Trekking Day 2 (of 2)

After departing the Australian camp, my guide Padam led me on a very scenic hike back down towards the road where I would ultimately catch my ride back to Pokhara. Whereas my first day had been all uphill at an often steep incline, my second day was mostly downhill at a more gentle decline which was nice. It afforded me with plenty of opportunities to view the Himalayan peaks throughout the morning.



In addition to the beautiful hike, I had an opportunity to swing one of the giant bamboo swings that seem to be very popular in Pokhara area as they are all over the place (we probably passed at least 10 during our hike, most of which were being used by the locals of all ages from kids to adults). This was the only one that was vacant when we came across it).



During the hike we passed many terraced farms and at times we passed some local Nepalis, a few of whom were likely on their way to visit family for the Dashain festival as they were dressed up in nice bright colorful clothes.
There was one section of the second day where we did hike upwards (roughly 50 flights) to where the mountain jutted out over the valley where we stopped to eat. Afterward I had the opportunity to receive a blessing with a Tikka placed on my forehead by the mother of the family who ran the restaurant and inn where we had enjoyed lunch. According to tradition, the wearing of Tikka invokes a feeling of sacredness on the wearer and on the people with whom the wearer comes into contact. While some Hindus wear a Tikka on their forehead everyday, everyone receives a much larger and prominent Tikka on the Dashain holiday (they ranged in size with many covering 30-60% of the person's forehead). Mine fortunately was more the normal non-festival size.



After that, it truly was all downhill as we hiked down toward the Seti River (Seti means white as the water comes from the mountain snow melt). My guide had a taxi waiting for me when we got to the end of the trail where we parted ways (he actually lived nearby to the trail end and walked home from there). My second day of hiking covered 9.6 miles and 24,000 steps.



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