We started off with rain and downpour in Kathmandu but when we arrived in Pokhara it was nothing but sunshine and heat. Pokhara is beautiful. Pokhara is a small town set between the mountain and is known as the city by the lake. Pokhara sprawls along the eastern shore of Phewa Tal and most visitors stay on the lakeshore in Lakeside.
It was early morning when Sandy and I arrives in Pokhara so we were fortunate enough to be able to see almost everything we wanted over a span of two days. We stayed at the Fewa Prince hotel which was absolutely gorgeous and great. It felt like we were the only two visitors in the whole hotel. I read some bad reviews of the place but the reviews certainly did not match our experience we had there. The moment we arrived the hotel concierge was very thrilled to have guests. He helped us plan the day and hired a guide and car for us for a reasonable price of 40$ a day. Not many places you can get a private car, driver, and a guide for only 40$ a day.
We first visited old Pokhara and the old bazaar but there was not much going on there as it was Saturday (Nepal takes there holiday on saturdays so most things are closed and quiet). We then ventured on to Bindabasini Temple set up on a hill over looking Pokhara. We also visited the Seti River Gorge. The Seti River Gorge is a foggy white colour surprisingly. Pokhara uses the river to produce electricity for the city.
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| Bindabasini Temple |
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| Bindabasini Temple |
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| Seti River |
We went on to visit the bat cave and 2 other caves. the bat cave was the best out of the three caves because it is the only natural cave left in that area. The other two caves we visited had been carved a bit to put in steps and was no longer natural. At the bat cave we hired a local boy to guide us through the cave and I am very glad we did. This boy was the most entertaining person we met yet. He kept telling us he was the hero of the town which we thought was very amusing. He did a very good job guiding us around and knew all the history of the cave. He also knew where the exit was since there are a lot of :false exits". Exiting the cave was very difficult and was a very small exit to the average westerner. Nepali people are built very small so it is not such a struggle to climb through holes that are exactly the width of their body. However, to Sandy and I we had big difficulties getting through certain passage ways because our legs were to long and did not bend in the right ways to fit exactly right through the exit. We eventually got out with a ton of dirt on us!
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| Sandy attempting to get out the exit of the Bat Cave |
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| YAKS by the Bat Cave |
After the three caves we visited, we went to visit Devi Falls. Devi Falls was just Devi as the water was running dry pre monsoon season. It was a bit of a let down but that's what you get for travelling pre monsoon season. It was still nice to see how the water carved the rock. It reminded me of some of the falls you can see in Banff National Park. Devi's Falls is also known as Patale Chhango. This water fall marks the point where the Pardi Khola stream disappears underground. Devi Falls is named after a Swiss visitor in the 70s who unfortunately fell into the sinkhole and over the falls and drowned, taking his girlfriend with him. the couple were from Switzerland and the ladies body was finally recovered years later.
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| Devi Fall's wihtout the Fall |
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| Devi Fall's advice |
After the falls we visited the International Mountain Museum which was something really unexpected. It is a really developed museum that is almost out of place for Pokhara. The mountain is devoted to the mountains of Nepal and the people who have climbed them. We read about past expeditions on Everest and current environmental clean up projects for the Everest region.
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| Fewa Lake |
The second day spent in Pokhara was another great day. We woke up at 3:30 am to get to Sarangkot and see the sunrise at the top of the mountain with the other 100 tourists. We were one of the first groups to arrive so I got some good photos before the crowd showed up. Unfortunately our second day in Pokhara was cloudy with rain. As the sun rose, the clouds moved in to cover up the mountains. It was still nice to see despite not be abel to see most of the peaks of the mountain. After seeing the sunrise, we went back to the hotel for breakfast and then back to Sarangkot to go Paragliding. Be ause of the clouds, our paragliding appointment was delayed until the sun came out. The pilots explained to us that they need the sun to heat the surface of the earth before we can go out because the hot air rises and creates "the currents" that allow us to stay floating in the air as opposed to sky diving and doing a very short trip down the side of the mountain. Eventually the sun did its job and we got set up. I actually met a Canadian couple who were going paragliding at the same time we were. The wife was going but the husband refused and was annoyed his wife wanted to sooo badly. They were the funniest couple. She was pretty scared and was very talkative the whole time because she was so nervous. She was in her mid 60s and one of the pilots joked that she could set the record for the oldest women paragliding.
The first thing we had to do was take a ride all the way to the top of Sarangkot on a jeep, higher then the spot we stopped to see the sunrise. I was the first to get suited up and attached to my pilot and the first to take off. it was kind of funny to me because all of a suddent the pilot says ok start running! You take of the instant the pilot thinks there is enough wind so there is not much warning as to when you are going to be going. I originally thought we would be running off the side of the cliff (silly me knew nothing about this sport and was signed up by Sandy) but you actually just run down part of the hill maybe about 7 steps and the kite fills with air very quickly and suddenly you are floating in the air with ground still under your feet. It was not as scary as I imagined it was going to be. In fact I hope I can go again next time I am in Pokhara with my dad and brother. We were in the air for about 30 minutes when the pilot decided we should probably come in because a very dark thunder cloud was headed our way. We actually got into the edge of the cloud which was a little intimidating. The pilot said if you get sucked into a storm cloud you get pulled backwards and usually end up on the other side of the lake and the mountain close by. I easily agreed that we should go down before the cloud sucked us in.
Landing was so much fun. You kind of do this very slow large spiral and gradually draw closer to the target circle on the ground. When you land, you have to run a bit but it does not hurt at all. I thought we would kind of hit the ground but it was really gentle. I was nervous at first because the pilot did not explain how to land prior to take off. He told me he would explain it all when were in the air and I thought that was not exactly the best time to explain how to land and do an emergency landing haha!
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