Pokhara - Part 1

The journey from Kathmandu to Pokhara was a total nightmare. It was supposed to take 5-6 hours and we had to meet the bus on a main road at 6.30am. Our hotel told us that it was possible to walk to the bus in 10 minutes but not feeling it, we jumped in a taxi for 75p. And how glad we were that we did, it was a 20 minute drive away, when we arrived it was a very long main road with probably nearly 100 buses lined up. None of them had destinations on them, luckily our taxi driver managed to identify the bus, otherwise I don't know how you are supposed to know which one is yours. We set off on time but stopped every couple of minutes to pick people up and then about 15 minutes into the journey stopped on the side of the road for half an hour. Then we were off again, the roads are truly awful, they wind up into the mountains surrounding Kathmandu and there are some terrifying drops off the side. Added to which a lot of the road seems to only be one car at a time so most of the journey was spent sitting on treacherous bends in massive traffic jams in the 35+ degree heat. The bus didn't have the most sophisticated air conditioning system

It wasn't great to be honest, and although there were some amazing views but by the time we arrived in Pokhara at 5.30pm (yes 11 hours later!!!), I was totally over it.

When I booked the hotel online it boasted views of the Annapurna Range of mountains, but when we arrived the clouds has come in. Still a pretty good spot though....

 

 

Something we have noticed from both Kathmandu, Pokhara and all the villages in between, is that this seems to be standard procedure for keeping the roof on, they all do it

The next couple of days we spent wandering around Pokhara. It is a really nice town, it seems to be primarily a jump off point for people doing treks into the Annapurna Range of mountains. There are loads of bars and restaurants and also lots of natural sights to see, like lakes and waterfalls. Now it is coming towards to end of the monsoon season and high season in Nepal starts in September, so the town was not too busy. I really like it, its very laid back, the locals play a lot of table tennis by the lake and just hang around. There is a lot of nature too, buffalo, cows, dogs, horses, pigeons, crows, goats, butterflies & moths all over town, its like a very strange petting zoo.

 

There are a lot of choices for guesthouse in this town

Pokhara is in a valley with a lake in the middle and the Annapurna Range of mountains behind the immediate hills on each side (We would call them mountains, but they call them hills). Here Annapurna and Everest are mountains, I think anything with a snowy top counts. Annapurna is a section of the Himalayas 8,091 m Annapurna I, 13 more peaks over 7,000 m and 16 more over 6,000 m. The area is protected within the Annapurna Conservation Area, the first and largest conservation area in Nepal. The Annapurna peaks are among the world's most dangerous mountains to climb. As of the end of 2009, there had been 157 summit ascents of Annapurna I, and 60 climbing fatalities on the mountain.

Phewa lake is located at an altitude of 742 m it covers an area of about 5 km^2,

it is always busy with people hiring out boats, despite this it is still very peaceful.  Although when the weather changes it looks pretty eerie
 

One day we took a trip to the northern end of the town to the Natural History Museum and the Gurkha museum.
The Gurkhas are indigenous people mainly from the mid-western and eastern Nepal. Their name derives from the Hindu warrior-saint Guru. There are Gurkha military units in the Nepalese, British and Indian armies, enlisted mainly in Nepal Gurkhas are closely associated with the khukuri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife and have a well known reputation for their fearless military prowess. The former Indian Army Chief of Staff Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, once said stated that "If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha." The Gurkha museum was fascinating, they have literally fought in every conflict everywhere. Their achievements as a group and individually is quite incredible.

 Next stop was the Natural History museum, most of the museum was shocking. But I had been tipped off that they had one of the biggest butterfly collections. Although I don't really like seeing them pinned to a board, I couldn't resist getting a look at this. It was totally incredible, there were literally thousands of butterflies from all over the world. This just fuelled my obsession, they are so beautiful, detailed and colourful, i wont bore you any more, just a few piccies..........

On the 2nd or 3rd day in Pokhara the clouds cleared and we got our first view of the Annapurna mountains, pretty spectacular!! Over the couple of weeks we were here we saw them a few times, these are the best pictures...

 

 

We hired a motorbike a few times whilst we were here, the first time we went up to Sarangkot. Sarangkot is a Village Development Committee in the Ganaki Zone of northern-central Nepal. The village is located on a mountainside ridge at an altitude of 1600m with panoramic Himalayan views. Annapurna range is visible when the weather is clear on the same side. On the southern direction the village overlooks the city of Pokhara and its lake on the north-western outskirts of the city. The day we went up we could not see the Annapurna mountains but we could see the whole Pokhara valley

 

 

From up there we could also see the where the Para gliders take off from. I had seen them coming down from the mountain everyday, but seeing them taking off so close was amazing. It was then decided that it had to be done. Look how much fun does this look.....

 

 

We came across some friendly (or not so) characters in the villages on the way back down the mountain

So obviously after discussing it all the way back to town we decided we were definitely going to paraglide, and what a bargain at £30 each. So a couple of days later we were off.

By the time we got to the top of Sarangkot is was pretty scared. So you basically get taken to the top in a 4x4 and then line up with a few other people on the edge of a ledge at the top of the mountain.

You then go an join your instructor, he gives you some very basic instructions about walking and then running off the edge of the cliff. Then you are clipped into a harness/ seat like contraption, you wait for him to strap himself to the parachute and to you, and then you wait. Encouragingly he told me that there was not that much wind, so it was not the best day for it. Which of course is just what you want to hear moments before you run off the edge of a mountain. So we waited probably about 2 minutes which felt like 2 hours, and then all of a sudden go. And we were off, literally running off the side of the mountain. It was terrifying but as soon as i felt the parachute hold us, i started to calm down, and after a couple of minutes was pretty relaxed.

The views were amazing and it was so peaceful, despite there being about another 20 Para gliders up there with us. There were quite a few eagles flying around too and it was amazing to be up there with them. Here is a few pictures and a video....

That's it for now, Pokhara Part 2 will be posted in the next few days............