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Oh Pokhara, so many things to catch up on! So we arrived Friday afternoon and headed straight to dump our stuff. I stayed at Himalayan encounters as it was part of my trek but the others went to find their accommodation. We met up again at 4.30 and went straight for food. We had all been salivating over the idea of Italian pasta so found the place and ordered pasta each and a pizza to share! Unfortunately it wasn't as good as we had hoped but was still nice to have something different food wise, plus the cocktails were good!
After dinner, we headed to a bar and ordered some more cocktails and basically carried on drinking for the evening. I had a lot of the local rum that I had enjoyed in Bandipur as well as some more cocktails. Needless to say the hangover on Saturday was interesting. I haven't had one like that for a while! I eventually surfaced around midday so we met up again and did some shopping. Pokhara is the second largest city so offers facilities similar to Kathmandu. It also has the wondering cows (in the countryside they tend to be farmed for milk so are tethered). The tourists shops are plentiful but the feel is very different and nowhere near as manic as Ktm.
We bought a few things, did some errands and then hired a boat to go out on the lake for the views. We had also treated ourselves (well me really) and bought some cheese as a sort of mini picnic! We rowed out across the lake enjoying the views and sunshine and opened the cheese. What a massive letdown!! I guess I will just have to wait the extra few days for some decent stuff! After enjoying the afternoon I had to go back for my trek briefing so we then met for dinner and went to the recommended steak house in town. It was pretty busy which is always a good sign. The steaks were huge and I haven't had beef for ages. It was a treat but just to be picky, still not quite like you would get at home.
Given Friday night's antics and that I had to get up for my trek on Sunday I called it a night after dinner. I said goodbye to Feddie and Clements and went to bed. Sunday morning I was up and ready, had some breakfast and met with Kamela my guide. I had my small back pack with my stuff for three nights which I needed to carry. We drove about 30 mins away from Pokhara to our start point. I was doing a four day, three night trek called the Royal trek (prince Charles did it in the 80's apparently) which does a loop around lake Bagnas and gives you good views of the Annapurna range of mountains.
We set off on our trek to our first homestay site at the top of a hill that seemed a long way away! We were staying at a house in Kalikasthan which is 1250m above sea level. Along the walk we had fantastic views of the mountains as it was a clear day. We stopped along the way for lunch.
I will not miss some things about Nepal; the spitting, the squat toilets, wearing a hat and fleece to bed as they have no heating and the way some children and animals are treated. I will however miss lots of things; the scenery, the mountains, the weather (well at least while I have been here anyway) and the hospitality of the Nepali people. Wherever you go you automatically get tea given to you and for the last four days of our trek we have randomly stopped at a house and asked them to make us lunch for a small fee. Imagine if a random tourist turned up at your kitchen door, chucked you a couple of quid (they get less than this) and said make me lunch please! Amazing!
Anyway so we stopped for noodle soup at lunchtime and then carried on our way, up the final hill to our homestay stop. We arrived there about 2.30, ahead of schedule (apparently we walked quite quickly!). The view was just stunning. The house's front garden essentially looks over the lake and valley we had started in and was just beautiful. We had tea looking out over this view and enjoyed the afternoon sun. I also had a bucket shower as I had got quite sweaty on the way up! As I think I have said before, Nepali people go to bed early and get up early so after a daal baht dinner we headed for some sleep.
We got up early on Monday to see the sunrise over the mountains. The mountains were behind the house so they started to glow as the sun rose and then the sun came up over the hills. Again, breathtaking. I was served breakfast while looking out over the lake and it was another clear day which was great. Once packed and sorted we headed on our way, this time heading to Lipyani.
We went over the very top of the hill and as it was so clear I got a fantastic view of the whole Annapurna range. This is the range I could see from Bandipur so it was great to get even closer. We then started our descent, to then head back up again!! We tried to stop along the way for lunch, but having made the comment about hospitality, there was no room at the inn!! It is the main harvesting season at the moment for things like rice and millet so the houses we tried were too busy to make us lunch. It didn't matter too much as we just headed straight to our overnight stop and ate there instead. So, different hill same stunning mountains. Again I spent the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and relaxing. It has actually been great to have some time to myself to process the last few weeks and months but also to start getting myself ready for going back to work! Another daal baht dinner and bed.
