Pokhara, Holi & Kayak Clinic

Would you believe that only 8 days after postage that our ‘small package’ actually made it safely back home!!!!  Very impressed with the Nepali post system! 

After our trek we had a whole week of relaxation in Pokhara.  In the middle of this week was Holi.  A crazy festival celebrating water and colour before the start of monsoon season.  It involves lots of excited locals, music, parades and people saying ‘happy Holi’ before slapping some coloured powder on you or squirting you with a water gun!  We got coated in mostly red powder (see flickr photos!) as they seem to give westerners ‘special attention!’  That week we also did a little sight seeing to Devis Falls and the Bat Cave (thousands of bats of the ceiling – was very cool!)

The Kayak Clinic began on the lake in Pokhara; here they teach you the basics – paddling in a straight line (surprisingly tricky!), doing turns, self rescue, team rescue and Eskimo roll.  We have never swallowed so much water in our lives practicing all the techniques!  I really needed a nose peg and by the end of day we were exhausted and left wondering how we’d do it for another 3 days on a river!

Day 2 came and we set off on our Lower Seti River adventure.  I must say at this point that we had a brilliant group - mostly because they might all read this! Hehe.  We were separated into 3 groups for when we did rapids; The A Team was Chris, Shereen & Andrew; Group 2 was Kat & Dr Jim and Group 3 was Michael, Will & Jess; we all bonded in that English way of banter and competitiveness that kept us going through the 4 days!  This was also a day of learning – high&low press, eddy in and out of currents and getting through (or not in my case) the rapids.  Mostly grade 1-2 to start with which Chris sailed through and managed independent Eskimo Rolls, I struggled and really hated the first morning.  But the food and the camp cheered me up!

Day 3 slightly more relaxing to begin with and I didn’t total on every rapid so it was becoming more enjoyable!  The scenery is beautiful down the river Seti and it was nice to have time to take it in and appreciate the surroundings.  I learnt guitar roll too (easier version of Eskimo Roll) and even managed one all on my ownsome!  We both came out on a looooong grade 2+ which bloody hurt due to the shallow waters and the rocks!  Again camp was a welcome break and we had chips & pasta carbonara that night – lush!  Our last day and it was the big one – it was grade 3 day!  We had some warm up rapids and amazingly I stayed on board all day!  We had to get out and have a look at the grade 3 to decide whether we kayaked or got on the raft to clear it; I was almost wussing out for the raft when a bit of encouragement for the team made me go for the kayak!  Soooo scary but sooo amazing when we both got down it!!

It was 4 days of pushing ourselves physically (our muscles really ache now!)  But an amazing new experience; we made some really good friends; we’d recommend paddle Nepal to anyone it was so well organised and we both cleared the grade 3 – WOOP! 

We’re back to Kathmandu now and preparing for China in 4 days – eek!  So excited!!

A Small Package!

It’s now been a month since we left the UK and yesterday we decided to buy some souvenirs of Nepal. Going elephant crazy we bought a small blue hand carved elephant and a very pretty elephant throw that might adorn our sofa when we return! We had already bought some woollen hats and gloves for our trek that we’ve become quite attached to so we thought today we’d find the local post office and send a package home.

Down some back streets and asking a few different locals we managed to locate the post office where we were told we’d need to find a box. “A box” we said “do you not sell a box that we could use?” “No, no” the woman replied “just ask around the nearby shops and they should be able to sell you a box”. Out the post office we went in search of a box asking at the shacks (which were the local shops) if they had a box we could buy. Naturally they all laughed at us and told us “no” they had no boxes to sell.

A helpful man understanding our plight suggested we head down to the fruit market on the corner of the street – at least we think that’s what he suggested! Down to the fruit market we wandered and we spied a lovely empty box of the finest imported Chinese Apples lying on the floor looking a bit dishevelled and a little bit like the rubbish that it was. We approached the proprietor of the fruit stand and asked if we could buy the box on the floor at his feet to send things back home with. He said we could have the box for free whilst laughing. Feeling that we at least owed him something we then bought 1 kilo of oranges from his store for 90 rupees.

Clutching the box in our hands we walked confidently back to the post office, proudly displaying to all the nearby shops that there are in fact boxes to be found (literally) on the streets of Pokhara. Upon entering the post office the woman smiled as if we had passed a test and asked how much we’d paid for the box and seemed very pleased when we explained we had gotten it for free but bought some oranges in return.

