Pokhara
Pokhara is the second largest city in Nepal after the capital of Kathmandu and is the gateway for the Annapurna mountain range. Our main visiting purpose was paragliding. Apparently, this is one of the best places in the world for paragliding and Dave had a reliable UK contact from his paragliding course in Sussex.
Paragliding
We met with Matty Allen of Annapurna Paragliding, who trained at the same paragliding school as David, and came highly recommended as a safe pair of hands (and wing) for a tandem flight. Matty was a friendly guy who shared his story on leaving the UK to become a travelling paraglider who settled in Pokhara three years ago.
The jeep ride up to the launch site overlooking Lake Phewa and beyond to the hills took 20mins followed by a short safety chat and flight plan. Then we were launching! David first and then a delay for some more wind before Michèle took off. Due to an inversion, visibility was super clear, but also meant not much rising air so not much height could be gained. The flight was very relaxing and gave us fantastic view of the region, from the Annapurna mountain range, across the lake and over the town and local hamlets. After some acrobatic manoeuvres we landed next to the lake feeling refreshed, energized, and a bit nauseous!
Boat ride
Pokhara is located next to Lake Phewa, so we spent the afternoon on a rowing boat to recover from the paragliding and relax in the sun for a bit. Along the shoreline, we came across a bunch of playful macaque monkeys in the trees which was fun to observe.
Food
Pokhara has a very international feel and many or most restaurants offer excellent international dishes. Some of the restaurants put a real effort into the decor and ambiance, something we haven’t come across often enough during our Asia travel. We had excellent ravioli, gnocchi, pizza, fish, apple pie, carrot & walnut cake to name a few. Absolut food heaven and perfect for David to put back some weight after loosing a considerable amount while trekking! And of course some happy hours cocktail. Michèle’s new favourite drink is a Mai Tai cocktail.
