HILARIOUS ZONE

Lakeside in Pokhara, truly some kind of vortex of cheap pizzas, wool ponchos, and semi-tactical gear. There is nowhere left to walk to, and the air is thick and humid, leading to a kind of pleasing drunken lethargy of café crawls. Growing weary of the pervasive stench of commerce, we muster some forethought and get the bright idea to roll sumpin up and rent a rowboat to take out on Phewa Tal, a pristine questionably safe lake with a sweet island temple and bomb views of Machapuchre. Testing out various coves for their swimmability, and rowing more or less in large circles, we are stalked along the shore forests by small voices, and we are eventually ambushed by 3 small naked boys who with questionable intentions attempt to board our vessel. Gabe is ‘noid. Well, not this cove. We spot a giant swing on another nearby shore. A popular recreational device across the world, a swing is useful for going both back and forth and up and down. In Nepal there exists a form of indigenous giant swing, for both kids and adults, made of 3 enormous stalks of bamboo.

We find a place to sit on the shore and triumphantly eat apples, bananas, and juice, of questionable drinkablility, in our underwear. Some middle school age kids are sitting nearby pointing. Jonah is ‘noid. He swims it off. Brothers join. The water is cool and swimming makes us laugh. Laughing makes swimming difficult. Hash + water = difficulty breathing. While drying off, our noia coalesces into physical manifestation: a slow but very social hornet, of questionable intentions, who wants to chill, first with Sam, who tries to walk away, but is eventually pursued right back into the water, the only hornet free zone in the world. With it’s new friend all washed up, the hornet begins to slowly fly toward gabe, who eventually resorts to the same evasive action runs into the water screaming. We dry off quickly. Not this cove.

Rowing back, a boat is calling to us. It’s the newlywed Israeli couple that taught us the amazing card game Wiste back on our first night of the trek! “You owe me a snickers!” he jokes. We keep rowing. Give them some privacy. It’s their honeymoon.

Friendly master of Nag