pokhara

the road to pokhara through the mountains was supposed to be a scary one, but it turned out to be one of the better bus journeys i had ever taken. the tourist bus drivers take it a little bit more easy than the local buses and the minivans - i heard that they were worse. we stopped at a couple of 'tourist' restaurant places - like lambs to the slaughter, we were served the usual overpriced fare. and fast food for sure - we had barely gulped down our last morsel of chow mein before the bus was revving its engine signalling it was time to go. it didn't help that all the tourist buses chose the same two restaurants to stop at.

arriving at pokhara tourist bus station, we were immediately besieged by the taxi drivers.  yanti had mailed me to say that she and maike were at jasmin guest house. none of the taxi drivers knew where jasmin guest house was. north side of the lake, i added. still no idea. they kept asking me for the business card of the guest house. i kept telling them that i didn’t have one... how could i if i had never been there before!

in the end, we went with the first taxi in the queue, the driver saying that he would ask for the hostel when we reached the centre of lakeside. when we got there, he asked a few people but had no luck. what sort of taxi driver was this?!! we decided to get out and try and find it ourselves on foot. and not pay this joke of a taxi driver. we were surrounded by the mob of taxi drivers he had tried to ask directions. one of them got aggressive, saying that we had to pay him. ira was clear that he would get nothing. he said he would get us to the guesthouse and he failed. why should we pay him?

the aggressive driver was threatening to get the police. so get them, shouted ira, walking off with nata. our driver was holding onto me by the rucksack, and i knew they would be trouble if we didn’t pay him. i talked with the girls and ira gave him 50 rupees, trying to put it in his pocket. he was having none of it. 150 was the agreed price. she threw it at him. the atmosphere was getting more menacing. a couple of foreigners had stopped and were asking if we needed help. in the end, i gave him the rest of the money, and ira threw an empty water bottle at him.

walking off, we could hear the bastards laughing behind us. ira turned around and shouted some abuse at them, but i diplomatically urged her to keep walking away. we found a travel agent place to take five. it doubled as an internet point and i tried to see if yanti had replied to the emails i had sent her saying that we would be coming to pokhara and could she give the directions to jasmin guest house. no luck. we decided to keep walking and met the guys who had asked if we needed help. we asked if they knew where jasmin guest was. yes, it’s about 200m down the road!! the guy said that he had asked if we needed help because he had run-ins with the pokhara taxi mafia before: “they are fucking bastards, all of them. all other nepalis are fantastic, except them!!”

yanti and maike were not home and the guys there said it was full in any case. we went to try another place but it was likewise full. then we found one guy offering a place to stay... we followed him to what looked a newly built hotel. it was modern and clean and had hot water showers and three beds in the room...  free wifi and the price of 400 rupees was great too! we took it. we took walks around the lakeside and swimming; and another day, negotiating with a boat mafia operative (one 10-year old kid with a small table on the river bank as his office) to hire a boat for the day. we rowed over to the other side and met some local kids and their goats. again, more swimming for the girls, they were natural fishes!

we eventually met up with yanti and maike and had a nice music session with them outside their room at jasmin guesthouse. and we found out that bodash (from paradise beach) was also in pokhara, and he was into paragliding. he had all the gear for doing tandem jumps too! we went to visit him where he was staying at nirvana guest house. unfortunately, he told us that there were issues involved with him and the local paragliding outfits... as he had no permits, he had been banned from doing tandem jumps from the sarangkot jumping-off place.

the girls decided to take a commercial jump for $90 each. while they were doing that, i decided to walk up to sarangkot from lakeside. i found the trail and the steps leading up there... i was well out of shape, stopping many times to catch my breath. it was a steep climb, and at the village, there were more steps to take before the viewing platform. of course, the guy there was collecting a fee. i lied that i had no money. i wanted to tell him that i shouldn’t need to pay to look at the nature. i could understand that the village would use this money to maintain the viewing platform and support the village school, etc. etc., but they could do it on a donation basis.

it was a disappointing view... the clouds had rolled in and covered the view of the distant snow-capped mountains of the famed annapurna range. and when i got back down, the girls told me it had been a disappointing paraglide, just 20  minutes and no snow-capped mountain view for them either. they had booked a rafting trip and an onward bus journey to kathmandu together before going back to moscow, and so we parted company the next day. it meant i had to look for another place to stay. i left my gear at jasmin g.h. and took my sleeping bag and mat, planning to stay the night outside there in time to see the view of the mountains at sunrise, the best time. i took the bus up there and found a place to sleep at the paragliding take-off place. and the next morning, i walked up the steps to the viewing platform again, and a beautiful view of the mountains with the magical sunrise light.

