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Published: November 29th 2009
Road To Pokhara
Its Britney BitchWe left Lumbini early in the morning and got on a local bus bound for Pokhara. The bone-shaking journey took us 9 hours in total on the oldest bus you've ever seen and we drove on the windy, helta-skelta mountain roads (the ones with rock face one side and a sheer drop the other!) through some of the most beautiful scenery we've ever seen. Forest covered mountains, rice paddy terraces, little farm houses and the snowy peaks of the Annapurnas in the distance. The local people also on the bus were lovely....no staring or hassle. It was interesting to see all the young people dressed just like young Westerners (with their shell-toes, hoodies and New Era caps), which was totally different from India (we think they model themselves on the Brady Bunch!).
We arrived in Pokhara late afternoon, with our new friend Joey from Scotland! We scoured touristy Lakeside for a nice place to stay and found Hotel Mandap, a lovely cheap place (5 quid a night) with views of Pokhara's Phewa Tal lake and the Annapurna mountains.......and hot showers (needed, as it was much cooler than India!). Next day was Dee's 33rd birthday, the sun was out and the
Road To Pokhara
Even the cows are wanting to go to Pokhara! sky was clear blue so we decided to hire a kayak/row boat and go out on the lake. The views of the nearby forest covered hills and the mountains behind were amazing and we spent a lazy afternoon paddling about and watching the paragliders fly down from nearby Sarangkot hill and land on the lake shore. Dee went for a birthday swim as the water in the centre of the lake was clean and clear. The next day, Dee, Joey and I got up early enough to see the sun rise from the top of Sarangkot hill (we took a taxi!). We could see the full Annapurna Himalaya range from this viewpoint, which was amazing, including the famous and sacred Machhapuchhare mountian (know locally as Fishtail) at 6997m.
After seeing the paragliders do their thing and realising Pokhara was one of THE best paragliding destinations in the world, we booked a 1 hour tandem paraglide each as a birthday treat for the next day! We decided to go with Sarangkot Paragliding as it was run by local Nepalis and conveniently right next door to our hotel. The morning of our flight was really cloudy ('just our luck' we thought!)
Road To Pokhara
Beautiful scenery but it cleared by lunchtime and the skies were crystal clear for our jump. Dee paired up with an American pilot called Brian and Holly(who was terrified at this point!) had the owner, a Nepali guy called Sam. We took off from the top of Sarangkot hill (you just run towards and off the cliff edge and pray the wing catches the wind!) and soared in the warm air thermals above Pokhara for a bit. Our instructors both had the afternoon free and asked us if we minded taking a longer flight so we could glide over to another valley (of course we didn't mind!!) so that's what we did. We flew over the Seti River and Tibetan Refugee Settlement to the north of Pokhara to the hills nearby the mountains. At our highest, we were flying at 2500m and it was quite cold. After 2.5 - 3 hours the weather changed and it was difficult to find air thermals so we had to land in paddy fields quite far away from Pokhara and get buses and taxis back to base. It was an amazing experience, we had the best time and we would definitely do it again!
One
of the things we really wanted to do while we in Nepal was a trek in the mountains! We spent a couple of days chatting to people who had just come back from trekking and local trekking companies before deciding to go with a local independent guide called Tek. We didn't have time to do a long trek (the Annapurna Circuit trek takes 3 weeks!) so we decided to do the 7 days Poon Hill Loop. A Tea House Trek in the hills and mountains below the Annapurna range. We wouldn't walk on snow or go higher than 3210m but would walk through stunning scenery, Gurung villages and get great mountain views! We spent the day before the trek stocking up on warm clothes (North Fakes!), sleeping bags and chocolate! We also hired a porter to carry our bag, his name was Wom and he was a young lad who worked at our hotel part time and was also at college so could do with some extra pocket money.
Our Trek
The 4 of us got a tiny taxi 1 hour north west of Pokhara to Nayapul (1070m), our starting point. This place was full of
fellow trekkers and little shops selling tea, energy bars and blister plasters! We started our walk up steep stone steps and along wobbly bridges. We passed many packs of donkeys carrying heavy loads as there are no roads from this point. Our path stunk of donkey doodoo so it wasn't the fresh mountain air we'd been looking forward to! Our first day was all uphill, up steps (approx 3280!) and by the time we reached the little hillside village of Ulleri (2010m) after 5 hours of walking, we were knackered. A huge dinner of Dhal Bhat and cinnamon leaf tea soon resorted us back to full strength.
The Tea Houses along this trek were very basic. They each have a handful of sparsely decorated unheated bedrooms and a cosy communal dining room warmed with a lovely open fire or gas stove, which is where all the trekkers, porters and guides eat and spend the evening chatting or playing cards. It was so nice! The second day we walked uphill again from Ulleri to a big village called Ghorepani (2750m). They had all the mod cons here like a computer and a snooker table (I feel sorry of the donkey
Road To Pokhara
This bus was full but that didnt stop these getting an AC ride! that had to carry that up the mountain!). Dee and Tek had a couple of games of snooker and they played volleyball in the tea house garden with Wom (Nepalis love volleyball!), while Holly warmed herself by the fire and chatted to two Korean girls about Harry Potter!
The third day we had a very early start. We all got up at 4.30am to make the 1.5km steep uphill walk to nearby Poon Hill (3210m), which is an amazing viewpoint for the mountain range. It was quite touristy as there is a viewing tower and we were joined by about 300 other trekkers but it didn't spoil the view. It was freezing so we were glad there was a little shed selling overpriced hot tea! After a well deserved breakfast of eggs and Tibetan bread we walked from Ghorepani up and downhill this time to Tadapani (2500m). Another lovely hillside village with stunning views. They had the best communal dining area, the room was warmed by hot coals being put in tins under the table so our feet and legs were toasty warm. The food at these places is all freshly made and amazing. We dined on garlic soup
Road To Pokhara
We were delayed a bit by an avalanche! (good for altitude sickness), noodles and momos. We played cards (a Nepali game called Dumble) with Wom, Tek and some lovely American girls called Raina and Emily. Raina was a karaoke officianado (she's had a book published in the US about karaoke!) so we had a karaoke singing session with her iphone! Later that night, the local Mother Group came to the tea house so sing and dance for us. Dee and Tek wowed the audience by throwing some shapes on the dance floor and we all received marigold flower garlands! Good times.
Day 4 and Holly's leg were very very sore so we made our way slowly along the valley to a tiny place called Jhinu. This place is famous for having natural hot springs and pools that you can bathe in, which is exactly what we all did when we arrived. Very soothing for the legs, we didn't want to leave. We spent the evening playing cards and Wom taught us to speak some Nepali. The final 2 days were were making our way downhill and we stayed in Landrung and Dhampus. It was weird seeing roads, cars and motorbikes when we reached our final destination of
Pokhara
The View from the roof of our hotel Phedi and got a taxi back to Pokhara. Our legs were tired and we were out of clean pants so we were glad to get back! In total, we'd walked 140km almost none of it on the flat at all.
We had the BEST time on our trek and will definitely come back and do another one. We had such a good time with our guide and porter and learned so much from them. We also lost so much weight despite eating 3 huge cooked meals a day and working our way through the bag of chocolate we'd bought..........could this be the best diet ever?
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Brad
non-member comment
WOW!
Best post so far guys... AMAZING!! I can't imagine there is a better way to spend your birthday than that!! Loved all the sunset pics and the mountains looked awesome!!! Keep up the great posts and take care!!! Happy Birthday Dee... Much Love, -B