hippy style in pokhara, nepal

View of Phewa lake in Pokhara, Nepal.

Jacque giving me rowing lessons.

Arita grinding ginger for dinner with stone and slab.

Jerome and Max, my Capoeira training partners.

Eating delicious dahl bat (typical Nepali food) with Bikas and Yogishi for lunch.

Massive spider that later flew across my room into my bag after the friendly Russian neighbor offered to “help” exterminate it.

Sathya Sai Baba, deceased Indian guru. You know what they say about the size of a man’s Tilak.

Yogishi and his clean kitchen.

Don’t mind them….

Yogishi’s studio, Purna Yoga in Pokhara and some sort of ghostly orb in the foreground.

Mia and I enjoying chocolate ice cream coffee shakes, beer and cigarettes on the second day after our Vipassana retreat, undoubtedly created new samkaras for ourselves to eradicate.

Munchkins learning English.

Humble Yogishi drinks tea at his dining table overlooking Phewa Lake.

Munchkin taming the beast.

I’m not a very good trip planner. I like to get a good feel for a place, make friends, engage in the community and then see what spectacular happenstance activities manifest. This kind of travel can both reap great rewards and leave one sitting around seemingly wasting time.

This happened to me here in Nepal. A spontaneous seven-day trekking adventure led to three days at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery and preceded 11 days of actual monastic living at a silent Vipassana meditation course. Twenty days of planned activities and 15 days of……..? But who’s counting?

I currently find myself in Pokhara, Nepal, a big town that feels like small one, situated on a lake near one of the biggest trekking destinations in the world: The Annapurna Circuit. Pokhara is beautiful, but right now gives the impression of an Old Western boom town.

Rain muddies the dirt roads, but the grains are so fine that within hours of drying dust clouds permeate the trafficked streets and coat the cafe tables. Most of the trekkers have come and gone. The heavy heat and rainy season has already begun. Worldy hippies and transient festival-goers sparingly sprinkle the streets to hang around, smoke weed and stay doing absolutely nothing for as little money and as long as possible. They all seem to be going to India eventually.

So, what to do? I meditate. I walk. I admire the water-buffalo in the lake and then go swim with them. Make some friends. Row a boat to the other side of the lake. Meet some Capoeiristas and train in the evenings. Meet a local yoga teacher and cut my teeth teaching Vinyasa once a day. I buy some eggs, some fresh green beans, yogurt and fruit. I eat cheaply for a few days. And then I make a decision on where to go next because my visa says I have to.

Nepal is nothing what I thought it’d be. Then again, I never planned to be here in the first place.