i went with maike to visit bodash when i got back down as he had an appointment for a tandem jump with him. as they were waiting for the best time to go, i asked the daughter of the guest house owner, om, if they had a room available. i was in luck. i decided to go up to sarangkot with the guys to see them jump. we got a taxi there and arrived there late in the afternoon when they would not be any more jumpers. bodash was defying the ban put on him and they were lucky as the wind was good and no-one waiting to jump. from laying out the ‘wing’ and flying was less than 10 minutes, as i watched the eagles fly around them as they flew off in the direction of lakeside. i came back down with the bus.

one time, i took the bus to begnas tal. it was a beautiful clear day and the mountains were looking especially great. machhapuchre (the fishtail) mountain with its triangular peak was prominent on the skyline. i walked up the road around the lake and hitched a lift to the top of the hill where the guy had said that there was a nice temple and a good view over the lake. he was right, and the woman who opened up the temple for me didn’t ask me for any money! a first! i got a last view of macchapuchre before the clouds rolled in down the valley.

i walked to the end of the paved road and then took the dirt road continuing around the lake. the road was going up and up and more away from the lake. there weren’t many people but most gave me some friendly smiles which i returned. some houses here and there and beautiful photogenic terraces, and some farmers tilling the soil with ox and plough. the place had an other-worldly and serene feel. it was a welcome antidote to lakeside in pokhara. i wish i had bought my sleeping bag and tent and camped there for the night as i had originally intended to do when bodash first told me about this place.

i walked back to the road and the local bus going to pokhara was passing by. it was full but i managed to hang on by the open door side with the others hanging on there. it was hard work as the bus swung one way and then the other as it went around the windy road. i was sure that it was going to topple over and crush me under it or go over the side of the hill. before we had even reached the temple at the top of the hill, i jumped off... at least i  managed to get most of the way up the hill without walking. i got back to the start of the road where a local begnas tal - pokhara bus was ready to leave.

and then one day, bodash asks if i want to fly. i was hoping he would ask as i had been not exactly pestering him sometimes about it. the weather looked good and we took a taxi up to sarangkot. walking to the jump-off place, bodash with this massive big rucksack with all the gear on shouts out “oh fuck!” bad news. we have a back wind, meaning absolutely no chance to take-off. we wait a while to see if it would change but no luck. we go to the other take-off place but again no luck. nothing for it but to go back down. of course we miss the last bus going back and have to walk to the nearest house/shop where they call a taxi for us. disappointing day.

we try again the next day around the same time but we miss the early bus. in between waiting for the next bus, we get to an internet place for me to check my mail. i had applied for a teaching english post in china and put that i was available for a skype interview in these days. i got a reply: interview scheduled for today in one hour’s time. the place didn’t have headphones or mic so we got a local bus to another place. finally i got the connection and got the interview done. had to rush it at the end so that we could get back to the bus station and take the bus back up to sarangkot.

we had decided to try a different place to take-off, at thorepani, and got off the bus there. but bodash doesn’t have a good feeling about it, and so we walk down back to sarangkot. just as we arrive at the steps going to the take-off place, the bus going down stops and a nepali guy gets off, immediately goes up to bodash and starts ranting at him about someone being injured doing a tandem jump at midnight, that he was banned from jumping at sarangkot, that he will report him etc. etc. bodash tells him that he doesn’t jump from here, and we are instead walking to thorepani.  “oh thorepani, that’s ok”, he says and goes off.

well, that was that. no more flying from sarangkot. we walk up the road and decide to find the place where bodash stayed before for the night. we found the woman and she opened up the two rooms for us, we dumped the paragliding gear there and walked up to the ridge to have a look at the mountains at sunset. a beautiful sunset and nice views all around. we walked back to the ‘hotel’ where the woman who rented out the rooms had prepared dhal bhat for us, the ubiquitous nepali dish. it was delicious.

the next morning, we got up before sunset and went again to the ridge to see the sunrise light on the mountains. beautiful. and we hadn’t paid a rupee for the privilege.  we went back to the rooms and collected the gear. we had decided to walk to a different take-off at madredhunga, further away but possibly better. bodash had not jumped from there either. i agreed to carry some of the weight as it would be a tough trek up the mountainside. and so it proved, but finally we reached the take-off place with its tell-tale windsock.

