Ep8- Motorcycle Diary, Nepal

  Pokhara, Nepal
Sunday, January 28, 2007

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Watch this episode here.

Then watch us have too much fun here here.

After what Justin describes as the worst experience of his life,

which included 1 train, 2 suspension-lacking bus rides, 36 hours, 50+ hagglers vying for our souls, and approximately 5 of Dan's really long stories, we arrived at 5am in Pokhara, Nepal. We trudged 3km to a guesthouse and crashed. At noon we awoke and found ourselves just meters away from pristine Lake Phewa nestled between tree covered mountains. It was cloudy and visibility was less than ideal, but we could tell that we had finally arrived in the himalayas.

The next day we ate a private lake-side breakfast at Gusto that included fried eggs, hashbrowns, toast and milk-tea. After, the boys and I decided to rent motorcycles and explore the sunlit mountians of the Pokhara region. I saddled up behind Dan on his Yamaha Fazer, while Justin, who couldn't work the gears on a manual transmission, selected a mighty Honda scooter, we headed north towards the mountains.

On our way to find petrol we caught sight of what we had been waiting to see. The foreboding peaks of the famed Annapurna range strentching out in the north and towering an impressive 8,000+ meters. Encouraged by the sight we dropped our plans of checking out a few local museums in favor of the Sarangkot route that would take us up 1,000m to a lookout over the snowy Annapurna peaks.

We had a blast on the bikes. The road was narrow and cliffs sharply dropped on alternating sides as we ascended. As the grade increased, the tiny engine in Justin's scooter started having a bit of trouble, and he ended up running it up much of the mountain while clutching the gas. Pretty soon the pavement stopped and the locals continually told us it was "not possible" to continue up the mountain, especially for Justin's scooter. But, noticing the locals descending on their motorbikes, we decided to continue upward.

The top of the Sarangkot lookout is well worth the trek up. It provides a fabulous view of both the Annapurna mountains as well as the Phewa lake. We also happened to pass by the launch sight for the 2007 World Paragliding Championships and watched as the sky filled with parachutes. The ride down was about a third of the length of the ascent as we bombed back down the mountain.

In subsequent days we explored the outskirts of Pokhara. We visited a Tibetan village where we unsuccessfully tried to ford a river on our motorbikes, checked out the Devi's falls waterfall named after a couple who drowned in its sink hole, and hiked up to the World Peace Pagoda perched on a hill overlooking the city of Pokhara. At night we sampled our first taste of Nepalese cuisine on the waterfront, including scrumptious water buffalo steaks with locally brewed rice wine. We fell in love with the staple dish in Nepal, Momo's, which are spicy little dumplings filled with meat or veggies.

Arriving in the friend, laid back, slow moving city of Pokhara was a much needed change of pace from the constant antics of India. The people were smiley and polite, the air was clean, and the streets were quiet. Next stop, Kathmandu.