Pokhara is the chilled out version of Thamel, with Phewa Tal, the second biggest lake in Nepal, the world peace pagoda, rows of shops, restaurants and great variety of bars with endless hours of happy hour! Pokhara's first visitors from the west were hippies, so I figured I would fit in quite well. We arrived after a scary bus ride from Chitwan. They had overbooked the bus and as it wasn't high season yet, the only buses travelling to Pokhara are local buses....i.e. young driver, taped up windows and people sitting on the roof! Luckily for us, the roof was full of luggage, so Sam sat next to a man who should have played for the NBA he was so tall and I shared a cushion, between the driver, with 4 others. Great views of what was up ahead....but not sure if that was good or bad!?!?
After kissing the ground and dancing we were met by our accommodation's staff who drove us back to our home for the next 4 days, The Sacred Valley Inn. It was a great location, the staff would do anything for you, and it was crawling distance from the bars!! Unfortunately it rained the first two days, but this didn't stop us walking around Pokhara and enjoying the shops and happy hours. Pokhara is so much quieter than Kathmandu, no honking of endless traffic and you could actually walk on the sidewalk and even sometimes to road!!!
Our first night we went to the famous Moondance Restaurant, where we drank their specialty cocktails and Nepal Ice Beer...after a few too many of those we played pool and ended up singing to Brian Adams and twinkle twinkle little star with the rest of the restaurant....strange but loads of fun!
We were told by our hosts that we should get up every morning at 6am to see the sunrise from the roof of the hotel, in case we might get a glimpse of the Annapurna mountains, and finally on Friday morning we saw them glow! Sam was still shocked I was up and outside without even a second shake, but this was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. The mountains glowed an amazing yellow and orange and although it only lasted about 2 minutes before the sun was up and the clouds were beginning to hide them, we were totally hypnotised. The pictures we took did not give them justice!
Sam could see me smiling like a Cheshire cat, as she knew today I was actually going to do what I have wanted to do since May!! Well I couldn't jump out of a plane, they don't have skydiving in Pokhara, but I was going paragliding! I had booked to go since we arrived, and today the sun was shinning, I was flying!! We were picked up at 11am and taken to the offices of sunrise paragliding and that is where we met Lydia. Lydia was jumping too and we both ate mints to keep our nausea at bay. The drive up to the Sarangkot viewpoint, which is 2000ft above Lakeside, was quite an adventure. Sam, Lydia and I decided that after arriving there safely, we had nothing else to worry about!
After a quick discussion on how to take off, I was strapped in and sailing through the air...well eventually anyway. The wind changed directions and few times and I fell down the slope once, but third time lucky and we sailed off gracefully...ok no we didn't but I have paid Sam big bucks not to show too many people my taking off video! The fly up and down and through the Himalayas was amazing. I could see high above Pokhara and was told we got to 3000ft! I saw hawks and mountains for miles! After 30 minutes my pilot, Vimal, asked if I wanted to do some tricks, so we did!! We spun and zoomed and I thanked God for the gravol I had taken before take off. Vimal then decided this was a good time to tell me how to land...LAND!!?? I am already in the air....and with skydiving we only had to raise our legs....Vimal explained I needed to skimmy out of the seat and once my feet hit the ground .... run! Sam missed my graceful....ok I landed on my feet and then my bottom..... but we go to see Lydia's! Poor Lydia was with an equally tall pilot and they decided to show off and do a somersault landing! We agreed to meet later that night and Sam and I were off to climb the World Peace Pagoda!
We hired a boat and we were rowed across by a lady who looked to be in her late 80's, but she meant business, so we just smiled and tried not to giggle too much. The Lake was beautiful, the mountains reflecting in it and people kayaking and sunbathing all around us. The pagoda is a massive Buddhist stupa and is situated on top of a hill on the southern shore of Phewa lake. Apart from being an impressive building itself, built by Buddhist Monks, the pagoda is a great way to see views of the Annapurna range and Pokhara city. We were told it was a bit of a trek up, but what they didn't tell us is that it would cause us to lose feelings in our legs and be so steep, that coming down was even slower than going up!! We enjoyed the views of Pokhara and wined the whole way down that we were so sore....then we saw about 5 Sherpa women, in their late 50's, carrying baskets of flour, rice and fabrics come racing up past us. We felt pretty pathetic then and decided we needed to train quite a bit more before we returned in a few years to go trekking!!
We enjoyed our last night in Pokhara with Lydia at the Boomerang restaurant, which had great naans and even better some Nepali dancing and music! We then escaped, as Lydia was having marriage proposals left, right and centre off the waiters and went back to our hotels to sleep before our next bus ride. We are travelling Greenline this time, a big tourist bus, it has to be better.....RIGHT??!!??!!
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