515 am, to see the sun rise at our next location.

We went out and about particularly early because we had heard that watching the sun rise over the Annapurnas in a local town at the top of the hill was amazing. So we promptly caught a taxi up...up...up the hill. There were a lot of tourist standing at the top of a small hill within the town of Sarangkot. "They" (whoever they are) did not lie. The view from the top was amazing. The picture above was taken before the sun came over up. I really thought that the little hut was a great addition. Although, truth be told that I love the small quirky things when I am taking photos.
Right next to the small hill were individuals who were selling their goods. Traveling through Nepal it is easy to understand what brought all the hippies to the area during the 70's. As I was reading this post I thought, "Is this a Christmas promotion in the non-Christian country...or a plug to bring the 70's back?" Then I decided that maybe it would just be a good thing to have the world at peace. Additionally, it might make a great Christmas card.
Above is a photo of some of the good you can buy in Nepal.
I love this photo of when the sun was finally coming up. There is something amazing about the sun rising.
Natalie with a view of the Annapurnas. The valley was beautiful, but so hazy from the humidity.
The Annapurna Range (there are six peaks to Annapurna).
Another mountain can be seen with Annapurna, Machhapuchhare. One of the locals told me that it name meant pyramid. Looking at the mountain that would make sense to me.

I love this one too.
After seeing the sunrise, we went back to Pokhara. Immediately after we were dropped off at the hotel a local woman approached us with some pastries. At first we turned them down, but eventually gave in to the temptation. They were some fabulous warm pastries with some sort of chocolate filling. If you are every in Nepal these little ditties are a must.

The pastry was not enough so I had a local meal...the Marsala Omelet. The omelet was would have been much better if there had been addition of salt to the mix, but non the less amazing. I also had some curry potatoes. I am not sure if the Nepalese potatoes are different than ours, but I can say that they created a new close relationship between us. Me+Potatoes=Pure Love.

Then Natalie and I went went for a hike. I think the combination of my recently more sedentary life and the elevation definitely played a part on my ability to hike well, but Natalie was very patient with me. The hike started on talking us around the big hill that we were eventually going to go to the top of for the next two hours.
This is a photo of me while I was still thinking that this was going to be amazing. Don't you worry though, it was not only amazing, but memorable. The hike upward was a delightful challenge as we lost the trail. The good thing about a hike that goes through terraced areas and has a destination at the top of the hill is that it is easy to reach your goal when you are wandering.
After slowly hiking up...and up....and up (the theme of the morning "up") we were met with this beautiful view. The World Peace Pagoda. This was a very beautiful structure.
Around the pagoda there were a lot of marigolds. Marigolds are found everywhere in Nepal, but I will attest that I am surprised there are many left. Marigolds are used in all of the Nepalese celebrating that I participated in over the time I was in the country. They are used in there religious ceremonies as well. Oh well, I suppose that I will never know the answer to the question about how they continue to have this little flowers around.
We had to take off our shoes and then we were able to walk up the steps of the pagoda. At the top of the stairs we were met with this beautiful Buddha.

This is another of the statue at the World Peace Pagoda, but I am not sure who this represents.
After seeing the sites at the top of the hill, then we headed back down. I had this great idea that when going back down the trail we would eventually be able to find the real trail. Sadly or happily, that was not the case. We headed down the trail and met up with a place to take a canoe ride across the river. A really nice older man gave a really enjoyable ride back into town.

When reaching the shore we were met by an cute Tibetan woman who was selling jewelry. I have a special place in my heart for all of the older people who are selling items. When it came to buying souvenirs if they were seniors they were more likely to get my rupees. Natalie and I became the proud owners of some amazing yellow amber bracelets.
I the afternoon Natalie and I caught the city bus out to a local Tibetan Refugee Camp called, Tashi Palkhel. In the camp there was a Buddhist monastery. We went to listen to the two hours of prayer/chants that were performed daily. We got there early and were met on the the local monks. He was about 20 years old, I think. He took Natalie and I on a tour and told us all about the room where they say there prayers. You may not be able to see this clearly, but on the left edge of the photo there are a bunch of cake sacrifices to god. I loved the cakes! In the glass cases covering the room are 1,000 Buddha statues.
The monks sit at all of the little desks/tables at assigned seating according to their time at the monastery.
These are some of the horns used throughout the prayers.
Tibetan Bell and Dorje used in the prayers. I did not get to see how these are used because we only stayed for a little over one hour. We were worried about getting back into town before it got dark. Public buses and walking through unknown territory are not the smartest plans in unfamiliar territory.
Prayer flags outside the monastery. I learned that each color of the flags is correlated with one of the Buddhas that have been reincarnated.
It was fun to watch all of the monks (who were really young) interacting.
This is a picture of the outside of the monastery.
This little monk was our favorite. He was a bundle of energy and definitely gets into some fun trouble.
As part of worship individuals walk clockwise around the buildings and turn these.

This is a beautiful goat that was sitting outside one of the shops outside within the Tibetan Camp.

It was a great day!