it had taken us about an hour. we rested and waited for the thermals. bodash was watching the eagles and seeing where they were catching the thermals. no backwind this time, so perfect conditions. just needed some good thermals this time. so then, it was time to go. i wore the harness and put on the bicycle helmet. bodash laid out the wing on the ground and tested the lines by raising it into the air.  once it was done, he attached his harness to mine and reminded me to just keep running. “ready?” “ready”. i couldn’t see it but he pulled the wing up and turned to face the cliff. “go!” i started running. we were up in the air almost immediately but i kept ‘running’ and then we were clear of the mountainside. wow, what a feeling. i got comfortable in the harness with my feet dangling over the edge. and the adrenalin was still coursing through my veins.

we saw the eagles on the thermal. “look, they are showing us the way”, said bodash. i got out the camera although i was a bit nervous to let go of the strappings. but it was ok and i was glad to have taken some pics. we were turning circles in the air to keep in the thermal but although we were getting some lift, we were also coming down, the result being that we didn’t stay up too long. we saw the kids shouting at us from the roadside and saw the amazing terraces and lake phewa way down below.

finally we had to come down and bodash chose a place near the river in the valley. it looked like we were coming down quite fast but it was a soft landing as my legs gave way from under me and i collapsed in a heap on the pebbles. i tried to get up but it was difficult, but bodash managed to unclip the harness. wow, a great half an hour of flying experience - thanks bodash!! a couple of local kids ran up to help us fold the wing back up and stash all the gear back into the backpack, and we waited for the bus back to sedi bagar and nirvana guest house.

another time, i went with a canadian traveller to the buddhist stupa on the opposite mountainside of the lake. i had met him when his hired motorbike had broken down and i had helped to get it going again. we met up again early one morning and rode up to the stupa. there were some steps to the top, but the view of the annapurna range was amazing once more.

on the way back, we were riding along the road and there was a 4x4 coming from the opposite direction, waiting to turn right into a side road. only he didn’t wait, he started to turn. we managed to swerve around him, as he rolled down his window and starts shouting something not nice in nepalese at us. i was mad as hell, he could have caused us to come off and worse, and i started shouting back at him and giving the middle finger salute.

but then as we are driving along, a car is sounding its horn at us. i tell the canadian to pull over a bit to let it pass. but as the jeep comes up alongside, i realize it’s the guy who had nearly caused the accident. too late, he forces us off the road and we have to stop. “keep driving, keep driving”, i shout, knowing that this guy hasn’t come to give us a quick tutorial about the subtleties of nepalese road etiquette. but the bike has chosen this moment to go into a death spasm. the guy is already out of his jeep and coming round the front to confront us. i can see that he is built like a brick shit-house, with weightlifter muscles bulging out of his t-shirt. i’m still waiting for the bike to start, almost praying that we will escape at the last moment once again. but my luck has run out. realising that we are looking to ride off, he grabs at the bike and standing back, throws a punch directly at me. it connects perfectly square on the side of my face as i let out an involuntary scream. the scream has the power to miraculously start the motorbike back to life and we ride off down the road with me holding a hand to my face and looking back at this guy standing in the middle of road like arnie from terminator.

now i am really fucking mad and losing it big time. reason has just taken a big flying leap out of the window as i am getting the canadian guy to turn around on the bike and find this guy again. but sometime during these few minutes, reason comes crawling back inside again and the red mist fades, and we turn around once more and head again to lakeside. “why didn’t he hit me, i was the one who was driving?” the canadian asked later. “i was the one who gave him the finger, and besides, you had a helmet on”, i replied. nepalese road rage. the pain lasted for a week or more, although i was lucky that i had no black bruises. moral of the story – always wear a motorbike helmet when riding! just kidding. moral of the story - don't even think about getting angry even though others are trying their level best to kill you.

nirvana guest house wasn’t without its resident evil, aka om, the owner. he had a drink problem and would come in the evenings and harass the guests. he harassed the two portuguese girls so much that they left without paying, telling me later that they would pay later and then only to his wife. of course, for the ones left behind, it only exacerbated the situation. he demanded that we pay him the rent up front so he could pay the bills... we were sure it was to pay for his alcohol habit.

i tried to talk to him one evening and managed to persuade him to change his mind. i also got him to acknowledge that maybe the all night drinking sessions were not a good idea. my neighbour eva and i were in any case leaving soon as we had booked our tickets for the tourist bus back to kathmandu. she had a plane, actually 3, to catch to get back home to finland. maike and yanti had had a domestic and so i had a farewell meal with only maike at one of the restaurants. and having said our farewells to bodash, eva and i hitched a ‘road maintenance crew’ truck to lakeside centre before a taxi to the bus station. eva met her friend who was also coincidentally taking the bus, and he told of a place to stay on freak street in kathmandu.