The trip began early in the day, with one bus of Rotarians and one bus of DNC kids and Rotaractors. We were all headed to Manakamana, home of an enormous cable car ride. The cable car was, thankfully, engineered by Austrians and not, say, the Chinese. I should mention that that comment does not stem from racism, but merely from the fact that the Chinese imports Nepal receives are of an infinitely more questionable quality than those that the United States receives. And a questionable cable car is not an encouraging thought.
Anywho. The cable car is reached via stairs. Many of them. Prior to exiting the cable car at the top, there are also more stairs. There were kids with us from DNC who are unable to negotiate stairs, and that's where the Rotaractors come in. They are invaluable. This trip truly could not have happened without them. I was in charge of filming on the way up in light of Len's absence, and in spite of the difficult time the children were clearly having, it was also clear that they were having the time of their lives. They had gotten to ride on a nice tour bus and then a cable car up to a highly significant Hindu temple at the top of a mountain. Not a bad outing by any standards, but for these kids, it was truly magical.
We had a lovely lunch at the top and hung out for a bit, but the time eventually came to head back down and to send the children back to DNC, while the rest of the group and I pressed on to Pokhara. It had taken roughly 3 hours to reach Manakamana, and it was going to take at least 3 more before the journey was done.
I feel I should describe the road to Pokhara a bit. For those that have driven on Chuckanut Drive up to Bellingham, this is an easy task. The Pokhara Highway is to Chuckanut Drive as gorillas are to infants - rougher, smellier, generally more unpleasant to spend time with, and far more likely to kill you. It was apparent early on that I needed a seat at the front of the bus, and once I had gotten my seat with little argument from my fellow passengers, the drive passed smoothly for my stomach, at least, and when we arrived, we checked into our hotel (the Hotel Trek-O-Tel), wandered up the street for dinner, and then turned in after that. I should note, however, that our dinner came with live music, and Namrata knew a member of the band, and blessed us all with singing on stage with the group. It was wonderful!
The next day, the group arose bright and early to go on a boating adventure, followed by an hour-and-a-half hike up to Peace Stupa, led by Mitralal. I, however, had other plans. Instead of doing this whole 'boating' thing, I promptly hopped into a Jeep, drove to the top of a mountain, and jumped off a cliff.
I went paragliding, of course.
Paragliding was an absolutely tremendous experience. For those that have even the slightest inkling to do it, I highly recommend it. The height isn't frightening at all - indeed, I never felt in any real danger, either. The harnesses were chair-like, so it was really more like being driven around in a La-Z-Boy at 2,500 meters (I was riding tandem). In fact, the thermals were so good when I went, that shortly after we took off, we were climbing past our take off point.
Then, I started to feel airsick. Ugh. I can't do anything fun.
We landed a few minutes earlier than normal, and with me dangerously close to hurling. However, I had an AMAZING time, and would like to try it again sometime, or maybe learn how to pilot myself, as I feel that might help with the motion sickness.
Break time! Go look at pictures!
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| Pokhara in 34 Images |
Okay. We're back.
The Rotary meeting that evening was excellent. It was not a usual meeting, and there were guests from Rotary and Rotaract clubs from all over the Pokhara area, and it had all been arranged only the night before. Amazing! My dad gave his talk, RR Pandey gave a talk, Jamuna gave a talk, and, well, so did everyone else.
The next day led off with a lovely bout of bus riding to Bandipur, which is on top of what the Nepali people would call a hill, but what most other sane people would call a mountain. There was a Rotary meeting there, and we had a lovely lunch sponsored by a Rotarian Santa Kumar who owns a resort up there, but what is by far most the most impressive thing about Bandipur is its cleanliness. It's almost an anthithesis to Kathmandu in this regard. In fact, the city prides itself on its lack of litter. I was quite taken aback.
Following Bandipur was a rather uneventful ride back, save for some lovely singing by Namrata, followed by a number of sing-alongs led by various people on the bus.
Anywho. That is all! Also, there are a few photos up on my Flickr that I did NOT post in the album here, and in addition, I've edited and adjusted the mountain pictures, and the ones on my Flickr look far better. Check them out if you like.
Til later,
Carey
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