In general, its hard for us to slow down. That's the main reason for us to come to Pokhara. I needed time to recover from the high altitude. Shadow's respiratory infection was another reason. If there was a place to be sick, this was it. His illness, which was eventually passed on to me, forcing us to slow down.
Our 6 nights in Happy Village were a total bore compared to our normal routine, but the perfect spot to relax and heal. Our routine involved a daily walk into town then, if neither of us bonked, we would have lunch out, before catching a taxi back. Everyday the taxi rate negotiation was the same. "How much to Happy Village?" "600 rupees." "300" We would say. "500. It's all I can do." "400?" "No. Only 500." "Ok. Thank you." We would turn to walk away and the , "Ok. Ok. 400." Everyday. I hate haggling for everything! Let's just share a fair price that makes everyone happy. I have a book on my kindle about the power of negotiating. Maybe I should move it up on my reading list.
Afternoons were filled with reading and napping before dinner at the hotel's restaurant. We got to know the staff. One lady would fix me Lemon, Honey, Ginger drink that had so much shaved Ginger it would burn my throat trying to drink it. She swore, it would make me feel better. I dreaded that. Shadow's feel good drink was the cheap beer of San Miguel.
We had been curious about where everyone gets their diesel. Scooters and cars are all over the place, but your rarely see a gas pump. One day we were walking around town when a guy comes out of a random little store with 3 1-liter water bottles full of gas and dumps it into his tank. I guess that's what happens to old water bottles around here. A few days earlier, after commenting on the lack of accidents we had seen, we heard a loud "Crunch!" , right behind us. Both of us winced, Afraid to look back. A head-on collision of 2 scooters. To our surprise it was no big deal. They backed up and kept driving. No yelling about who was in the wrong. No cops. No insurance information exchanged.
On another laid back morning stroll into town, Shadow found a wallet in the middle of the dirt street. We picked it up, found the ID and begin asking locals if they know the gentleman. No one did. Our plan was to continue to town and drop it off at the police station. The owner of our hotel happened to pass by and stopped. We told him our plan and he said not to get the police involved. He began calling business card numbers in the wallet and just like that, found the owner of the wallet. He lives and hour away and was going to stop by this evening. We were so happy to have found him as I'm sure he wanted to get his money back.
The following morning our hotel owner knocked on our door at 7:30am. The guy with the wallet came back with his wife and new baby. She was a volunteer midwife from Japan and met her now husband during that time. She presented us with a gift each for our kindness.
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