Category Archives: Backpacking

Pokhara Paragliding

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Day 60 – Location: Pokhara; Nepal

30/10/12

I went to the travel agents office at 9am, where I was picked up in a jeep with a few other people for the paragliding. We stopped at the paragliding office where the instructors loaded the parachutes in massive backpacks onto the roof, and hopped in the back. They were all western. We set off and drove up the road to Sarangkot where I’d seen the sunrise a few weeks ago. Near the top on one of the hairpins were a bunch of people, and a big winch which was pulling a car up from a sheer drop into the forest! You couldn’t see the front of the car but it must have been fecked. I wonder if the driver survived. The roads is very narrow and at every corner the cars honk before going round the bend, but with the madness of the drivers here and the old vehicles it was probably a swerve to avoid collision, or a brakes failure. I wondered whether the inhabitants had survived, it would have been a long drop. Amazingly it’s the only road accident I’d seen so far despite the crazy roads here.

We passed through Sarangkot village and onto a bumpy dirt road which took us to the top. There was a stream of paragliders and porters carrying the big parachutes up the path to the takeoff area. This was a sloping patch of grass overlooking the Pokhara valley. We got some brief instructions and were paired off with instructors. I got a friendly, bearded American guy called Mitch. He laid out his parachute flat on the slope behind him, strapped his harness on and my harness clipped to his. We were one of the first to leave. I had my camera around my neck, but we had to clip it behind the chest straps so it wouldn’t smash me in the face when we took off. Unfortunately that made photography limited as it was trapped by my chest and I couldn’t make adjustments to the photos easily.

Mitch gets us ready to go

Mitch gets us ready to go

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We had to run down this slope to take off

I was strapped to Mitch’s chest, and so to take off I had to run hard down the hill. He said don’t stop unless I tell you to. I ran as hard as I could; you have to have faith as it feels like you’re hurling yourself towards your doom. I felt a hard resistance pulling me back and kept running, held in place as the parachute behind me raised up. Then we surged forwards again and in a few seconds our feet left the ground and we were flying. It felt surprisingly solid and pretty cool. The ground soared away beneath us and I shifted back into the cradle seat which was comfortable.

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We soared through the air amongst many other paragliders. The view was good but very hazy today, it was better looking at the ground below and I really felt like a bird. We hit a thermal and felt the hot air pulling us upwards. The thermals work like carousels with the paragliders, they travel around them in circles in one direction, and there are right of way rules to avoid collisions. There were probably about ten other paragliders up here with us. It was a cool feeling.

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As we swooped around I was chatting with Mitch about his sport. He started doing it in Utah and had been doing it for about 8 years, progressing to tandem flights recently which are completely different due to the weight, size of the chute and the responsibility for another person. He said sometimes people are freaking out, being sick or whatever. He’d had no accidents aside from a fall when taking off – sometimes people trip or the chute can snag and people fall flat on their face. I met a girl about a week later who had done just that and had the scar to prove it! When alone he likes to do cross country paragliding, where you just float around for miles and miles picking up thermals on the way. As long as you always have scoped a potential landing site within a safe distance, you can continue doing this as long as you can keep finding thermals, and he told me about people who have travelled over a hundred miles doing this!

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I asked about thermals and he said they depend on the angle of the sun and the ground below. We left the main thermal as we were getting low and he steered us over forest and fields to find another. By looking at the ground he spotted a potential place, over some harvested rice where he said the ground would be emitting more heat. Sure enough we were gusted up in a strong thermal and gained more airtime. Soon this thermal was packed as other paragliders spotted what we were doing – when someone finds a good thermal everyone else can join in too. It was peaceful up here, not noisy at all, we could easily hear each other talking and there was hardly any wind noise. The chute always felt very stable too.

