Pokhara - trekking, rafting and paragliding

From Kathmandu we went to beautiful Pokhara, where our real adventure began as it is the starting point for many of Nepal's most popular trekking and rafting destinations...

Phewa Lake in Pokhara

Colorful boats at the lake

One day we went for a long walk along the lake. The views were amazing!



Little house...


Sunset


Some local people that we met on the way

And some 'thirsty' tourists... ;-)

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As I mentioned before Pokhara is the best place for things like trekking, rafting and even paragliding! It was all so tempting that we didn't know what to choose so we decided to do everything! ;-)

Trekking first! As our physical condition was not so great we decided to do only 5-day trekking to Poon Hill (at elevation 3210m) in the Annapurna mountain range. We started walking from a small village Nayapul...

We saw many beautiful things on our way, like a waterfall...

or beautiful rice plantations...

or 3 little girls trying to block our way... (They had promised to let us free if we gave them some sweets... ;-)

and local kids...


Lukas resting for a while after having passed thousands of stone stairs... and wondering how many more stairs do we have to pass to get to our first destination - Gandruk (about 1900m)... It took us 8 hours walking to get there. We were worn out but very happy! ;-)))

The most wonderful thing was the view...

The best views were in the mornings at sunrise, about 6am...

Our next stop, at little village - Tadapani.

And some more amazing views on the mountain...

and its beautiful snowy peaks...

On our last day we climbed to Poon Hill just before the sunrise! We started about 4:30 from our last stop at Gorepani, situated just at the foot of our destination. The views from Poon Hill were so breath taking that we didn't want to go down! We saw 2 of 8 thousand high peaks and others of 7 thousand high. Amazing!!!!!! Finally we had to go back because it was too cold and also we were getting hungry!!!

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Next- paragliding!

First we were going in a Jeep up to the nearby mountain, from where we were supposed to paraglide... We were a bit scared of the atitude, but also very curious what is the feeling of flying!

I was the first one. My instructor gave me some very brief explanation of paragliding, then we wore our equipment, start running and yuppiiiiiii we were in the air! Coooool !!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was only 30 minutes and not that much adrenaline as I expected, but flying above Pokhara was absolutely great!!!

Lukas flying above the lake

And back on the ground ;-(

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Rafting!

We were taken by bus to the Seti River, where we started our rafting adventure. Out of all the things that we have experienced in Nepal, rafting was what we enjoyed the most! It was perfectly organised, people were lovely (both locals and tourists) and food delicious!

On our first day we were rafting for about 6 hours, the river rapids were graded + - 3, water not cold at all so in some places we could swim, great fun!

Overnight we stayed at the river bank, surrounded by beautiful mountain scenery, together with some other people from the kayaking team. We had great fun sitting at the camp fire and drinking beers and singing some funny songs!

On our raft at the overnight camp...

together with the kayaking team...

On the second day we were rafting for about 4 hours and then we had a good-bye lunch. These 2 days passed extremely quick! But it was really fantastic and I can recommend it to everyone who is looking for an adventure an is not scared of water! ;-)

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After rafting we took a bus to Kathmandu, where we had to obtain visas to Pakistan and China. It took us a week and many trips to both embassies! Uff! But eventually we got them! I will write more about this in the next post...