Souvenirs safely in the box we were then asked if we had our own tape to seal up the box. Unsurprisingly considering we hadn’t even thought to bring our own box we did not have any of our own tape with us. Luckily they let us use theirs (and we used a lot because the box looked like it was falling apart!). Kat was then asked to write the address and ‘a small package’ on the box. The now lumpy looking box ‘safely’ sealed up tight was then covered in (admittedly very pretty) stamps by the woman resulting in this (there are many more stamps on the other side!) –

Hopefully in 3 - 4 months this package might arrive back home...

Poon Hill & Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Summarising the trek isn’t easy but I’ll give it a go!  We saw some of the most beautiful scenery which seemed to change over a couple of hours of walking from grassy hills, to forest, to canyon, to river bed to snowy mountains.  We learnt to hate stone steps and must have gone up and down thousands of them over the eleven days!  Chris challenged himself by firstly trying to grow a beard (work in progress) and secondly by carrying the rucksack the whole way (massively appreciated by me!).  We coped with the altitude no problems, got up to base camp 2 days ahead of schedule, watched 3 avalanches, survived on a staple diet of daal bhat (rice, mild curry, lentils and pickles – and free second helpings!) and even found a place that did chocolate cake! 

There were a few stand out highlights of our trek; the first came very early on when we got the local bus to our start point at Nayapul – we missed our stop so the conductor put us on a school bus going the opposite way and then they put us on the top of another local bus to make it back to the start point!  Exciting but a little scary riding on top of a bus through the valleys! 

On day 3 we got to Poon Hill which gave us a beautiful view of the Annapurna Mountain Range and insight into how far we still had left to travel!  That evening we stayed in a small town called Ban Thanti, the only westerners there, they asked if we would donate towards their hydro-electricity project (they currently have no power) we agreed to part with a small donation (about £9) and the whole village came to thank us by singing and dancing.  They performed for over an hour and the only way to make the singing stop was to do a bit of dancing of our own much to their amusement!  We got given flower necklaces and although initially the experience was an awkward one, it’s now one of our fondest memories!

It was day 6 when we made it to Machhapuchhre Base Camp, through deep snow that came to my hip!  As we arrived the sky misted over and a blizzard came down, the fire under the table kept us warm that night!  The next day, amazingly it was a bright sunny morning up to Annapurna Base Camp, the fresh blanket of snow making it even more special.  We reached 4,130metres – it was beautiful and slightly overwhelming that we’d managed to get there under our own steam, a real achievement. 

We stopped at a natural hot springs on the way back down, which was a lovely way to complete the trek.  It is nice to be back in the same room in Pokhara, feels like home for the moment!  We have another 7 nights here before the kayaking course takes us towards Kathmandu. 

Lots of love K&C

Pokhara

Pokhara has a nice relaxed feeling to it. From our room we have a view of the Himalayas (if it’s not too cloudy!) a short walk down the road takes us to Lakeside which is the main tourist strip built next to Phewa Tal lake. It’s got all the shops you can find in Kathmandu but less of the hassle J

We’ve been taking it easy here to try and get over our colds but never ones to stay still for too long we have done a half-day hike up to the World Peace Pagoda which has a lovely view over the lake. We’ve rowed ourselves around the lake for a few hours, circling an interesting pagoda temple on an island in the lake. Two days ago we did another half-day trek up to Sarangkot (1500 metres up) which is another viewpoint where you can get panoramic views of Pokhara and the Himalayas. We stayed the night in the Sherpa Resort and watched a thunder storm from our room (which does boast views of the mountains in good weather!). Then yesterday we woke up at 5:30 to climb to the highest point in Sarangkot and watch the sun rise over the city and mountains. We then scrambled down via a different ‘route’ which cannot be found in the Lonely Planet guidebook. This took about half the time but did pass through various farmers fields!

We were planning to do the Annapurna circuit trek (3 weeks) but due to our colds we amended our route so we’re now doing the Annapurna Sanctuary trek including the Poon Hill detour basically this means it’s a shorter trek (around 2 weeks) and slightly less altitude to worry about. We should be starting that this Sunday so they’ll be no blog updates or photos added for those two weeks. Lots of mountain views to look forward to!

We have just booked on to do a 4 day Kayak clinic on 23^rd March which we’re both excited about then it’ll be back to Kathmandu and onwards to China.

Love C&K