Pokhara

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We had a relatively consistent power supply during our whole time in Kathmandu, either through mains or the back-up generator so neither of us considered what would happen when we were awoken by our alarm at 5.40am (which is pre-sunrise). As we flicked the switch a few times we realized how stupid it was to have left our head torches buried somewhere in our packs as it seems that neither the mains or generator is switched on at that ridiculously early hour. We fumbled around in our pitch black room and occasionally used our phones for light but somehow we managed to gather everything together and head downstairs with everything (or at least everything that we have required since…).

The bus ride to Pokhara was relatively uneventful. We seemed to be making quite good time and only five and a half hours into the ‘eight hour’ trip we saw a road sign saying that it was 50kms to Pokhara so it looked as if we were going to be a bit early. Two and a half hours later we successfully managed to fight our way through the traffic jam leading into the town and arrived at the bus stop…eight hours after we left Kathmandu.

The touristy area, Lakeside, surrounds a large lake in the Pokhara valley. The lakeside is lined with countless souvenir shops, restaurants, guesthouses, fruit stalls, supermarkets, trekking/paragliding/rafting companies and money changers and is absolutely full of tourists. Due to its proximity to the Annapurna ranges the town has spectacular views of the Himalayas. It is a really picturesque area and we spent a lot of our time in the city relaxing, eating, eating some more, eating, reading books, eating, walking and eating.

On our second full day we decided to mix things up a bit and punctuate the eating with paragliding. All of the companies have the same pricing as it is fixed by the government; 70euros for a 30minute flight and 100euros for an hour long flight. We chose a company based on its good review in the Lonely Planet guide but I’m sure that they are all just as good as each other. We decided to fly in the 9.30am session as the clouds begin rolling in as the day goes on and the views aren’t as clear; however this meant that we could only do the 30minute trip as the air isn’t warm enough at that time for the hour long flight.

At 9.30am we piled into a van and headed up to Sarangkot; a ‘small’ mountain about 20minutes from Lakeside. The road up is one lane wide, unsealed and very very bumpy and winds around the very edge of the mountain which makes things very interesting when you come across another van which has already offloaded its paragliders and is heading back down. Once we arrived at the launching spot (clear grassy area) we hopped out and met our pilots. Scott’s pilot was a Russian man with 26 years experience who had given up flying fighter jets in the army for paragliding. Although when we asked him how much experience he had he said “oh well I watched them do it yesterday so I’m going to have a try today”. Mine was a French man with 15 years experience…both very well qualified which made us feel very safe. We had a quick briefing on how to take off and then waited for the conditions to be perfect and were strapped in. The pilots start off facing backwards so they can throw the sail up so it catches the wind. Once it’s caught, they swing around so that they are behind you and yell “run, run, run” until you float off the side of the mountain. The harnesses are actually like seats, so once you’ve launched off you sit back in, relax and enjoy the ride. The views from the paraglider were absolutely amazing; the Himalayas in one direction and the Pokhara valley and lake to the other. We floated around for a while, catching various thermals to ascend and floating back down. At one point I had a kite (bird) flying about three meters from me. As I was descending my pilot asked whether I wanted to try some tricks, I figured I might as well. He started off by swinging from side to side so that we were lying horizontally on one side and then on the other. After he’d thrown me from side to side of a while we went into a spiral and wound our way down towards the ground. The landing was just as smooth as the take off; you come down towards the ground quite slowly and then start walking as the sail falls down behind you.

The following day our hotel suggested that we take a taxi around to see some of the sites. Our first stop was a hindu temple just outside Pokhara city. A local guy latched himself onto us as soon as we arrived and started telling us all about the temple, we attempted to shake him off as we knew he would demand money however he was quite relentless. The first place he showed us was a small statue. He then began to describe in graphic detail how they slaughter animals there every morning. As he was explaining the slaughter ritual I suddenly realized that the pools of red stuff surrounding the statue were blood…yuck. After about 10 minutes he had shown us basically everything the temple had to offer and demanded 1500rupees - approximately 24AUD…hmm I think not.

Our second stop was Seti Gorge which is a deep canyon which runs right through the centre of Pokhara. Lonely Planet said that you probably wouldn’t find it unless you would go looking and they were 100% right. It was through a small garden which you could have very easily walked past. The gorge was about 10 meters deep and a massive amount of water was rushing through it and was pretty awesome. After the gorge we headed to a monastery on the side of a mountain. As we were sitting there admiring the view and watching the monks we noticed a young novice monk pick up a 1.5L bottle of water and threaten to hit his other novice monk friend with it - not quite the peace loving never violent image of monks that you normally see!

Our final stop was a cave and waterfall called Devi’s waterfall which is apparently a Nepal-isation of David’s waterfall which was named after a Swiss guy whose wife was washed away during the monsoon quite a few years ago. The cave was quite revolting; it was hot, humid, dank and dark and the view of the waterfall was not as impressive as it is from above. After we escaped the cave we walked over to the top of the waterfall and chatted to a local kid who asked us who we were from, what our parent’s names were etc etc…and then asked us for money. It was quite amusing as he would spend a while chatting and playing and would suddenly realize hmm hang on I’m supposed to be asking for money.

Our last evening was spent eating (just for a change) before catching the bus to Chitwan NP the following morning.

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