Day 125 - Eating Our Way Through Nepal

We intended an early start for best fishing. We were waylaid by fog and Hungry Feel's amazing breakfast. Less than a dollar buys toast from fresh, house-baked bread, eggs, and a little salad. From their rooftop dining area, we watched the local fisherman set their nets, a heron wait for his fish, and the water catch the sky and bounce it back in blue-green ripples. Fat and happy, we returned to our favourite boat and bike rental place. It's not really an official rental shop - just a family with a few extra boats, rods, and promising pictures of them holding up large fish thumbtacked to the wall. They set us up with rowboat, bait, and a promise that if we caught a fish, they would prepare it for us.

We paddled out to some promising looking water-hyacinth clumps, but aside from a tiny nibble, no sign of fish. We paddled some more - by now I am really getting the hang of the local stand-and-paddle method - but even in our new and improved location, no fish. No matter, it's a beautiful day and we are having fun just tooling around on the water.

By 11AM it was getting pretty warm, so I left the fishing to Cz, stripped down to my swimsuit, and hopped overboard. The water was the perfect temperature - cool enough to be nice, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable. We found that the boat was almost easier to tow than to paddle, so I splashed around happily hauling the boat to new fishing spots as necessary.

Getting back in proved an ungaingly venture involving much grunting and splashng on my part, and some desperate counter-balancing on Cz's part. We managed though, and both made it home in the boat and relatively dry. The boat owner greeted us with "Where's the fish?" We had to reply "Still in the lake."

Fishing completed, we had a little nap, and then headed into town for another round of The Best Momos Ever and another dose of European baking and cocoa. We had planned to go up to Bengas Tal, another lake in the area that almost no foreigners visit, but we had spent too long on this lake and lingering over our momos and sweets. Instead, we spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around Pokhara window-shopping and people-watching.

We also bought our bus tickets. Tomorrow we really leave on the trek. It's almost a full day's travel to the trailhead. We spend the night there, and then start hiking the day after tomorrow. Some of the villages don't even have electricity, and those that do often only have one phone line for the whole town. In short, you might not hear from us for up to three weeks. Don't worry. Only one of the four species of Yeti eats trekkers (the other three are vegetarian, or only eat small, asian children).