Pokhora

Pokhora

Boating on the lake

On the 16^th of October Dashian festival starts and lasts for two weeks, more on that later, so I used this free take to take a visit to Pokhora for five days before the start of festivities but while all the schools were closed. I had to get the five O’clock bus which was a treat, It was packed and they seemed to get more and more people on it at each stop. Luckily I had a seat, although it was terrible on my legs I had Joti sat next to me who is short, but tall for Nepali standards, so I managed to use some of her leg room and it wasn’t so bad, certainly better that standing because the ceiling was five foot high I could barely walk down the bus. The floor was also out of use as people were being sick on it and, after the goat got on board, full of goat droppings. The Spanish girls sat on the other side of the aisle thought it was really cut and took loads of photos, I don’t think they would have thought that if they knew it was going to be brutally killed in a few days, more on that later. So after eight hours we got to Pokhora. I went to get some more trousers as I only have two pairs and one of them got badly damaged beyond repair and some shoes, as you can only get size 9.5 in Tansen. I’m size 10. Turns out in Pokhora you can only get 9.5 too, they said maybe in Kathmandu I can get a bigger size.

At the paragliding site

I mainly went to go paragliding and boating though. Paragliding was really fun. They hustled me into paying for a hour trip even though I was only going to go for half a hour, but I was told everyone who goes for half an hour wants to go again for longer. I ended up getting the hour but half a hour would have been perfect. After about 20 mins it started to get rather repetitive with all the circling on the same place.  The last five mins was the best though because you fall to earth really quickly in tight spirals. I spent a lot of time boating on the lake, it was really relaxing. I only paid for a hour the first time but it been floating around for nearly two when I noticed the time and it took ages to get back because of the current, but the owner never noticed. The next day I got an all day ticket, only 700 compared to 300 an hour.

I never managed to get my shoes but it was a good relaxing time, which I really needed for the up-coming festival. The only downside was that I didn’t realise I had a hot shower in the hotel until the last day.