Pokhara

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Day 514: Wednesday 25th November - Pampering myself in Pokhara

My time in Pokhara doesn’t get off to the best off starts. After spending my last few days on the trek looking forward to relaxing in this lakeside town with a pleasant climate, now I’m here I’m wishing I was in the relative peace and solitude on the Annapurna circuit.

My main issue is with my accommodation. I selected it, or rather it selected me as I dragged my weary body down the central lakeside strip yesterday evening. As I am going to spend a week here relaxing post an arduous ten days of trekking my wish list includes hot (not lukewarm) water, a comfortable room in a quiet location and a lake view. Like most of the teahouses on the Annapurna circuit the promise of hot water was a hollow one, it was noisy last night, my room got cold in the night and the rooftop terrace is just a rooftop with restricted views of the lake.

All this adds up to me being unhappy with my choice of accommodation, it certainly isn’t the permanent solution I’d hoped for. My first impressions of Pokhara, or at least the central lakeside part of it, is that this is Kathmandu’s Thamel all over again. Take away the choking air of the capital, replace it with fresher air rolling in off the lake and the nearby mountains but otherwise just the same. It is noisier than I expected and unashamedly touristy. It is a string of budget hotels, restaurants, bars,, internet cafes and souvenir shops. Not the place I had in mind to relax.

In my head I consign myself to another night in my sub-standard hotel. I can’t be bothered to look for another this morning, I’m too tired after my trek. I also wonder if it is worth the effort after my disappointing experience of Kathmandu’s hotels and guesthouses. Maybe it is just the tiredness but I’m not feeling good about much this morning.

I have a leisurely breakfast, sort out my laundry which is a priority as I’m wearing my only clean clothes, and then walk down the central lakeside strip to orientate myself. I get barely 100 metres before I spot a sign for a hotel on the lakeside side of the road. Thinking this must have rooms with views over the lake I go and have a look. They have a selection of rooms at various prices, but all better than the one I’m staying in. This is because Amrit hotel has a garden and a rooftop balcony which faces out over the lake. I check out of my hotel after an argument over my refusal to pay a 10% service charge and walk down the street and take a room in Amrit hotel which although doesn’t have a lake view is definitely worth paying double what I was paying.

After 10 days of trekking I’m starting to look and smell like a yeti. Today, back in civilisation I decide the time has come to do something about this. After ten gruelling days it is also time to be pampered. I start my getting a haircut, shave and head, neck and shoulder massage at the local barbershop. My barber is not only multi-skilled but cheap as well. All the above costs only 500 Rupees - £4. I continue down the street and get a full body massage. And after a bath in hot water later in the day I’m feeling like a new man, or at least not like a yeti!

In the late afternoon I read on the rooftop terrace watching the boats on the lake and the paragliders making their way down from the hill in Sarangkot to my right. In the fading sun the lake looks beautiful, surrounded by hills to all sides, except the one I am on. Two of the Himalayan peaks (Annapurrna South and Machapuchare) peak over the hills to the north. This is the perfect scene I imagined to relax in. I end the day in a much happier mood than I started it in.

Day 515: Thursday 26th November - A lazy day by the lake

It is only when I have stopped that I have come to realise how much the trek took out of me. I am short on energy, but that doesn’t matter as I can spend all day doing nothing. And that is precisely what I do, well almost. I probably haven’t spent enough days like this, relaxing, doing not a lot on my travels. It feel good to doo nothing.

My lazy day consists of reading and writing my diary of the Annapurna circuit on the rooftop terrace overlooking the lake. It is cloudy over the lake, which postpones my plan to take a boat on the lake. Once the sun breaks through in the mid-afternoon I hire a boatman to row me on Phewa Tal for a couple of hours. I sit there enjoying the sun, admiring the views and the tranquillity of the lake whilst my boatman does all the work. I think I’ve earned the right to be lazy and I’m enjoying it.

None of the others from Kathmandu have responded to my message so they must still be trekking. I wonder when they will arrive? I’m not in the mood to party at the moment. I’m still tired and reading a book over a nice meal and an early night are much more up my street at the moment.

