Pokhara Stay

Pokhara Stay

We stayed three days in total in Pokhara and it was super amazing!

Day 1:

We planned that day one would be a recovery day because we had trouble going up and down stairs because we were so sore. We ended up grabbing some breakfast and browsing the shops for souvenirs. Everywhere you go there is always little bracelets and figurine shops, pashmina and cloth shops, trekking gear shops, little sketchy smoothie makers on a bike, and cows. We are right on a lake too so it's a pretty view from our hotel.

     We decided to go for some momo's (circular potstickers/dumplings) at a place called Third Eye. 

Once we arrived it immediately started pouring then hailing marble sized pellets. My dad said it was the worst he's ever seen because the hail went on for 15 minutes nonstop. The ceiling was dripping in the restaurant and the tin roof was incredibly loud with the hail. But the momo's were still good.  After the hail calmed we decided to grab a cab back to the hotel because it was still pretty wet outside. The cab was a little sketchy in the first place but our hotel wasn't too far. In the cab we drove through a massive puddle and once we were out of it this horrible clunking scratching sound was coming from the bottom of the car. He dropped us off and a metal piece was hanging off the car. Okay then! The rest of the day we just watched shows and fell asleep early.  

Day 2:

We woke up pretty early because today we were going white-water rafting in the class III & IV waters of the Himalayas! I was a little nervous but mostly excited. It turns out no one signed up for that day so it would just be us and a couple other rafters that worked there and two other kayakers. The rafting started out pretty good, lots of getting splashed by cold water. Some crazy short rapids but the very first part was fun! Then we suddenly had to pull over from the rapids to on shore. They were a little frantic because one of the kayakers were stuck under water. Then we say the kayaker floating down river but thankfully he caught onto a boulder and pulled himself up. But the kayak was still stuck. It took four people it get it back because the water force was very heavy. We got back to rafting, amazed at how the kayaker got right back into kayaking after he had just gotten lodged in rocks then floated in the rapids. 

     After about ten minutes we hit some big rapids and accidentally got stuck between rocks. The raft started to over-flow with water so we hopped out before it could completely overflow and overturn. Thankfully once everyone but the main instructor was in the raft it resurfaced and squeezed through. My heart was pounding and my mind was racing but we still got back in the raft and continued down stream. After that 'excitement' the rest of the rapids were nice and easy but exciting enough. There were also some children bathing in the river and a couple prayer flag filled suspension rivers we went under. We got back to shore and brought back to the hotel. 

Nepali Lasagna 

     For dinner, we went down to place called Moon Dance where I got Lasagna!!!! It tasted kinda like chili, but was still pretty good after living off rice and soup. For dessert we got a brownie!!!! It was just cake but it was still really good. I saw another stray dog after dinner. It was so adorable and I named it Freddy.  It looked super happy and I wanted to take it home so bad. It probably had rabies or a disease though. (I haven't and will not pet any stray animals, I did pet a goat but it looked clean and healthy and I washed my hands right after) that was the end to day 2!

Day 3:

We woke up and planned to walk around town and maybe take a canoe out on the lake that day, but we had a VERY different day. At breakfast my dad brought up paragliding. It was a sure NO for me because to take off you pretty much have to run off a mountain cliff and I'm a worrier so it was a no. He then showed me a video of a five year old taking off and my thoughts changed.

      An hour later I was being strapped into a safety harness getting ready to take off for paragliding. In tandem paragliding the pilot is strapped behind you and you sit in front, you're connected to lines which are connected to the sail. The pilot controls where you go and where you land but the airflow effects what happens too. Once we were all ready to go the pilot told me to run. I ran for about three seconds and then I was in the air. We went high so fast and I was laughing and smiling and couldn't believe what was happening. Wanting to stay up there forever. You could see the entire Pokhara, the mountains, and the lake. So so so so so amazing! I could also see my dad at points too. We went up, down, over the city then over the lake. I could see eagles flying below me and and view of the other paragliders too. So unbelievable. I'm so glad I changed my mind about going. We circled down and landed smoothly. I was so ecstatic and full of adrenaline I could barely breathe!

     We walked back to the hotel and my dad went to go get the paragliding pictures while I packed up because we're heading back to Kathmandu the next day. We then decided to have to dinner where we ate the fist night, the Italian Restaurant. Some pizza and gelato hit the spot! I've grown to love Pokhara and did not want to leave! We've had a perfect time there and grateful for all we did!

Trek Day 6

We started the day at around 7am.  It had rained last night so the stone steps we would be hiking onn were very slippery and irregular in size and shape so we had to be extra careful with each foot placement.  ARound the first half hour we reached Ulleri, a small village with lots of teachouse and on a giant downhill.  We hiked downhill for about an hour and a half and it was a killer.  We were already sore from lots of downhill from the day before.  It got to the point where it was a challenge going stairs.  As we were going through the village of Ulleri, groups of donkeys hauling loads of supplies would come stomping by.  You can get trampled if you don't quickly get out of their way.  Sometimes they slip and it gets scary too because they are so big.  One group that went by us were carrying cages of chickens, something you would never see in the US.

At one point I had to use the bathroom so we stopped at a teahouse on the trail.  It wasn;t a bad looking teahouse until we asked where the bathroom was and you had to tiptoe around a narrow ledge on the side of a building while it had just rained with a 30 ft drop and no railing.  Quite the adventure.

Finally we got don to the bottom of the mountain where we would cross two suspension bridges over a waterfall.  It was actually pretty fun and a good change of scenery for a bit.

As you can see in the pictures above, there is some donkey manure.  That is definitely a normal thing on the trail.  It is everywhere!  So you definitely have to be careful where you step and it can be slippery.  While we were hiking we even saw a chicken pecking at pooh...that in one of the many reasons we don't eat meat on the mountain.

Anyway, as we hiked longer we stopped for some lunch and I got some noodle soup.  At this point I was very tired and ready to be finished.  We had hiked for four hours already and still had two more to go.

About an hour after lunch we entered a little village and was greeted by a very cute little girl and a very cute little goat!  The goat was going nuts and would slam his head into you and run around like crazy.  It was pretty funny and made me forget about how tired I was.

We finally arrived in Nayapul where we would be picked up and have to go on the scary car ride again, but it was worth not hiking another seven hours to get down.  It was a relief to get to Nayapul and see the jeep we would be taking.  It was sad to leave the mountains we hiked on but grateful I got the opportunity to hike on them.

We took a stomach flipping jeep ride back to Pokhara and made our way to our hotel.  We said our goodbyes to our porters.  We would see Kewal again in Kathmandu.

Our hotel is very nice and comfortable. with a shower, towels, a real bed. air conditioning (its 80 degrees here) a western style toilet...everything! We immediately showered and hopped into bed unbelievably sore!

Later that night we went to an Italian restaurant and had pizza

and gelato!!!! Never tasted so good!  We headed back to the hotel and fell asleep very fast.

We will be staying in Pokhara until the 4th and will be doing some exploring and a couple of activities.  Also the posts should be more regular now that we have a fair internet connection! (sometimes when the power is on!)

Lunch with new friends