Lakeside, Pokhara - Feb/Mar 2026

 

We love Pokhara! Although it is quite touristy (not usually our vibe) we find it very tranquil.  Must be all the water?  This required us to take an all day bus on a road that has been markedly improved in the two years since we have travelled this way.

Some one even lent us their baby .... until James
gave up his seat for the mum.

View of the river along the way

We booked into our favourite hotel just one road back from the lake.

View from our balcony by day ......

And by night

View from a lakeside restaurant

The pollution level was 15.3 times greater than the acceptable global level!  It was even too hazy to see Fishtail Mountain on the bus up to town.  

Hazy lake

This did not deter the fun of the season.  Not long after we arrived we celebrated Holi (colour) festival.  Everyone was out on lakeside having so much fun.  The idea is to throw coloured powder at each other.  Lots of people wear white t-shirts, indicating that they don't mint getting sparyed.  It was such a lovely day.  Everyone got involved, old and young, local and tourists ....

James got tika'd by these girls

Selling the colours

We made friends with this gorgeous wee kitten at what became our favourite samosa and chia shop.

Sometimes she was captured in the display cabinet.
We think to keep her safe as we were right on the main road.

We made a couple of trips to the Pokhara Fishing Park, the owner of which we made friends with last time we were here.

James trading fishing stories with the guy
at the fishing shop

The fishing was fairly mediocre but we didn't mind at all as the setting is wonderfully peaceful.  By far more riveting was watching the paragliders coming down just up the road.

At one point we counted no less than 12 of them
in the sky at once

We also enjoyed watching nature's Kites.

We were delighted to be surprised one day by one branch of our family calling in on their way back from the mountains.  We took the opportunity to take a trip on the lake with the children.

In the taxi on the way to the lake

Hmmm, huge hotel being built

Another thing we noticed that has sprung up in the past two years is the proliferation of people hiring these blow up paddle boards which are use almost exclusively as kayaks.  Quite a good business plan as the layout will be quite negligible.  We declined to have a go.

Our favourite food experience was doing a Panipuri crawl along the lakeside.  They're not very filling so we can usually manage a shared plate at three or four different stalls.

Stalls as far as the eye can see

You also get a squirt bottle of spicy juice
to pour into the little pods

We stayed for a week and enjoyed every single moment of it.

Family time, Chitwan - Feb 2026

 

Devghat, Bharatpur

We finally arrived in Bharatpur.  Our family here, is one of the main reasons we visit Nepal.  James has had an association with them for 20+ years.  They grow in number each time we come with the newest addition added 18mths ago.

18mth old Utsaga

Shanvi was a tiny baby when we
were last here

Our cheeky monkey Sholin in
Uncles topi

Play time

Blowing bubbles with the neighbourhood kids

We stayed at a hotel not far from the family and hired a scooter from the owner.  

Only the driver must have a helmet.  It took us a 
while to find one to fit James' head.

The scooty (Nepali name for it) turned out to be a godsend with respect to getting around easily.  That's if you have the stomach for the chaos on the roads.  Which we fortunately have.  You also see some very amusing things.

Onions

Goats! And yes, there was
another one on the other
side for balance

We really enjoyed wandering around our neighbourhood.  We found all our favourite places to enjoy chia, samosas and more.

James' favourite - Dud malai
A type of clotted cream with saffron

Samosa chat

Momos!!!

Dahl bhat tarkari

Chole bhature

We were surprised how much more developed the city was in the two years since our last visit.  The roads were much better and there are even pavements to walk on in some places. 

Some of the houses in our neighbourhood ....

Who knew there are motorcycle gangs in Nepal?  Not us!!!

In the city itself, our favourite shopping centre had been burnt to the ground by the GenZ protestors last year.  They were protesting the government corruption (rightly so), of which they consider the owner of the Bhatbhateni brand to be a main contributor.  Hence, they have destroyed 12 out of the 28 stores.

Bhatbhateni under construction

We visited most of our favourite haunts.  Devghat is where the local Hindu funerals are held.  It is also a peaceful place to visit.  The village over the river is a nice place to enjoy a chia and watch the proverbial world go by.

The river was busy

We watched this guy wade out to send his
net down the river.

The bridge over to the village is 
always busy with scooties.

Monkey at the bike park.

James took Umanga and Sholin on a fishing trip.  No fish were caught and Sholin declared that Uncle didn't know how to fish!  Too funny.

On the same day, Clare went to have lunch at the home of some friends we had met the last time we were here.

Yurisha, Nancy and Dinisha

Pratima preparing a pomelo

Pomelo mixed with spices, salt 
and curd.  Delicious!

Another day we took ourselves on an accidental safari.  We wanted to visit friends in Sauraha without having to travel both ways on the main road.  So we went cross country, via Beeshazar, in the buffer zone of the Chitwan National Park.

Then we rode straight through the national park to Sauraha.  This felt a little risky every time we got off the bike to stretch our legs.  In our own countries there is nothing that could possibly leap out of the forest and kill you.  Not so here!!  But we didn't see any of the preditors, just lots of deer and lovely birds.

Then quite unexpectedly we came across a swing bridge that James had to ride the bike over!

We were soon in Sauraha taking a break over lunch with a friend at his resort.

Spotting crocs on the way back out

We went out to Toriket, where James started teaching English here 20 years ago.  Some of the parents of the children he taught still live here.  We always call in for a visit.

The Paganis

Another day we went out to Happy Home, an orphanage that James was once involved with.  It is no longer working but is still owned by a friend.

On the way back to town we found another pretty place to enjoy the view and a chia.  Umbrella Street is on the banks of the Rapiti River which flows through Chitwan National Park.

When it came time to leave Bharatpur for a few weeks, we made our way across the road to the bus park and caught a bus to Pokahara.  Easy really!

We were given custody of this beautiful boy for
about half and hour.  We just love the way the 
Nepali people socialise - with each other and us!