Today we flew from Kathmandu to Pokhara, a town nestled in a valley near the Annapurna mountain range. The flight here was quick but scenic. A friend had advised us to request window seats on the right side of the plane, which turned out to be a dynamite recommendation. We both had our cameras out the entire 30 minute flight, being treated to views of mountains interspersed with light clouds - gorgeous. 
We were a little worried that we wouldn't get to Pokhara today, since we were told upon our arrival at the airport that the Pokhara airport was closed for weather. Thankfully we were only delayed 15 minutes or so, but it had me worried about what we would find when we landed. As it turns out, we lucked out all day long when it came to weather. The minimal flight delay was only the beginning...
Our first activity in Pokhara was to go paragliding. That's right, people, I jumped off a cliff today! Having been parasailing, skydiving and hang gliding previously, I can say conclusively that this is my favorite adventure sport. It's possible I'm biased because the views were so great, but the paragliding itself was the perfect mix of serenity and adrenaline. I highly recommend it :)
At first it wasn't clear whether we would be able to go "flying" today. There was a light drizzle on the ground when we left, and they usually don't fly if it's raining at all. We ventured up the mountain to see what the conditions were like, and the rain cleared up on our drive up. Finally - we caught a break from weather-driven cancellations!
The process for paragliding is pretty simple - we want on tandem flights, which meant that the expert took care of everything. All the passenger has to do is sit back and enjoy the views. We climbed up the mountain after the car had taken us as far as it could go, and hiked to the launching spot. There were a bunch of locals waiting there to help us get geared up in exchange for a small tip. My tandem expert- a Romanian dude named Draguash - strapped me into my harness, laid out the parachute on the grassy area that constituted the launching site, and gave me brief instructions on what to do: "start walking, then start running." It turned out to be just that simple - air caught the parachute and we were off the ground! The thermals lifted us up, and suddenly we were soaring above the valley below. There were hawks flying on the same thermals, so I basically chilled with some birds of prey today - how nuts is that?!? The flight itself lasted about a half hour - we got to see some absolutely incredible views of the valley and mountains. Unfortunately I couldn't bring my camera phone with me because I didn't have any pockets, but I will post the photos from my big camera as soon as possible. The flight was filled with moments of pure glee - it felt like I was flying for real. Another cool thing about the view was that there were probably close to 10 gliders up at once, so it made for some great photos. Once we landed, it immediately started raining again. Apparently we had found just the right window of opportunity!
The next order of business was to see some of the local sights. We first took a taxi to Devi's Falls, a waterfall named after a Swiss woman who drowned there in the 1960's. Charming, right? The falls themselves were ok - scenic, definitely, but it didn't inspire me to do anything more than snap a couple pics. The highlight for me of that area was the wishing well. It's a typical well but with a stone pedestal at the bottom with an icon of Lord Vishnu on it. Apparently if your coin lands on the pedestal, then it means your wish will come true. It took me about 5 coins but I finally got one to stick - yay!
Next we went to a temple within a cave. The stairway down into the cave entrance was confusing - it was clearly undergoing some restoration work, including some plaster carvings on the walls. The confusing part is that the carvings looked more modern and European than an ancient and Hindu. Im not sure what was going on there...
The cave wasn't particularly pretty in and of itself. It was wet and dank like a lot of caves. The highlight was the temple, which was nestled back in the darkest part of the cave. There also was an area called the "cow shed" which basically is a covered stone chamber within the cave that holds a cow statue. I don't know why - assume it has something to do with cows being considered sacred in Hinduism...
I was completely out of Nepali cash at this point, so I went into the only bank I could find to try to withdraw some money. There was no ATM, so I went into the bank itself. Immediately upon my entry, the security guard inside says "no" and tells me to leave. I tell him that I'd like to cash some travelers cheques, and he keeps telling me to leave. He doesn't speak much english, so he turns to a customer for help. The customer tells me "this is H & B bank" as if that explains anything. Finally we decide that I'm clearly not going to be able to get cash here (although I still don't know why) do we left. Ami had to be my sugar momma for the next few hours (thanks Ami!)
Our final activity for the day was a big one - we hiked up one of the lower mountains surrounding the valley. At the top of this mountain is Nepal's World Peace Pagoda, which is one of a series of World Peace Pagodas built around the world by a Japanese Buddhist organization. The hike took about two hours to get to the top - the journey was mostly held over these old stairs made out of uncut stones. The staircase was incredibly steep at some points, and a little slippery from today's rain as well. 
We were huffing and puffing the whole way up, but in the end the views from the top made it totally worth it. The weather cleared up almost entirely during our hike - the sun came out and the clouds and mist receded, so we had some absolutely magnificent views. We still couldn't see the snow-capped mountain peaks nearby, but this was close enough. 
One of the weird things about our hike was that the path up the mountain was unmarked, and there were many many forms in the road. Thankfull, local children who live on the mountain would give us directions whenever we needed them. We only made two wrong turns during the journey, and doubled back quickly for both. Thank goodness for those friendly children, though!
Speaking of the friendly people here, it's true that the people here are very welcoming. Everyone greets you with "namaste" - its the equivalent of "hello" here, but it just sounds so much nicer. Maybe it's because I associate namaste with my yoga practice - I don't know. Another greeting that's almost as common is "what country?" These people are inquiry about your country of origin, but they say it in al out the same breath ad "namaste." We would answer with the US most of the time, but that usually means that the person asking the question will then turn to Ami and say "but you look Indian!" and then she would explain her Indian-American status. She got so sick of having the same. Onversations over and over that she just started responding with India whenever she was asked "what country?"I tried the same tactic eventually too - telling one guy that I'm Indian. I'm pretty sure he didn't believe me...
The view from the top of the mountain was incredible. We enjoyed it until they closed the pagoda and kicked us out actually :) the journey down the mountain was a lot faster - about half the time, but required even more concentration and focus to avoid slipping on the rocks. We took the path in the opposite side of the mountain down (so that we could get different views than on the ascent). There were a couple close calls - one of us slipping and grabbing onto a nearby plant to stay upright. We also managed to avoid picking up any leeches (a definite possibility that our hotel manager had warned us about with this side of the mountain, since it faces the lake). We finally reach the bottom and hire a brightly painted wooden canoe (manual labor included) to take us back to Lakeside, where our hotel is located.
Honestly, today was so tiring that I'm going to stop here. The rest of the evening was low key, not worth spending the time to type out. I need to go to bed - big time...
No comments:
Post a Comment