passing the time in Lakeside, Pokhara

Travel guide book writers are hyper-critical sometimes. I guess in that way they are like food critics.... people paid to be critical hardly have anything good to say about anything. How unfortunate for them.
About Pokhara, Nepal they write: "You can't even see the lake for all the businesses built up around it blocking the view". The reality: I have discovered the lakeside trail which is a lovely worn footpath that runs lakeside BETWEEN the lake and the business strip, all along the lake! It is grassy, shorn short by grazing animals, and quiet and rural and you get to see yaks and boats and normal Nepali people going about their day. ... totally bypassing the commercialism on "the strip". I'm not sure what the writers are complaining about. I have taken to walking there in the morning. It is glorious, the view and the quiet morning light.
They also bad mouth the island that is out in the lake, saying that it is over run with Nepali day trippers visiting the temple there. I think its delightful. I love to see local tourists, enjoying their own country and I think it adds a nice ambience to have not only tourists from out of country but also from within the country, ambling around.
After breakfast this morning I took a walk past the town, following the lake around the corner. The road basically turns inland, away from the lake, into some farmland. I thought it might wrap around the lake, making for a nice walk. Of course not ALL around the lake, its pretty big, like about the size of East Barriere or Big lake in the cariboo.
The Annapurna range has been showing itself every day for the past three days which has been a real treat. This morning when i stepped out my door I got a nice eye-full of snowy peaks just to my left that I hadn't noticed before. I don't know if was just too foggy or if I was just not observant enough.
The morning is the best time for viewing the peaks which peek over the hills. They are pretty awesome. Very spirey, steep, and sharp. This is the land of the yeti. The mythical snow creature. I think its mythical. Sort of like an Annapurnan sasquatch or an Ogopogo. Yetis.
Its trekking country here and every traveller I see looks like they are here for trekking.
I actually feel a little out of place being solo. Most people are travelling in groups of at least 2. So I feel pretty unique. I always like to be unique, so this works out well for me I guess. haha.
I am quite content to keep to myself. I have a few good books and my journal and I just sit and read or write. Such a bookworm. I do chat with people but I am more and more selective with who I talk to... I guess as i get older, because I used to just be friendly and strike up a conversation with anyone, only to find 2 minutes into the conversation that I desperately want to extricate myself, thinking of other things I'd rather be doing. Talking can be such a wasteful drain of one's energy sometimes.
Anyhow.
I went to call my dad the other day and it was almost a whole dollar a minute to phone Canada!!!
wow, won't be making any phone calls from Nepal, it looks like.
paragliding is also very popular here. They jump off a hilltop between the lake and the mountains and land somewhere down on the flats here. Something I don't have the guts to do but looking at the pictures I thought my dad would absolutely LOVE that, being an ex-hanglider champion and everything.
haha.
well, that's it for me today.
signing off in Pokhara.
Have a good day!