Yeti Fan 2011

…nearly.

After the International Mountain Museum, our taxi driver took us to a waterfall which was pretty powerful and then a cave which was beneath the waterfall. After that we drove up a very twisty-turny dirt road which the poor taxi had some trouble managing. There was a terrible noise coming from the front left wheel which we all tried to ignore. Most of the time we were in first gear and when another taxi came down towards us, we had some interesting views over the precipice. At the top our driver joined us for the short walk to the pagoda; well he probably didn’t want to sit in the car what with the engine very nearly at the point of exploding. As we walked it began to rain and I took out our raincoats from our bag. The path was slippery and in a touchy scene, the taxi driver took Julian’s hand and helped him along. At the top there was a teahouse and we decided to stop for a drink because the weather was getting worse. After a few minutes, we were joined by an American and his Nepalese guide. They had walked all the way from the lake. It had taken 2 hours and had rained most of the way. As I talked to the man I became more and more convinced that it was Stephen Spielberg! He was wearing a hooded rain jacket but he had the same glasses, eyes, nose but especially the voice. He sounded just like Spielberg. I was busy thinking of how I could ascertain if it was the movie director and had even thought of humming a few bars of the Indie Jones theme when the man volunteered that he was a teacher in Saudi Arabia. Ah, so close but not quite. We spoke for a few more minutes but then the rain stopped and we went to look at the Peace Pagoda.

The Pagoda was the idea of some Japanese Buddhists 50 years ago. It was paid for by this Japanese group but only finished a few years ago. When I visited Pokhara in 1996 building work had only just begun. The view from the top should be a spectacular one of the city, the lake and the mountains in the background. But today it was cloudy and raining so we saw nothing. I hope the weather improves before we start the hike on Monday.