We picked up our bikes from the bike shop today. Yesterday we took the train to the package depot, so finally it is here! We are almost ready to start our cycling trip, and the weather has turned nasty :(. But we’re very eager to get going!
The city of Pokhara was our “home base” for most of our time in Nepal. It is about 200km from Kathmandu, but driving between the two takes over 7 hours! Its population of 265 000 makes it Nepal’s 2nd biggest city (my dad met someone on a trek who said that in 1990 the population was 50 000). Its proximity to the mountains also makes it a place where lots of tourists start their trek. It’s right next to the beautiful Fewa Tal (Fewa Lake), and there’s so much to see and do in and around Pokhara. So much of Pokhara’s (and Nepal’s) economy is based on tourism, so even though many of the activities we did seem very decadent, they helped employ a lot of people. I’m sure that now after the earthquake, Pokhara must really be struggling.
We first went to Pokhara with Yadav and Hira from Solar Sisters on the “Tourist bus”. But, since there was a change of plans and only my dad could go to the village to do the solar install, Jake, my mom and I had some time to explore Pokhara.
We stayed at the Hotel Fewa, a very nice place, right on the lake. The Solar Sisters organization brings their clients there every time, so they get a good deal. The tourist area of Pokhara is called Lakeside, and is pretty much a nicer, safer and more laid-back version of Kathmandu’s Thamel district. For example, Lakeside has wide sidewalks, Thamel has none. Crossing the street in Lakeside is very simple, whereas in Thamel it’s a life-theatening activity. Lakeside is on a beautiful lake with mountain views, and Thamel is in the center of a very dusty, dirty and polluted city. The street vendors in Lakeside are usually quite pleasant, but the ones in Thamel are very pushy.

Our first adventure in Pokhara was going to the World Peace Pagoda. It’s at the top of a hill on the other side of Fewa Tal. Most people hire someone to paddle them over in a boat. A man came up to us and said that he had a restaurant across the lake, and if we agreed to eat lunch at his restaurant, he would give us a free ride across. So, we agreed.

At the other side, we started the climb up. It was pretty steep, but we got some nice views along the way. One hour later, we arrived at the top.

There are a handful of little restaurants at the Peace Pagoda, but we had agreed to eat at the one near the bottom, so we headed back down. At one point, Jake and I were ahead of my mom, and we accidentally took a wrong turn. Then, we decided to wait for her, and we got a bit worried when she hadn’t caught up 15 minutes later. So we went back to find her, only to see that we had made a wrong turn! We ran back down to the restaurant, and she was there waiting for us. We ordered a very yummy lunch there. Then, we took a boat back to Lakeside.

The next thing we did in Pokhara was go to the International Mountain Museum. We didn’t have much time there because it was close to closing time, but there were some good exhibits there. One of them compared the mountain people of the Himalaya and the Alps. There were pictures showing that their lifestyles are quite similar, including their houses, the way they carry things and the way they herd animals. It was a very neat comparison! Another exhibit showed the evolution of climbing gear, and displayed the gear that Edmund Hillary and Tenzin Norgay used to summit Everest in 1953. It looked very heavy. But then the museum closed, so we found some things to do outside.

When we got back to Lakeside, my dad was back! We spent a few more days in Pokhara finding a guide for trekking and getting organized. We always ate at restaurants, because the accommodation didn’t have cooking facilities. The restaurants always had the traditional Nepali food, some western food, and a page with Indian curries. That was where we normally ordered from, the curries. Our favourite restaurants were the Tea Time Bamboostan restaurant and OR2K, and our favourite cafe was Perky Beans.

Cows are very sacred in Hindu and Buddhist culture, so Nepalis always respect cows. If cows are on the road, drivers will always drive around them very carefully, so cows have learned that the streets are a safe place for them. They don’t care a single bit about the cars around them.

