TRAVELMAN NEPAL: Chasing White Whales in Pokhara

My plan was to be in Pokhara for just over a week. Get in, see the Himalayas, move on. Bing, bang, boom.

A week turned into three weeks. It was difficult to motivate myself to leave such an idyllic tourist town.

My last few posts have had some funny stories. I’d like to keep that going, but Pokhara wasn’t funny, it was mostly relaxing...Oh wait- I did buy the wrong size shoes.

****New Year’s Eve****

****The nursing student’s I invited over to sit with Aayush and I****

****They were from Belgium and were volunteering treating Lepers in KTM****

****Aayush, he’s on steemit now! I got him to join. We met in the hostel on New Year’s Eve. He’s from Nepal****

I had decided to go trekking. I wasn’t prepared to trek. I’m not even used to calling it “trekking.” When I first heard people calling it trekking, I wanted to correct them.

****Early morning moon in sky, New Year’s Day, Lake Phewa****

Trekking? Oh, you mean hiking! Trekking is when you put on pointy ears and go to a Star Trek convention, or when my mom spends the day looking for a button to fix my niece’s Prom dress. “Christopher, we must have trekked all over town looking for that darn thing! Oh, what a day. And I ran into Dorothy, a customer from work, she’s the one with the daughter who’s married to the anesthesiologist- or is it gynecologist? You know, she has the special needs child with that disease that makes you tremble, like a, like a, well something that shakes...Oh, I can’t remember that disease’s name. Anyways, Dorothy knows this nurse, she pricked her finger with a needle and now she’s dead. Christopher... Promise me. Don’t ever prick yourself with anything! Please! I don’t want you ending up like Dorothy’s friend.” -That’s trekking!

****A view of an Annapurna Peak a few meters from my hotel, and the unfortunate common garbage pile****

Anyhoooo, Since I could see the Himalayas from my hotel room window and everyone was either going trekking or had returned from trekking, I decided to go hiking, I mean trekking.

****My hotel room window****

****The mountain Peak outside my hotel room window****

I reckoned it was go big or go home. I would trek the 11-14 days to Annapurna Base Camp and back . I would read up on trekking ABC, buy the proper clothing, and leave in two days. I am so cool! I am going to humble brag the hell out of this when I get back to the states!

That didn’t happen. Instead, I came down with a horrible cold. When I felt well enough to shop, I did it sparingly because I hate bargaining and shopping almost as much as I hate being sick.

Finally, I pulled the trigger, bought shoes, thermals, gloves, a water bottle, and sunglasses. Afterward, I laid my loot out in front of the owner of my hotel and asked him what he would have paid for these lovely items. He picked a total price that was ten percent higher that what I paid. I was elated! Who knows how to bargain? Travelman knows how to bargain!

****Paragliding off of the small mountain next to lake Fewa is a popular activity in Pokhara. If you look close, you can see a couple of them in the sky****

The next day I wore my awesome new trekking shoes. I imagined Nepalis pointing at my shoes as I strutted down the streets of Pokhara, then smiling and giving me a thumbs up as I nodded and strutted on.

“Goin’ Trekkin’!” I would call out as I smiled and gestured at my shoes. “Got a sweet deal on these bad boys!” I imagined the locals standing and saluting me with their eyes, and I’d strut on.

****A family restaurant overlooking the lake where I had Dal Bhat Tali for 280 Rupees****

After forty minutes of strutting to the other side of Lake Fewa, the best fitting shoes ever felt like they’d shrunk to the size of the Grinch’s heart before he stole Christmas. I hobbled back home. I told myself the shoes simply needed breaking in, they’d be better the next day.

I bought some medical tape, wrapped my blistered toes, and headed off to buy my trekking permits. I discovered it was too late in the day, and the permit office was closed the following day. That evening I decided to do the shorter Poon Hill Trek. I realized that I either wasn’t meant to go to base camp or my subconscious mind was creating obstacles because, in reality, I didn’t really feel like spending 14 days trekking. Maybe next time.

The next day I re-wrapped my feet and set out to get a cup of coffee. Now my feet felt like the Grinch’s heart at the end of his story. I gave up. I couldn’t wear the shoes. I had to try to return them. The problem was, I couldn’t remember which of the billion trekking supply shops I’d bought the gear from! I never thought it’d be a problem, but the shop seemed to disappear like a magical Gremlin selling boutique.

I went into a random trek store that sold shoes and explained my dilemma. He was charging more for the shoes I wanted. He offered to buy the slightly worn shoes (which didn’t make me feel good about buying “new” gear in town) but that only brought the price down to what I paid for the first pair of shoes.

He had me right where he wanted me. It was such a pain in the ass to find proper shoes and I was sick of all of it, not to mention physically sick. So I blew my nose and walked out of the store with a wallet that was thirty dollars lighter. ...Fuck!

****Paraglider and customer landing next to the lake****

But my feet felt great! Strangely, my new “new” shoes were labeled as being a smaller size than the pair I sold back to him. The owner explained to me that even though they were the same brand, they were all knock offs made by Chinese counterfeit companies, you couldn’t trust the labeled size. I knew they were fake North Faces, but hadn’t thought about the size thing. It made me feel less dumb for buying such ill fitting shoes (they did feel awesome the first time I wore them.)

****walking path along lake****

After walking up the steet for two minutes, I spotted the shop where I’d bought the first shoes, plain as day, as though it had magically re-appeared. I went inside and bought a gizmo that I mailed home to my mom’s friend Dorothy. You know, Dorothy! She’s one of my mom’s customers, the one with the gizmo she got wet and allowed to stay up after midnight? They all turned into Gremlins? Or was it Pintos? I can never keep them straight.

****The paragliders jump off the mountain behind these kids. If you zoom in close, the dots in the sky above the mountain are the paragliders****

I meant to talk more about New Years Eve and the people I met that night (Aayush from Nepal, nursing students from Belgium working with lepers in KTM, and a woman from San Diego that works eight month a year, a 100 hours a week, grading fish in Alaska... Well, I guess that takes care of that- that’s who I met.)

****Paraglider in sky. I’m standing looking back toward town.****

I don’t feel great about this story. Feels like it’s not as interesting as it seemed before I wrote it. I got sucked up in writing it, I’ve spent the past three hours writing it. Sometimes I can’t give up on an idea, and I sit and fiddle with it, and turn it into an editing exercise, until it looks like a pig wearing lipstick

****this ride park was never open. It may have been permanently closed****

...Aw whatever, I’m sure Melville said the same thing when he set his pen down after writing the final sentence, “It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.” He probably wanted to scrap the whole thing, make Ahab a woman-chaser instead of a whale chaser.

Travelman log, day 199. Went canoeing in a river full of crocodiles this morning. !steemitworldmap 28.2097 lat 83.9568 long Chasing White Whales in Pokhara,Nepal, d3scr 338 Followers and counting, 980 steem earned. Rep 59.1 Travelman out.