Pokera and Biking

So I’ve been in Pokera a couple of days now. It’s really beautiful here as is most of Nepal. In fact I really like Nepal, it’s a bit cleaner, and quieter than India and people don’t hassle you as much. It also has one of the lowest crime rates in the world which is amazing considering the poverty. Tho it lacks a bit of the colour and vibrancy of India. The really cheap street side cafes and chai shops are missing, but the restaurants are only a little more than India (£1.50 for a pizza), the beer is cheaper and better (£3 a pint).
The lakeside is very touristy with trekking equipment shops, tour operators, and restaurants over looking the lake every few meters.
The first night I found a chess playing café thanks to my neighbor who plays. I have established my self as one of the strongest there only narrowly loosing to a german guy who turned out to be a former 1900 rated club player.
Yesterday I just strolled around and last night we watched sunset and an awesome thunderstorm from the top of a restaurant, then more chess and on to a Jazz bar where I surprised the staff by beating all comers at Tigers and Goats to spite having some difficulty standing 
This afternoon Jon and I decided to hire some motorbikes and head up into the hills. Jon went for a scooter but I really wanted to try a real bike so chose a 150cc Yamaha, (really new one too) After haggling him down from £7 each to £3.50 for 5 hours I got on and had to ask “So how do you ride it then?” (I hold Mr moody personally responsible for this lack of my knowledge) The guy was then trying to get me on a scooter, but after riding up and down the road a few times, seeing my international license covers me and assurances I’d fix it if I crashed he nervously let me ride off.
Wow those things are fun.
Now Nepal supposedly has the most dangerous roads in the worlds, and motor bikes are the most dangerous form of transport. But hay you only live once, or lots of times till you achieve enlightenment (maybe) and “He fell off the Himalaya on a motorbike” makes a pretty cool epitaph.
We headed into the hills (towards the point to Paragliders take off from) and got our first glimpse of a cloud covered Annapurna and the Himalaya proper. But then Jons scooter expired, Spark plug we and other passing bikers suspect. Thankfully it was downhill the 10km back so he rolled as I explored a bit checking back with him occasionally.
You really can’t go fast, 35Kph scares the **** out of me as the roads are hairpin hairpin gravel and hairpin with 500m drop on one side. Still no one is going much faster which is reassuring.
The police had closed the road to the hire place so this added to the confusion but the chap was happy enough once we showed him where his bikes were.
Tommorow we’re hiring two proper bikes for the day and trying for that peek again.
A german biker who lives here has also told me of a trail that goes to 5000+ meters altitude from here. Although it’s not far I needs to be done in 2 days due to altitude sickness. Pokera btw is only at 800m but Annapurna is over 8000m and only 25km away.
Think I’ll stay here I a while. There’s loads I want to do here and plenty of bars with free Wifi and expensive beer.

View of the Pokera lake from the opposite the guest house

The bike and I with annapurna in the backround (although you can't really see it)