So who owns these cows? Why do they live in big cities? Why do they sleep on the road? We asked a few people these questions, but we still don’t understand.
We headed out on our trek with Prakash, then 10 days later we came back to Pokhara. This time, we stayed at Hotel Khukuri, cheaper than Hotel Fewa because it wasn’t on the lake. It was run by a very nice family.
By far, the very best thing we did in Pokhara was paragliding. Pokhara is one of the best places in the world for paragliding, and it looked absolutely amazing. We first watched it from the Peace Pagoda. Every day, we kept watching the paragliders, and finally, we decided that we just had to do it. Jake and I received money from our uncle Craig before the trip, and we used it to for paragliding.
First, we went to Open Sky paragliding to sign some forms, blah blah blah.

Then, we did the 30 minute drive from Pokhara to Sarangkot. The pilots were from all over the world: Turkey, Brazil, Romania, Russia, just to name a few. Jake’s pilot, Richard from Brazil, was telling us about different paragliding races there are in the world. In one of them, you trek/paraglide from Austria to Monaco over 20 days! He has even won an international competition in Argentina!
The drive to Sarangkot was very dusty and windy, and Jake was starting to feel pretty carsick. Finally, we arrived there, and by now we were practically fainting with excitement! Sarangkot is at the top of a hill overlooking Fewa Tal, and it’s where all the paragliders take off. Our pilots set up the equipment, and then we waited our turn to launch. Everyone had to wait for an updraft.

Then Jake took off…

My dad took off last so that he could take pictures of all of our takeoffs. Some of these pictures are taken by him, and some are taken by our pilot’s GoPro cameras.

To watch a YouTube video of me flying, click here.

And to watch a video of Jake flying, click here.

We were so high above the ground! It was a warm day, and hot air rises, so it was a great day for flying. The only thing that could have been better was the view – it was quite clear, but the mountains were mostly hidden behind clouds. Still, it was such an amazing experience.

One hour later, it was time to land in the field (full of cows) beside Fewa Tal. Jake started feeling sick at the very end, and he threw up in a cup. But, he says that it didn’t ruin his experience at all, and he’s glad that it was only the last 3 minutes of the flight.
The landings were very smooth. Mine was a little less smooth, but still pretty good.

Of all the adventure stuff we’ve done on this trip (ziplines, rafting, canyoning, caving, ect.), paragliding beats everything by far. It was just indescribable. If you are considering it but think that it’s too expensive, do it! It’s worth it! Thanks, uncle!

Our favourite Nepali snack was momos. Jake described them in his post about Kathmandu, but in case you’ve forgotten, I’ll describe them again. They are little dumplings, filled with either vegetable, chicken, or “buff” (buffalo meat, Nepalis don’t eat cow beef). They’re always served on a plate in groups of 10. They’re delicious!
We were actually quite obsessed with momos, and asked the family who ran our hotel if there are any places in town where we could learn how to make them. They told us that we could go to their friends, at the neighbouring little restaurant to learn.
The kitchen at the All in one Cafe was pretty tiny, but we all squished in. They had already made the momo dough, but they told us that it’s basically flour and water.

Making momos is something I’m going to practice we get home. I hope to experiment too… how about fruit momos? Chocolate momos? It’s worth a try!
Nepal is notorious for selling very cool, funky clothes. They weren’t exactly Jake’s style, but the rest of us went a bit crazy.

First I went and chose my shirt. I loved the Namaste expression, and the man at the shop said that he could sew that on the back for me.

Here’s the full outfit:

My dad also got a shirt like that:

Here are the rest of the shirts that my dad bought:

Nepalis wear beautiful and colourful clothing. To give you an example, we saw a wedding ceremony with both bride and groom dressed extravagantly.

My mom loved the clothes that the women wear, so one day we went on a little trip to downtown Pokhara to see what we could find. We took a very crowded city bus to a neighbourhood called Mahandra Pul. My mom walked into a tailor and found some colours she loved. They measured her, then they told us to come back in a few days when the outfit would be ready. When she did come back, it didn’t fit, but when we went back a third time… Tadah!

