Trying Freedom

Pokhara continued to live up to everything I had hoped for after the first day.

Since Shaun had already spent a few days exploring before me, I was pretty much able to turn up and tag along for my first few days, no brain power was required, even down to where to stay as he’d already booked into a hotel with a spare bed for me, dreams. I fully embraced the downtime and spent my first morning at The Juicery, a lovely little cafe overlooking Lake Pokhara.

I actually ended up spending most mornings here by the end of the trip, not a bad place to be at all. The day completely got away from me so the next day we decided to head out to Sarangkot via cable car at sunrise so we could see the Annapurna mountain range which definitely did not disappoint, it also get me thinking about whether I’d ever end up at the top of any of the peaks…

After some coffee and chocolate cake at a completely acceptable time, it was back down to the town again via cable car instead of walking as originally planned, the cable car is just too convenient but the locals were doing the same which made me feel better. I had the rest of the day to look around and see what I could do with the rest of my stay here, one thing I already had on my mind was Paragliding, I’d heard it was one of the best things to do here from speaking with people in Kathmandu. So, after spending a while looking on Google for a company with the most positive reviews and therefore hopefully the least likelihood of me plummeting to the floor, I booked with Team 5 Nepal Paragliding to go the next day.

After being picked up early morning and taking a pretty interesting 45-minute minibus up to a spot nearby Sarangkot where I was yesterday, I was glad to be Paragliding down instead of the return taxi journey. When we arrived I realised my company research had made no difference, they all use the same system and are regulated by the same company, so we all picked a ticket at random which allocated us an instructor and a few minutes later I was attached to a man in a harness like a giant baby.

It was definitely a strange feeling running off the side of a mountain and then spending around 25 minutes just gliding around, but it was an amazing experience, one definitely not to be missed, especially considering it was only £43. I was then back next to Lake Pokhara after only a 5-minute (much less stressful) taxi back to spend the rest of the day relaxing.

I did purchase the video and photo package too, however, the GoPro used seemed to have been substituted for a potato so I won’t put you through the horrendous quality there.

The next day was slightly more relaxed, in that I just decided to go for a hike up a mountain instead of throwing myself off them. The destinations were the Peace Pagoda and Pumdikot Shiva Statue.

It was pretty horrible in the 30-something-degree heat but after a 3-hour hike up and not too far off on the way back courtesy of many stops to save me from burning completely, it was well worth it to see some amazing views and also a celebration which was happening at the statue, which was packed with local people.

One day later and it was time to throw myself off more things apparently, this time heading to The Cliff Nepal, the second highest bungee jump in the world at 228m. We had to get to the nearby town of Kusma to do it and decided to rent a motorbike between us instead of taking a taxi, still unsure if this was the right decision or not as after one hour on the thing started to feel like punishment, either way, it was worth it and you lucky people can enjoy the grunts here too.

Not sure how I’d explain the feeling of a bungee jump, I was pretty excited about it so didn’t feel too nervous at the top and I think rope climbing gave me some confidence in the equipment, although probably misplaced after watching some fail videos I was kindly sent afterwards. The feeling of free-falling towards a lake at speed definitely makes your mind question everything you’re doing but I’d still say it’s something you definitely have to try at least once, I guess I’ve got to go to China for the world’s highest next.

I felt like I’d spent enough time in Pokhara now after my fair share of action-packed days and relaxing so I started thinking about making my way back to Katmandu as I’d need to be there to fly out of Nepal. There was one option I was contemplating for a while which was the Chitwan Safari, something that pretty much every adventure shop in Nepal seemed to offer.

I’d heard mixed opinions and seen mixed reviews online, mainly based on if you’d actually see any animals or not, however, I decided to go for it as it also had the added bonus of cutting the disgustingly long bus journey back to Kathmandu into two 6-hour sections.

I was so glad I did it in the end, as you can see there weren’t exactly animals everywhere as you’d imagine from a typical safari but even still I was very pleased with what I did see, including a rare sloth bear. Even being further out of major cities and having space around you to think without a constant stream of tourists made it worth it, the only downside was that it was close to the Indian border which meant that we spent a day or so in temperatures over 40 degrees, which was disgusting.

After 2 full days there it was back to Kathmandu, I was very excited to lose a few degrees in doing so too.

I had no plans for the last few days but they ended up being fairly full on as well, I met up with my trekking guide Tika again a couple of times, including being invited to his home for dinner with his family on one night. Then meeting up with Shaun’s friend Sid a couple of times who he met when he was trekking, we had another home-cooked meal with his family and even a night out at the “52nd best night nightclub in the world” LOD, this place is absolutely shocking but seemingly hard to avoid it after a few beers & rums.

My penultimate day in Nepal was spent with a quick trip to Boudhanath Stupa, one thing I had on my list from my research when I was still at home.

Didn’t really live up to expectations but that may have just been because I was ready to leave Nepal, it had ended up being a pretty long stint there and I loved it, however, I’ve definitely learned a lot for my next trip here which given the fact that the Himalayas are here, there will definitely be one.

Nepal you will be missed, but for now, I’m on to the next stop, Krabi, Thailand.