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It was only a half hour booked flight and this early in the morning the thermals aren’t too strong. I’d chosen the early morning session for the views, but actually the big mountains are behind you anyway, they looked great on the drive up but after that the view is just the same as from Sarangkot. In future I’d instead want to try a midday session for longer when the thermals are better. As we got lower to the landing site by the lake, we started to do some tight spiral turns for fun. You get some g-force and an adrenaline rush from the maneuvers, it was cool. We came in quite fast to land, and he told me to hit the ground running. I thought we were in for a hard landing but at the last second he pulled up sharply, bringing us to almost a stop and we plopped neatly onto the ground with W a few paces needed to stop us completely. Very professional! We watched others landing, most of whom landed on their bums on the air pads there. We were the super-pros. Mitch told me when you get good, you can land within a space of a few meters. When the others had arrived the guys packed up their chutes and we took the jeep back to Lakeside a few minutes away. It had been a good experience and I’d like to try it again for longer, and with more stunts.

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After chilling out I walked about half an hour to the tourist police station in Pokhara. The woman there was friendly and I filled out a police report for my stolen things. But really annoyingly, there is a government policy that they won’t add stolen cash to any police report! What the hell! I’d lost about 500 quid and without having it listed on the report, there was no way I could claim it back from the insurance. I pleaded with the woman but as it was policy there was nothing she could do. I decided to take it up with the embassy when I arrived back in Kathmandu.

The landing site

The landing site

I spent the rest of the day getting organized and on the internet. In a stroke of luck Bikrant, the guy from Fantastic Nepal who had shown me around the Indra Jatra festival in Kathmandu was in town. I met him for dinner and we caught up. Coincidentally he was off to Chitwan as well, to see a relative there for the festival. I had an early night because tomorrow I’d be up early for the tourist bus.

Back to Pokhara

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Day 59 – Location: Bandipur; Nepal.

29/10/12

I had an awful night’s sleep with a dodgy tummy and unable to catch more than a few hours. As soon as the horrible hawking of the elderly people in the building began at around 4am, I couldn’t sleep at all. It sounded like they were literally hawking their guts up, and they’d revisit the toilet at regular intervals to do it – you could tell they were doing it in the loo as it echoed! After breakfast we walked around the rest of the backstreets we hadn’t explored, nice and quiet. Bandipur is the most quiet and chilled out place I’ve been to in Nepal, even compared to the mountains.

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We hopped on top of a local bus heading back down to Dumre. This time I got the good view. It was a lot faster coming down and we soon reached the town. I was sitting in the hole of the spare tire this time so it was fairly comfy. Anja had to return to work tomorrow, so we said farewell and went our separate ways, from here she could catch a bus back up to Besisahar. I got on a local bus to Pokhara and even got a seat with decent leg room. Unfortunately for my knees, it wasn’t to last, as at another town on the way back we got transferred to another bus and I had to sit on the back row. I couldn’t sit in one seat because there wasn’t enough room for my legs, so I was squeezed in with my knees scrunched against the hard seat in front, as different locals came on and off for the next few hours. At one point I had a kid in my lap, it was that busy!

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The Himalayas from Bandipur

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I arrived in Pokhara bus station and got a taxi to Lakeside. I’d decided to come here so I could report my stolen things with the tourist police, and also I was interested in paragliding before leaving Nepal – having been let down in Bandipur. I found a hotel and as I needed to head back towards Kathmandu to sort out the passport, I booked a package tour to Chitwan national park which is in that direction. Chitwan is a jungle/long grass environment with elephants, rhinos and even the occasional tiger. I also booked a tandem paragliding session for the next morning. It’s really cheap in Nepal compared to other countries. I spent the rest of the day investigating the passport replacement process and catching up on my photos and blog. I also phoned the British embassy in Nepal to find out what to do about my stolen passport. The helpful lady at the British consular told me I’d need the police report, then I could come to their office in Kathmandu to arrange what to do next about getting a temporary replacement or apply for a full one. I told her I’d pop in within the week to sort it out. I still had a valid visa for two weeks so there was no urgency at the moment. I spent the rest of the day chilling out in a restaurant.

View from the bus on the way down from Bandipur

View from the bus on the way down from Bandipur

Sunrise at Bandipur and the Cave

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Day 58 – Location: Bandipur; Nepal

28/10/12

In a fit of madness we’d decided to get up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise in this great location. After both struggling a bit we eventually managed to rise and get out whilst it was still dark. The Lonely Planet had suggested a little temple up on the rocky ridge above the town for one of the best views in Nepal, so we climbed the little path that zigzagged up the narrow ridge as it got lighter.