Some more clothes we got:

Nepal is famous for its meditation and yoga. Peace, serenity, happiness and clarity are the core of Buddhism. We heard that a place offered free meditation in Pokhara, so we decided to try it. None of us knew what to expect.
We went into the meditation room. The instructor came in, but she thought that everyone knew exactly what meditation was, and explained nothing. “Hello, Namaste everyone. We will start with five minutes of silence”. We sat quietly for five minutes. Then, she had us chant “Om, Om, Om, Om…” for the rest of the class, about 30 minutes. We didn’t know how long the class was, and we were worried that we would be chanting “Om” for an hour! My dad struggled not to laugh.
We left the class no further ahead on the question of “what is meditation?”. More on that in an upcoming blog about the Annapurna Eco-village. Here’s a picture of me meditating:

But one thing I’ve learned to love is the “Om” symbol. It means peace and serenity in Hindi. Here’s what it looks like:

Our last adventure in Pokhara was a very fun rafting trip. We chose the Upper Seti river, a short but intense two hour trip. The drive to the start took about 40 minutes. Then, we got a short safety briefing. The last time we had been rafting was on the Inka Jungle Trip in Peru.

At one point, we got out of the raft and jumped off a cliff! The water was very cold.

That was an exhilarating time!

Pokhara was a great place to spend time in. We met so many nice people there, and we just have to hope that they are okay. We heard that Pokhara wasn’t hit too badly in the earthquake, but we wonder if the Peace Pagoda is still standing. We hope that Pokhara and the area will recover quickly. Be brave, Nepal. Namaste.
Kaia

For anybody who is planning a trek in the Annapurna region of Nepal, we would like to highly recommend to you our guide Prakash Dhungana. He is based out of Pokhara. He is very easy going and friendly, and he knows so much about the area. If you’d like to contact him, his email is prakashdpd@gmail.com, and his mobile number is 0977-9846029552.

Nepal is very famous for its mountains. In the world, there are 14 peaks over 8000m above sea level, all are in the Himalaya, and 8 of them are in Nepal. The highest peak outside of the Himalaya is Aconcagua of Argentina and Chile, 6962m. The most famous mountain in Nepal is shared with Tibet, 8848m tall, first summited in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary… Mt. Everest! Nepal is a dream destination for anyone who likes looking at, walking among or climbing the mountains.
Our number one reason for visiting Nepal was to go trekking. Nepal is an amazing hiking place because of the diversity. In some places, you can hike in a dense jungle, then walk over a 5400m pass, then visit a Buddhist temple, all in one day! The most popular trek is the Annapurna circuit. It circumnavigates the Annapurna range, just northwest of Pokhara. It takes about 20 days. The next most popular trek is the Everest base camp trek (EBC). It takes about two weeks. It starts at a place called Lukla, northeast of Kathmandu. Most trekkers fly from Kathmandu to Lukla, because it takes a long time by bus (the distance isn’t big, but the roads are bad). But we chose the Poon Hill – ABC (Annapurnna Base Camp) loop. It is a “teahouse” trek, meaning that you eat and sleep in basic guesthouses and you don’t have to pack a tent or food. Since we would already be in Pokhara to do the “Solar Sisters” solar panel install, it would be very convenient because the starting point, Nayapul, is only two hours away by bus. From Nayapul, we would trek northwest for two days and arrive in Ghorepani. Then, the next morning, we would do a side trek to Poon Hill (3200m) for sunrise and get a fantastic view of the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri mountain ranges. From there, we would turn east and trek two days to Chhomrong. Then, for a few days, we would follow the Modi Khola river north all the way to ABC (4130m), where we would be surrounded by mountains. Finally, we would retrace our steps to Chhomrong and continue south all the way to Khare. This would take us about 10 days. As for the blog, we will divide the trek into three parts: approach to Poon Hill (me), approach to ABC (my mom) and descent from ABC (Jake).

