Nivea in Nepal: Pokhara

Monday, December 29, 2014

Pokhara

Leaving Ghandruk at the end of the project, I was travelling once more through Pokhara and decided to take the time to explore Nepali's honey moon town!

Nepali's off road transportation rates

Nepali's off road vehicles :)

After Katmandu, Pokhara is more or less a little paradise. The town is surrounded by the Phewa Tal (second largest lake in Nepal), forested hills and the snow caped Himalayan peaks in the background. High above the lake and the forested hills sits the World Peace Pagoda. The pagoda was constructed by Buddhist monks from the Japanese Nipponzan Myohoji organization to promote world peace.

Phewa Tal & the World Peace Pagoda high above the hills

Sarangkot offers a great view point over Pokhara Lakes and valley. Better to be there at dawn or dusk, when the sun picks out the mountains and sets the sky in fire...

View from Sarangkot

In contrast with this picture-postcard description, Lakeside Pokhara also offers all the souvenirs, trekking clothing and gear fund in Katmandu - Thamel's area. Same shopping opportunities minus the traffic fumes and crowds of Katmandu!


Pokhara Lakeside main street near 'Center Point'

Pokhara is also the starting point for some hikers heading towards Annapurna treks and other outdoors activities such as paragliding, rafting, mountain biking etc.

Paraglading at the north end of the Lake

This tourism industry is good for the local economy as long as the environment can support it. Water access is not a concern in the region and future increase in water consumption is not a problem although management of waste water and garbage might become critical as consumption continue to increase.

My observation is that increasingly over-packed goods added to the great amount of plastic water bottles is creating important waste during tourism peak seasons. Also directly related is the booming construction of Guesthouses / Hotels whit its rather negative impact on the picturesque side of Pokhara.

View from the roof top of my guesthouse

Pokhara's back streets

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Pokhara to Ghandruk

Saturday Oct. 4th 2014

Time to leave Kathmandu jahnu (to go) to Pokhara. An early 6h30 am start + 7h bus ride later we arrived in Pokhara.

As soon as the bus started climbing the hills surrounding the city, nature's green and endless terracing replaced the densely populated and extremely polluted Kathmandu.


Bus stop

One of the many suspension bridges on the road

Once more, very little time to explore this city as we arrived pretty late and needed to get organized for yet, another early start the next day for our final destination: Ghandruk.

Pokhara lake

Sunday Oct 5th 2014

Around 7 am we trade the comfort of the Middlepath Hotel in Pokhara for a Jeep ride taking us closer to our destination. About 40 km separates Pokhara (820 m) from a location named Birethanti (1025 m).

This is a well travelled and colorful road. A mix of both locals, tourists buses and Jeeps play a cacophony of klaxons and game of who is passing who... pretty interesting...

Trail from Birethanti to Kilu

Birethanti is also the checking point for the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACAP) permits required to use the trail up to Ghandruk.

From Birethanti (1025 m) our chaffeur drive us another 8-10 km "off road" to the village of Kilu (1400 m).

Village of Kilu

At this point, our bhariyah (porters) meet with us to load themselves with our bags. I do know the feeling of carrying a 20-30 kg backpack as I have done it myself and therefore, I can only admire their strength when observing these little boys/men and girls hiking up under such loads waring not much than flip-flops...