A loud grating sound came from somewhere high above me. It rudely brought me close enough to consciousness that I could open one eye. Darkness, nothing but darkness. Eye quickly closed, I began to slowly drift down into the ether. Sweet Jesus, there it is again. In the name of all that is holy, surely someone will turn that damn thing off. But wait there’s more. Now in a strange juxtaposition, a disturbing ascending wave of sound, over and over in seeming endless repeat, but now there’s that klaxon thing again with, oh my god, I actually know this one, it’s the iPhone classic Apex.
Well that puts paid to my night because, by now, I’ve remembered why we need to get up before dawn. It rained last night and with any luck at all, we have a date with Fishtail and the Annapurna range of the Himalayas.
Pokhara is nestled lakeside between high hills that tend to trap it’s considerable smoky-foggy air pollution so it takes a little rain and proper air currents to see the big boys.
Hot coffee in hand we eagerly wait for dawn’s early light, sitting on the edge of our bed staring through a large picture window, trying to make out what looks like the outline of the Himalayas. Minute by minute the view coalesces into a sharper image. The mood is buoyant. We see the first of the sun’s rays strike Fishtail.
Without a word we head to the elevator and punch a higher floor, climb the spiral stairs and out on the frosty roof we behold magnificence.
So much higher than the surrounding hills, it almost seems like a massive set of rogue waves, white with frothy foam, topping the hills only to topple and inundate Pokhara. It was kinda mystical.
We spent about two hours. In that time the Hotel Orchid’s manager stopped by to make sure we were up and enjoying the show, which was awfully nice. Ultralights, airplanes, and hot air balloons were all up too.
At this point of the story, dear Escapees, I’m reminded of our fat old black cat Margaret. Once, in an effort to get her to exercise, we bought a Wacky Wall Walker, a jiggly gummy bug-like toy that “walks” down the wall. We were told cats love them. Surprisingly, Margaret perked up and waddled over to the wall and attempted to jump up and grab the Wall Walker, except that her bunty little legs couldn’t lift her caboose off the ground. We also had an athletic calico cat who came over to see what the fuss was all about, waited for the toy to get within her range, gave a mighty leap, snagged the Wall Walker and trotted off with that smug expression she used. Margaret remained there waiting for the magic bug to return. From that moment on we would periodically see her sitting patiently beside the wall, quite content, watching for that magical Wall Walker. Let’s agree to call this the Margaret Method, or MM.
For the rest of our stay in Pokhara we practiced the Margaret Method as applied to the Dawn Himalaya Reappearance. MM mainly consisted of an alarm at dawn, two cups of coffee using our Aero-Press, which is a fiddly thing to do at dawn, and a fruitless wait with little to show for it. You have to admire the family’s tenacity.