This trek goes up to 4130m altitude, which is quite significant, and it is not uncommon for people to get acute mountain sickness (AMS) at ABC. AMS is nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and pounding headache – not what you want to get in a remote place. I know this from experience, because last time we went up that high was on the Ausangate trek in Peru, when Jake and I got sick. We were a bit worried about getting sick on this trek, but one of the reasons we chose Poon Hill – ABC was because there were many quick exits. If one of us got injured or sick, there were places where we could make a shortcut to the highway. We had AMS pills, and, just in case, our travel/health insurance covered emergency helicopter evacuation.
One thing you need to think about before trekking in Nepal is hiring a guide or a porter. The trails can be steep and difficult, so many people hire a porter to carry their things. We decided to pack light and skip the porter, and turns out, that worked out just fine. But we hired a guide, Prakash Dhungana. You can’t really get lost on this trek, but having a guide can really enrich your experience by teaching you about what you’re seeing. And guides know how far/difficult it is to the next guest house in terms of planning lunch or the night stop. We learned so much from Prakash, we were very glad that we hired him!
So… we had bought our equipment in Kathmandu, we got our required trekking permits in Pokhara, we found a guide… we were finally ready to trek. We started with a two hour bus ride from Pokhara to Nayapul. The distance between the two is only 34km, but the road is so bad and the bus is so old, so it takes two hours! Most trekkers take a private jeep because it’s much faster, but we took the local bus. We were sitting at the very back, so on some of the biggest bumps I think I caught air! It was absolutely jammed with people, and getting on and off with our packs wasn’t easy. It also rained the entire time. But it was an experience!

We got off at Nayapul and did our final preparations. Then, we headed off in the rain.

The food on the trek was something that surprised all of us, and I’ll explain why now. Everything in ACAP is controlled, and so is the menu. It’s pretty much the same everywhere, but the price varies from village to village, getting more expensive the further and higher you go. Unlike the rest of Nepal, it’s “fixed price”, meaning “no bargaining”.  It’s a good system, because it prevents neighbours from competing for the lowest price. Instead, it encourages the guesthouse owners to make good quality food, because the guides will always bring their clients to the best kitchens.
But the thing that surprised us the most was what was on the menu. Breakfast: pancakes, toast, french toast, muesli, porridge, “gurung” bread (Tibetan fried bread). Our favourites were gurung bread and muesli. Lunch and dinner: Dal Bhat (classic Nepali food. “dal” means lentil soup and “bhat” means rice. It usually also comes with some curry or veggies, and to eat it you mix it all together. The guides and porters always have it because they get a discount on it. It is high in protein and vegetarian, and it gives so much energy to keep walking), spaghetti/macaroni, roasty (very delicious potato pancake, felt like comfort food even though I had never had it before), various soups, momos (yummy Nepali dumplings), and even pizza! Imagine going to ABC, very remote, and ordering a pizza! Most of these meals came with the toppings of either egg, veg or cheese. Most Nepalis are vegetarian, so most of the meals were too. Sometimes, they could mix in a little bit of tuna or chicken, although that was much more expensive. Here’s why:

Our favourite meals were dal bhat and rosties. We loved them so much that we want to make them at home. We were very surprised and impressed by the food on this trek. But Prakash said that on the other treks, it isn’t the same. The menu is similar, but the taste is not.