Himalayas sitting on a sea of cloud

Himalayas sitting on a sea of cloud

It was pretty cold but the twenty minute walk warmed us up. At the top of the ridge was a little wood with a shrine. From up here you could see around in all directions, in ten seconds you could be at the other side of the hilltop looking at a different view. A western couple were hugging behind the temple, apart from that we were alone up here. A layer of cloud lay above the big valley floor, obscuring it completely, and a river of cloud flowed over the far ridge beyond the town, wisping into nothinginness futher down. Very nice.

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Out of the cloud layer protruded the hills, one set looking like a giant hand. And beyond that was an 180 degree view of the snow topped mountains, completely clear. It was the biggest and best view of the range I’d seen yet. In the other direction, the stepped valleys poked out of the cloud cover and cloud wisped over smaller ridges. A magical place for sure.

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As we waited, more people arrived, mostly Nepalese tourists. There weren’t many but unfortunately they made enough noise to shatter the peace. Still, it was nothing compared to Sarangkot or Poon hill. The mountains started to line with gold and the sun appeared over the cloudy ridge. Awesome. If you want somewhere romantic to propose, Bandipur is it. We walked back down and went back to bed for a few hours.

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After breakfast we set off in search of one of the biggest cave in Asia. The directions in the Lonely Planet were very vague and we climbed up the hill behind the town, saying hello to locals and made our way through a forest for about half an hour in what we thought was the right way, through the mossy trees rammed with spiderwebs. We met an English guy coming the other way who told us the cave was In a completely different direction, great. We backtracked and asked the locals until we were pointed the right way. Unhelpfully the official metal signs pointing the way were mostly missing, probably part of someone’s roof now. We started descending a long flight of slippery stone steps. At a rest stop a local chap asked if we wanted to buy maruina, producing a big ball of the stuff, presumably plucked locally. He joined us down the path for a bit pointing us in the right direction as we chatted to him.

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We had been descending for about an hour, passing no one, working our way through a forest traversing the hillside. We reached a junction with no indication of where to go, so we went up, and reached a house with lots of beehives in logs, like I’d seen when trekking. A few guys were there and when we asked for directions an old man tottered out to lead us on a little path in the right direction. He showed us with hand signs which way to go and we continued. After one junction, following the guys directions, we came to another junction with a clear stone path in one direction and decided to go that way. It led to a big rocky outcrop in the forest, with a cave entrance going down steeply into the blackness. This must be it. However, the guide book had said you could hire guides at flashlights at the cave. We guessed as it was the holiday no one was around.

Field up in Bandipur

Field up in Bandipur

The cave entrance was pretty cool and I clambered down to check out further inside. Unfortunately I’d forgotten to bring my headtorch so I couldn’t get far before complete blackness. I could hear echoey water running inside and at one point faint voices. I shouted hello but got no response. As I’d heard voices, I thought it would be a good idea to wait for the group to come out, maybe there would be a guide we could use or torches. But after half an hour, no one had showed up, apart from some grazing buffalo ravaging the jungle. We gave up and started the long climb back up the hillside. On the way we passed a few other groups with guides plus a small group with climbing equipment and wondered if we’d come completely unprepared.

The cave entrance

The cave entrance

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After navigating a herd of sheep and goats a man was leading up the hill with his dog, we reached the top again and walked in the sunshine to the town, it was mid afternoon now. The mountains were covered in cloud again. We had lunch and Anja chatted to some other Swiss German women on another table, who joined us for a bit. One of them came with us later when we went to see the sunset again. Unfortunately we were a bit late, so settled on the wall of the larger temple which had a good view of the layered hills and valleys. We stayed admiring the orange beauty before us, and I watched day turn to night and the stars come out in the clear sky, as Anja chatted in her native language to the other woman, something which is a rare treat for her out here! Because I don’t speak German the conversation was a soothing background noise. We played Anjas game of spotting faces in the contours of the hills’ silhouettes. We went for a beer and dinner together and called it a night.