Day 516: Friday 27th November - The Gurkhas

Another lazy day spent eating, reading and writing whilst looking out over the lake. This morning it looks as calm as I have seen it, its waters mirror-like in the clear skies.

In between doing nothing exceptional I take a taxi out to the Gurkha museum on the northern edge of Pokhara. The taxi ride proves to be more memorable than teh museum itself when it breaks down halfway there. The car is older than me, it is never a taxi, rather the beat up car of a friend of one of the guys that ‘works’ in Amrit guesthouse. I should feel bad for the guy when it breaks down, and part of me does, but mostly I am annoyed that the two of them put me in an embarrassing situation when the car was clearly not roadworthy. I guess they are so desperate for the money but they aren’t even going to get that leaving me stranded halfway to my destination. I walk the rest of the way to the museum which takes about 20 minutes through the busy and noisy streets of Pokhara. It makes me realise how quiet and peaceful the mountains were in comparison. Machapuchare (fish tail mountain) looms large over the city.

When I was a little boy like most little boys I has a love for soldiers. Toy soldiers, pretending to be a soldier......the usual boy stuff. I remember asking my dad who were the best soldiers in the world. I am sure I asked him this several times. It is always about being the best with me, you see. Each time he would respond the Gurkhas, Nepali soldiers who carried long daggers. To a 7 year old it all sounded exotic.
I seem to recall my father telling me stories of how they would sneak up at night to their enemies tent and slash their throats. The Gurkhas were renowned for their strength and courage he also used to tell me.

Visiting the Gurkha museum I get the vhance to learn their history and some of the real stories of their bravery in action. I think my childhood images were much more interesting and exotic! It does get me thinking of why my dad used to say they were the best soldiers. I will have to ask him, but my guess is that it was passed down to him by his father, my grandfather, who probably served alongside them in Burma against the Japanese.

The Gurkhas and the British have a long history going back some 200 years. They got their name from the hill fort of Gorkha in western Nepal from where in 1742 the ruler of Gorkha marched on the capital Kathmandu and seized power. When the British East India Company defeated the Nepalese army in 1815, rather than have the British in Nepal several concessions were granted which among other things allowed the East India Company to recruit Nepalese soldiers for its army from the prisoners of war. It was in this way that the Gurkhas first came into British service.

One of the key battles they were involved in was in quelling the Indian mutiny of 1857 where they showed their loyalty to the British flag. Now they had proved their loyalty and fighting ability they were gradually expanded and used on the north-west frontier of India and in Afghanistan where Russiaa was trying to destabilise the British Empire. The Gurkhas also took part in campaigns in Malaya, China and Tibet as well as fighting in both world wars.

In 1947, when India was granted independence the Gurkha Brigade was split between Britain and India. The British Gurkhas fought for 4 years in the jungles of Borneo and Malaysia to defend Malaya from Indonesian aggression, played a peace keeping role in Hong Kong and were deployed in Belize (then British Honduras) at a time when Guatemala was threatening invasion. They still serve in the British Army today, and the Army maintains a recruiting base near Pokhara.

Day 517: Saturday 28th November - Doing something a bit more energetic: a walk to the World Peace Pagoda

It is cloudy and overcast this morning. Usually the mornings offer the better, clearer weather. With this in mind I had planned, after several days of rest, to get my walking boots back on and trek up to the World Peace Pagoda which offers a great view of Phewa Tal, Pokhara’s famous lake and on a clear day you can see several of the Himalayan peaks in the distance on the other side of the lake. If you are really lucky you can see their reflections on the surface of Phewa Tal.

When the weather starts to clear close to lunchtime I decide to make the hour and a half walk, despite there being some lingering clouds. The route up to the Pagoda is far from clear and after skirting alongside the edge of the paddy fields I just start following my nose and make my own path through the forest, climbing towards the Pagoda. I reach the World Peace Pagoda okay, which was built by the Japanese to promote world peace and holds little interest. It is the breathtaking view of Phewa Tal, the Annapurna range and the mountains reflection in the lake that I’ve come to see. You need a perfect day weather wise for that and even though it has cleared somewhat it is too cloudy to make out the mountains and I’ve seen the lake looking better from the rooftop cafes at lakeside.