So, after lunch, we continued on in the rain. We walked for a few more hours before stopping for the night in Tikhedunga village at the Indra Guesthouse. Now I’ll explain what the accommodation was like during the trek. Most rooms had two beds, so we needed two rooms. Sometimes, we got a family room for four, and once we shared in a 6 person dorm room. But at most guesthouses, the walls were so thin that you could hear the conversations 5 rooms over. So I guess you would call that half dorm, half private room! The mattresses were usually pretty hard. The sleeping bags were necessary, because we didn’t know how clean the sheets were. I don’t know if anything would ever dry in that cold wet weather! The guesthouses usually provided blankets if we asked for them. They were quite warm, but heavy! I felt so bad for the porters who carried them up!
There was always a shared toilet. Usually, it was an Asian style “squat” toilet, and if you’re lucky there was a western style “sit” toilet. Bring your own toilet paper. Most guesthouses had solar hot water as well as a propane tank, and charged about 100 rupees/$1 for a hot shower. They used to use firewood to heat the water, but deforestation was becoming a big problem, so ACAP banned it.

All of the guesthouses had connected dining rooms (or sometimes “dinning” rooms) where everyone hung out and ate in the afternoons and evenings. We played lots of card games: euchre, hearts, and we taught Prakash our favourite game onze. He kept winning! We also learned a Nepali card game, I forget the name. We all had our books to read, so we were never bored. The accommodation was nicer than we had expected.
Alright, so now you understand the food and accommodation of the Poon Hill – ABC trek. It’s time I start talking about day two.
Day one had been so rainy, so we were excited to wake up to a blue sunny sky. We saw the view across the valley for the first time because of the clouds on the previous day. But, as Prakash warned us, day two was of the most challenging of all. We checked the map, and here’s what the morning looked like: the trail crosses a river, then crosses a lot of contour lines in a short distance! Sure enough, we crossed a river, then we saw this sign:
Tikhedunga to Ulleri
3500 steps
Ok. Inhale. Exhale. We started up.

Two hours and 800 vertical meters later, we stopped for lunch in the beautiful village of Banthanthi. The dal bhat was so good. But my dad was having stomach problems that day, and he had eaten nothing for breakfast and ate nothing until dinner that night. He was hungry, though, and eyed our dal bhat enviously.

Then, we continued walking toward Ghorepani village.

One of the perks of coming to Nepal in April is the rhododendron bloom. It’s the national flower of Nepal, and it’s not hard to see why. I’ve got to say, it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. And the closer we got to Ghorepani, the redder and pinker the forest became!

Prakash took us to a very nice guesthouse that night, the Hotel Tukuche Peak View. It had a big dining room, and a fireplace! My dad was so hungry and he finally ate. Here is what my and my mom’s room looked liked like:

We went to bed very early that night, because the next morning was the Poon Hill morning. The plan was to wake up at 4:30AM, and be walking by 4:45 to get to the top before sunrise. We got everything ready in the evening, including filling up water bottles, sleeping with our trekking clothes in our sleeping bag so that they would be warm in the morning, and perfectly placing our boots beside our beds. We didn’t have too much trouble waking up in the morning, and I think we were walking before 5. Headlamps on.

The walk up took one hour. We found a “front row spot” and waited for the sunrise. The sun finally popped out from east of Machhapuchhre mountain. I’ll let the pictures explain… because words just can’t!

It took quite a long time for the sun to fully hit the mountains, but when it did, it was fabulous.

I don’t think that we would have ever left if Prakash hadn’t told us that in the next village, Tadapani, there aren’t many guesthouses, so to make sure we got a room, we had to press on. We found another picture spot part way down, where we could get the rhododendron AND Dhaulagiri mountain in the same shot!

At the bottom, we went back to our guesthouse for a late breakfast that we had ordered the previous night. Poon Hill was absolutely divinely phenomenally jaw-droppingly beautiful. No wonder it is so popular! Some people turn around at Poon Hill and go back to Nayapul, so for the rest of the trek there would be fewer people. The adventure continues…
Kaia
PS- I was almost finished writing this post when WordPress app decided to throw it all in the garbage for no reason. Twice in a row this has happenned. I am very frustrated and will never use that app again. It has wasted so much hard work. Ugh! I hope take two was almost as good!
PPS – On our way out of Ghorepani, we saw a two-day-old horse! It really is horse water!