Pokhara it is!

We got to the bus station at around two o'clock in the afternoon, and to our biggest surprise the boys were at the station looking out if we were coming.. That was really nice because they had all rented motorbikes and we got a free ride to the lakeside where they had taken hotel rooms. This is also the main hanging out place for Paragliders (the people who fly the skies with a really big kite).

And also here the landscape is really awesome since this place has a lake, it's surrounded by mountains and on clear days you can see the Annapurna mountain range really well.

Now I'm starting to feel much better compared to Kathmandu and I even went out to rent a bike myself to roam around the town and mountainside. With Eric, Bryce and Colin we decided to go see the top of Sarangot where the gliders take off, it was a sweet ride all the way up; at first the concrete road winded up really steeply and after it ended, the sandy road continued all the way to the top.. The ride up the sandy road was awesome also because it was a kind of offroad drive and I got to play around with my bike.. This day was unfortunately cloudy so we didn't have a clear view of the mountain range, but we found out that there's a golf course high up so we might consider to come some day to hit a couple of balls..

 That's all for the moment again, I'll try to somehow manage my pictures over to here; might take a while though because my mp3 player in which I transferred my pics, hit it's final destination and doesn't work anymore..

Long gone is Pokhara.. But the news for your viewing are still fresh..  =)

So, after all we spent about two weeks in here, the days flowed by really lazily and without much differentiating from others.. I really got to like this place a lot, the people (tourists included) were really nice and we got to know a few better; also the shopkeepeers weren't all that pushy..

Almost every morning I went to the same Family restaurant to have my breakfeast which consisted of two eggs fried one side, hashpotatoes and toast plus tea.. A good way to kick off the morning dust.
Then during the day, some motorcycling around, little shopping and lots of sipping tea or coffee or eating pastries all around the place.
That's about all there was to it, except...

I went to Paraglide!!
That was so awesome!!!
Really the best thing I've done so far!
(Of course I went tandem with this French guy, and I didn't do any handling of the glider, but..)

Imagine first going up this hill in a cramped cab, then you stop almost at the top. Get out of the car, and walk down little to this clearing that's 50 meters wide, the jungly woods surrounding you.
Next thing you know, you have somebody gliding right over your head with the falcons.. Screaming out of passion of flying without any sound..
Then the French man unwraps the glider, hands you a harness; you put it on; he straps himself in the back and you in the front and he tells you to run down the cliff and don't stop running..
You look down and you see that the cliff drops some meters down straight to the woods.. Not too scary but you wouldn't want to hit a tree by running and falling to it..
He says let's go, and you start to run.. The cliff's edge is closer at every step and just when you think you'll hit the trees, you notice that your feet go over 'em tree tops.. Suddenly you realize that you are indeed flying like the vultures, with the only noize of the wind brushing through the glider's edges.. Amazed! Confused! Like a newborn you reach in the blue sky, without any spoken words, you are flying.

Then he tells you that you must use the warm current updrafts to go higher and you start to look around for them, or more likely you try to get the feel of the wind (or look for falcons doing the same thing). You find it and you start to go round and round gaining little altitude every moment.. Finally when you are high enough, he tells you that you are headed to the other side of the hill, you float over it easily and then you start to follow it's side for more warm currents.. You look down and about a meter under your feet are the tree tops and you just brush over them.. Then you get closer to the city and you pass over the buildings and you see the people swarming like ants around there.. Really impossible to even describe the smallest sensation you get from it..
But all fun must end at some point and you start to head closer to the lakeside looking for a spot to land, next thing  he tells you to run when you hit the ground and so you do.. Then he drops the glider to the ground also and packs it up..

I was left so stunned about this experience that I'll definitely do it again (maybe if I get rich, then I'll buy my own right the next thing =)..

This was the climax of my trip..