I didn't actually sleep too well so when the alarm went off rather than Kamela waking me it was a temporary good thing. The bad side was that it wasn't a clear morning. Unfortunately both Tuesday and Wednesday were cloudy meaning the mountains weren't visible but I still got great views of the valley and area. After breakfast we set off, this time largely on the roads and as the previous days, passing through villages and fields. Part way down we stopped for a break in a village. You would have thought I was all children and puppied out by now but no. I made friends with the one year old little girl while we were there. We carried on to the bottom of the valley and stopped off for lunch and there was a puppy and a two year old for me to play with. All good.
Having lots of time to think does funny things to you I guess as I found myself conducting a social study on some chickens while I was there! There was a hen with about seven chicks and somehow, the chicks were all on a step about 20-25 cm above the hen. They were all cheeping away and the mother hen was finding food. The first chick just launched himself off the step, no real consideration, bounced, righted himself and then started eating with mum. There were then three chicks who kind of looked over the edge to see what happened and you could almost see them saying to each other "well Jim did is and he is ok so maybe it is fine?" a few seconds later these three then also launched themselves off the edge. This then left three chicks at the top who to begin with weren't even interested in the edge, clearly thinking they wouldn't have to go there. After a little while and cheeps from siblings and mum, two started peering over, almost wanting to be pushed off. They would go to the edge, peer over and then back away again, almost saying to eachother, "if you go I will?". Eventually through mass persuasion from below they jumped. This left one chick at the top who looked almost confused as to why he was suddenly alone. He seemed to rush to the edge and just go for it for fear of being left behind. It is amazing what can entertain you when the technologies of modern life aren't available?
Anyway, we carried on our walk to Chisapani, our final stopover but that did mean a 1200m climb up to the top of the next hill. Hard work but it was a beautiful setting once we got there. Of the three places we stayed this one was probably the most geared up to tourists/stopovers (again I am basically just staying in a family home that has a spare room and a 'decent' squat toilet). I even had my own little area where I could sit for dinner etc that looked out over the fields. Lovely. The final night was again daal baht and bed.
Wednesday morning we were up early and ready and then left straight after breakfast. I wanted to try para-gliding so we needed to get back to Pokhara for lunch time to fit it in. We had mainly a down section to go, going down the hill we had climbed the day before and although that is less hard work in some ways, it can be quite slippy in parts so you (I) still have to concentrate. We passed a number of woman on the way up carrying crops, rice etc on their heads as they carry most things in Nepal. Amazing strength and balance. At the bottom we crossed the valley bed where there a number of rice harvests going on and then had the final climb up to where our lift was collecting us. We had some lunch before heading off to Pokhara.
I arrived back in pokhara around 12.30 and my paragliding had been booked for 1.30 so a quick change and out to the office. We waited for a few more passengers and then headed up to 1500+m hill that we were going to jump off. In hindsight I am not actually sure I knew what I had signed up to until I got to the top of the hill and the anxiety kicked in. My pilot set up the 'wing' while I watched a few other tourists throw themselves off the hill and fly off into the valley. Eventually it was my turn and I was really nervous at this point. You are basically strapped to the front of your pilot, you both run down this hill to get speed and then take off before the end of the hill (you don't actually jump off). So, we were ready, and we started to run, left the ground and at just that second the wind changed and we dipped enough such that I caught my knees and legs on the ground before we properly cleared the hill and were away.
Unfortunately I was hurt quite a lot and have some fantastic bruises and scrapes to show for it but I did do para-gliding and the views that I remember were great. Maybe it just isn't the sport for me. So that basically wrote off the rest of my time in Pokhara. I got back to the hotel and strapped myself up with my first aid kit and then rested before dinner. These things don't usually happen so as an apology the paragliding company have paid for me to fly to Kathmandu tomorrow rather than sit on a seven hour bus ride which I am very grateful for! Now I just need to recover and focus on getting myself home in one piece!
- comments
Pops Good blog! Maybe you should consider behavioural sciences as an alternative/second career! BTW, the cheese will be waiting for you. xxoxx