It all turns out to be a bit of a disappointment, my trip to the World Peace Pagoda that is. I also end up getting lost in the forest on the way down and it must take half an hour longer going down than it did going up. I think above all I’m not ready for this exertion, mentally more than physically. I have fully relaxed into my days of lazing about in Pokhara and this was too much like hard work for no reward.

Once back down in Damside I set off looking for the International Mountain Museum which is further to get to than I imagined. The museum has some interesting exhibits on the 14 8000 metre mountains of the world and some of the early exhibitions to conquer these mountains but overall like the Gurkha museum probably wasn’t worth the effort of getting here.

With satellite television in my room I finally get to enjoy the first game of football I’ve seen all season, indeed the first one since May. Football is one of my passions and is one of the things I miss most when travelling - it is hard to keep up. I see nothing much has changed though. The referees are as incompetent as ever, awarding dubious penalty decisions left, right and centre but at least my team, Manchester United win 4-1.

Day 518: Sunday 29th November - Seizing the day

Carpe diem. Seize the day in Latin. Three years ago, one November day in Brazil I did not seize the day, and have since regretted it. I was in Rio de Janeiro, and had the opportunity to go paragliding from one of the mountains above the city, fly across the city and then land on the beach. Too expensive I thought, is it safe?, Does my travel insurance cover this? I was coming up with reasons why I couldn’t do this activity rather than just taking the bull by the horns and going for it. Later that evening my brother and I admitted to each other that we wished we’d taken the opportunity and gone paragliding. Chance gone, there wouldn’t be another.

Have I changed since I started travelling? I’m sure I have, but it is always to make that judgement yourself. In one respect where I think I have changed, and for the better, is that I take my opportunities. ‘No regrets’ has been one of my mottos. I want to look back after my travels and think that I did everything I wanted to do and not wishing that I’d done this or that. I’ve thrown myself into most things simply because I want no regrets. It is very difficult to travel for almost a year and a half or live your life anywhere for 18 months without having regrets. Thankfully in my case I can count them on one hand, and I’d have to think long and hard to fill that hand. I think that is hugely positive and says a lot about the way I have travelled.

Today I seized the day. I made amends for three years ago. I went paragliding. I soared like an eagle and I loved it. Like yesterday the weather wasn’t perfect but if you required perfect circumstances every time you wanted to do something, you would never do anything. Ever since I arrived in Pokhara and saw the numerous agencies offering paragliding I just knew I had to give it a go. After resting and relaxing for a few days I was ready for the next crazy adventure. I couldn’t get one of the morning slots so I ended up going paragliding in the more cloudy afternoon.

My pilot in the tandem is Jamie, an Englishman from Swindon. He explains what I have to do on take-off whilst he prepares the parachute and harnesses. He tells me to walk slowly at first and then on his command run as hard as I can down the hillside at Sarangkot, above Pokhara, and keep ‘running’ in the first seconds after we become airborne. Sounds straightforward but I’m about to run off a hill?! Well I guess that goes alongside throwing myself off a bridge to bungy, strapping myself to a garden chair to canyon swing and the various other wacky and daring escapades I have got up to on my travels.

Soon enough we are racing down the hill at Sarangkot and then to my surprise rather than ‘falling’ from the hill albeit attached to a parachute we actually take off. I’m flying, or at least Jamie is, with me attached to him. It is so smooth as I sit back in my seat as we fly high above Pokhara and the lake below. Jamie explains that because of the cloudy weather there are no thermals this afternoon which will allow for a smoother ride but does mean that it is over all too quickly unfortunately.

I expected the experience to be a bit scary. It isn’t, not at all. You feel like a bird, like an eagle soaring high above the ground below. Every now and again Jamie decides to do a ‘swoop’ which is highly enjoyable, a bit like the sensation you experience on a rollercoaster as we lose a lot of height very quickly. It would be great to do more of these but the ground is getting ever closer. Don’t know if my stomach could take many more of these swoops either. We kick a few trees, wave to some villagers below and I have a go flying for a short while before much too soon we are down beside the lake coming in to land. I loved it, I’ll do it again, maybe next time over Rio?

