After an early breakfast, we slowly departed along the ridge and descended through the wooded hillside and terraced farmland to the valley floor. It was slow going because the steps were slippery from the rain. The porters were especially attentive to our safety this morning. We took about 2 hours to get to our van. We drove to Pokhara to say farewell to our porters and guide. They gave us Kaktas (traditional long white scarves) to honor us. Afterwards, we had a couple of hours to spend shopping and having lunch before our flight to Kathmandu. It was a beautiful afternoon. We had a good lunch at the Kangaroo Hotel on the lake. Our flight was uneventful.
A staff member met us at the airport and whisked us off to Dwarika’s Hotel. This award winning hotel was carefully built from traditional Nepalese carvings and artifacts as an example of how culture can be preserved while developing a world class hotel. Each of us was thrilled with our rooms and the hotel.
Hotel Room
After a short rest, we met Steve and a friend for our farewell dinner. When Steve and I said good-bye, we agreed that our experiment was highly successful and we planned out next voluntourism trip for October 2012!