View from the cafe in Pokhara

Inside the Woh eatery

Our days in Pokhara were then restricted to pretty much doing nothing. We could hardly bear to climb into a rowing boat so we spent one day sitting at a café over looking the lake all day (also the day of the White Wine Fiasco) and the second day at a lovely resort in the hills behind our guest house featuring a (freezing cold) pool which could also be described as refreshing and a specialty dish of chocolate momos (in case I haven’t mentioned the momo’s yet these a small steamed dumplings of either vegetables, chicken or buff – they are tasty little bites and a sweet version was just the ticket and good to counter all the cheese balls). We also enjoyed a perfectly chilled bottle of rose as the sun went down. Pathetically we had to take a taxi back down to our hotel which was all of 200 yards away because of the calf and thigh pain.
The next day we took the return bus to Kathmandu and again managed to travel on a day of poor weather thus thwarting Simi’s final chance to view the countryside. Back home we headed out to Patan Durbar Square for a wander. This is a gorgeous part of town with fascinating architecture. I was trying to locate a tiny neighborhood food place which is renowned locally for it’s Newari cuisine. I had heard about it from a friend but never found it before. This time however we had directions and found a small doorway leading down a dark and greasy corridor. We psyched each other up to enter and eventually found ourselves at the end of the passageway and stepping into a low-ceilinged, dingy, dark room with small stools and low tables. There was dried meat hanging from the rafters. Two women were sitting on their haunches – one continually making a kind of pancake with an egg cracked onto one side and fried, the other surveying a range of pots of different curries. It was quite busy and we found ourselves a table. We weren’t quite sure what to do as there is no menu but we managed to befriend the waiter and I gestured to all the dishes asking for ‘alli alli’ of everything. I think Simi and I were so proud of ourselves for managing to find, pluck up the courage to enter, and order food that we ignored the fact that we weren’t really so taken with the food. Some of the dishes were tasty but it wasn’t overwhelming and I don’t really know why it’s so well regarded. Given that we had been receiving a fair few stares through out our meal we decided to make ourselves even less discreet by taking photographs. After this we had a wander round Thamel for souvenir shopping then headed to Or2K (Israeli restaurant) for dinner and drinks.