After paragliding, whilst the pilots sort all the kit out, I get a drink with Alex, an Australian guy who has been paragliding too. He mentions that tonight is a big game in the Premier League - Arsenal v Chelsea. He is going to watch it and finds out where it will be on in Pokhara. I would like to watch it too, and tell him I may meet him there if I’m feeling up to it. It is a quarter to ten kick off local time, which for the last two weeks has been past my bedtime. When it comes to it I’m too tired, still exhausted after the trek. This is no good. I manage to watch the first 15 minutes before falling asleep. God, I’m getting old!!

Day 519: Monday 30th November - Finishing my week in Pokhara as I started it.

My final day in Pokhara, and I finish my week here as I started it by doing very little. For some unknown reason I feel very tired today. Maybe this is what happens when you spend too long doing nothing?

I’ve enjoyed my week here relaxing. None of the rest of the group from Kathmandu have responded to my message so they must still be trekking. I could hang about here maybe a day or two longer but I can’t keep doing nothing, and the things I want to do and see are in and around Kathmandu. There are no guarantees that they will arrive in Pokhara in the next couple of days. Maybe I’ll see them back in the capital instead? I hope so.

Day 520: Tuesday 1st December - Returning to Kathmandu

As I sit in the taxi on the way to the bus park in Pokhara I get a lecture from the driver on how the last king of Nepal was corrupt. I can’t remember if it was this driver or someone else in Nepal that also told me the new president is as corrupt as the monarchy were. Corruption, to me means to cheat people out of money, to be dishonest. Just two minutes ago the same driver tried to charge me double the fare to the bus park even though he already had a passenger. In my book he was trying to cheat me out of money, although he would say something different, and in any case that is the way it works in Nepal. Perhaps the people deserve the leaders they have. You can hardly point a finger at the leaders for being corrupt when it exists on all levels of society.

Waiting in the tourist bus park in Pokhara I get my last sight of the Himalayas on this journey. For the last month, since leaving Lhasa they have been an almost constant companion. To be completely accurate my first experience of the Himalayas can be traced back to my first visit to China when I trekked in the Tiger Leaping Gorge for the mountains there are the end of the Himalayan range. It may not be the world’s longest mountain range but it is probably the greatest. I’ll miss the breathtaking scenery.

The scenery on the bus journey back to Kathmandu offers some compensation. That is if you train your eyes to look straight out of the window rather than down by the roadside, which for the entire 200 kilometre journey is lined with rubbish. Nepal is a beautiful country without doubt but litter is one of its biggest problems. It spoilt my enjoyment of the Annapurna circuit and now it is spoiling this bus journey. The bigger issue, much bigger than my personal satisfaction, is the impact this is having on the environment. In this week of the world summit on climate change in Copenhagen, I worry about the future of the planet. It is a beautiful world we live in but we are destroying it. Seeing poverty at close hand has at times been saddening but I think the most upsetting thing I have seen on my travels, particularly in the developing world, is how we the human race seem hell bent on world destruction through our lack of regard for the environment. Nepal is one of the worst offenders, but all nations are culpable to a different degree. The world’s biggest carbon emitters, the US and China offer small but insignificant promises to reduce emissions ahead of the Copenhagen summit. Do we really care enough?

The bus journey takes 7 hours to cover the 200 kilometres to Kathmandu. I realise that my bus to Besisahar at the start of the trek around Annapurna wasn’t that slow after all. You simply cannot drive fast on Nepal’s roads they are shocking. You might as well sit back and admire the view and try and ignore the constant use of the horn by all road users.

Once the bus reaches Kathmandu I head towards Nana guesthouse where I stayed on my last visit. I decide to stay here once more and collect all my luggage that I left here last time. I’d like to say it is good to be back in Kathmandu but I can’t really say that it is. This visit is more about the necessity to get an Indian visa rather than want. I have a message from Bruno saying that he is coming back to Kathmandu in two days. I can have a proper celebration for finishing the Annapurna circuit with him then . I look forward to it.

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