So now I got back to Finland, because I left some unfinished business here and I also wanted to meet a special someone..
Here I am again after a 26hours (transit included) flight time through Kathmandu, Delhi, London and Helsinki.
Feels actually good to be home. Everybody has also asked me if I'm going back to travelling and I must say that for the moment haven't got a clue what'll happen next, guess I'll go with the flow.

I have a complete trip diary written in finnish with all the pictures I took on cds, and it's for public reading so if you're interested ask me about it and I'll lend it to you.

Oh! pictures here coming also later, till then, Cheers!

Sincerely yours:
Ile Travelling(no more)

We got to Nepal!

This country is really awesome after spending so much time in China.. First we got to experience the changing of the landscape from treeless fields and mountains to lustful growth of the forest and plants. And it is warm here! So sweet to not have to think about lying under two blankets and waking up in chilly weather; here even in the evenings it's warm to a point that I almost can spend all day in a t-shirt.

Well, apart from the warmth, people here a nice; almost too nice for my taste. Since I am a Finn and people there are quite not that easy to talk or interact with, I'm not used to such openness of everybody here.  Of course I don't trust people that easily maybe for fear of not being fooled around with, though here my reservation might make me miss the true intentions of good people but then again it might help me to easily pass by people with no good intentions.  Oh well whatever; I'll deal with whatever happens the way I'm used to deal with stuff.

So our first days here were quite filled with a new vigour of being in a totally new place. We first got to this so called Freak Street which used to be a place for hippies in the 70' and we found a nice hotel to stay in. This Freak Street is just by a square filled with temples, I believe it was some 49 temples in total in this small area. So this was a good spot to settle down to because normally people (tourists) would have to pay to get to this square,  but since we live at Freak Street we get free access to it.. Sweet!

Okay, on to the bad part of this Country. I got sick on the fourth day of being here, my stomach doesn't seem to agree with some of the food I ate.. I can tell you it's a real bugger to have to lay down all day and not wanting to eat anything. So a week has passed and I'm still not feeling that well, but better since I feel like moving out again and going to dinner also. The guys are talking about heading to Pokhara just West of here, it takes a 7 hours bus ride to get there though since the roads aren't that good.

The boys went to Pokhara on Thursday or Friday, I can't recall it that clearly anymore. But no matter, I didn't just yet feel like taking a long bus ride.. So With Joni we decided to wait a couple of days more, and on Sunday evening we reserved our tickets. Joni got sick and on Sunday evening also, so that almost stopped us from going there but we decided to try our luck anyways.

We got on the bus early in the morning, and eventually managed to get to Pokhara without any incidents in the bus, which is quite a feat while being stranded inside a cramped bus heading up and down rocky roads on mountain sides..

 

So the last day of our car trip.. We left Old Tingri in early time so that we'll get to the border at it's open times. We even took this American fellow John to ride with us, we met him the day before in the courtyard and he told that he's been cycling through France almost all the way to here.. Crazy fellow =)

The day's ride was long before we got to the border, but it was really nice seeing how the scenery changes on the way. I was even almost scared on the way because the (sandy) road winded on the side of the mountains; and from it the drop was at points some 400 meters straight down to a river..

When we finally got there, the border town was quite a sight in itself.. Just on the side of the mountain, people live in these houses and huts with an awesome view to the valleys below..

We changed countries quickly, eager to get out of China, and on to the warmth of Nepal.. Still we had to take an another ride from the border to Kathmandu which took some 5 hours.. We dreamt of pizza all the way.. =)

Here we take camp at Old Tingri, a kind of border town with just one road coming in and out of town.. It was even though a quite nice place with old ruins overseeing the town and the vast plains..

We spent the day just spacing out.. Colin wanted to buy a puppy and I went to help him see if they are in a good condition; everything was almost arranged so that he'll get it, but the Chinaman got greedy and didn't want to sell it anymore so we just left without..

In the evening we went to stare at the stars from the ruins and it was actually really nice even though the clouds came eventually to block our view..