Today at breakfast, Suman the hostel owner planned a day trip for everyone up to the World Peace Pagoda and over to Devi's Fall and a more local unknown waterfall nicknamed Powerhouse Falls as it was near the dam apparently, further away.
So we went to yoga first which was way more active than yesterdays and then we got ready for the trip which we were setting out for about midday.
Our guide was the local nepalese guy who had travelled with the Australians to Pokhara. They had met him at their hostel in Kathmandu and took him under their wing. They had come out with money from their DJing and record company and doing lots of goodwill things like helpong build schoola, provide equipment for the schools, clothes for street children etc and Sunil had never left Nepal, it was his dream to see the ocean. So they decided, as they were headed back to India for some more goodwill trips they would buy his ticket and take him with them, stopping at some important religious areas for him along the way as they were riding motorbikes down to Kerala. And there they would introduce him to the ocean! Such cool guys and doing it out of their own money which was awesome!
So Sunil knew Pokhara semi-well and we went to go hire out boats as the most popular way is to cross the river and hike up from the other side. It was a calm and quiet boat ride, with the occasional tip of the boat but luckily we never fell in. We hired 3 boats for 1500 rupees one way so it worked out around 160 each so like a pound!
Once we got to the other side we started our climb - and I had to keep up my Asia tradition of climbing in flip flops - which probably wasn't the wisest idea as they broke after about 10mins of climbing! And so did most of the way up barefoot! They were steep rocky stairs with the occasional dirt path so it wasn't ideal but I did it with no injuries or leeches which is good. We also took a slight wrong turn so went about 15mins out of our way and ended up in a very local cluster of hilltop houses so after asking for directions got back on track again. It was a very hard hike, it was the heat of the day, stupidly humid and even though trees offered some shade it didn't make much difference! The view from halfway up was pretty awesome though so we stopped to appreciate the view, rest a little and grabbed drinks/snacks to fuel our final leg up. It took us around an hour and a half in the end with the slight detour.
Upon reaching the Peace Pagoda we were all out of breath, sweaty betties! I think you could call it a sweat shower. The views were pretty stunning though, you could see 360 degrees off the mountain, into Pokhara, the Lake, Sarangot, the mountains behind. The Peacw Pagoda itself was lovely but nothing special, I think its mainly to take in the stunning views.
We then headed up to a restaurant on the mountain and most people ordered the same food as we didn't want a repeat of last night haha. I just had porridge as the breakfast today had been savoury so I needed some sugar and carbs for the rest of our hike.
Then we started down the mountain to find the waterfalls. Now usually you would expect the waterfalls to be on the mountain right? Well we went down and down and down, steep stairs again, with broken flip flops again, losing the boys and having to navigate the right direction. But we came across no waterfalls. So onto the street in Pokhara we went. And me Bart and Maren had a guess as to whether that was it or if we were going somewhere else. Well we caught up to the guys eventually and turns out we were going to some cave first. So off we went, got our tickets and on the outside it looks prettt impressive, down lots of steps again and towards...a tiny little shrine inside, that was it! We all felt a bit bummed as we then had to hike up the steps again to get out and by now most people were over it. But wait! Thats not it, we then crossed the street further down and continued to Devi's falls which was a waterfall but not one you could swim in, again it was very touristy but it was kinda cool as it went through a gorge and canyon. After this we all thought that was it and we were headed back on a long walk to lakeside, and that we would just have to give up on a swim at that amazing waterfall we had been promised! It was a looong walk, like an hour, and we were headed somewhere but we weren't sure where. The closer we got the more tired everyone was and the more local it got. We went through little villages, rice paddies etc it was pretty cool, the kids were running out to get a look of these crazy white people walking past. But then we realised....heaven forbid we had made it to our amazing waterfalls...and there were only a few steps.
Until you took those steps and got to the next part and you saw a huge, fuckass vertical drop of hundreds of steps down, by which point me and Juliette literally stopped and were like, holy shit...really?! It was scary, big steps with a sheer drop. Locals were running up and down them...we were clinging on for dear life and getting laughed at in the process!
We then had a little walk round some grassy area and hallelujah - we had made it, only took us 5 hours though didn't it?!
So we had a nice hour of swimming (some getting caught in the downstream current and rapids) took some photos and chilled for a bit before we had to start heading back beforw it got dark.
One thing none of us were lookong forward to were those steps again...it was virtually suicidal! So up we started, i thought they were big going down but going up was like giant strides. We had to keep stopping for a rest and again get laughed at by the locals watching these silly, unfit tourists try and climb them! Eventually we made it up and started the long walk back, with a pleasant view of Fishtail mountain which popped its head above the clouds for a breif moment.
By the time we made it to the main road it was getting dark and we were all exhausted, and not too thrilled about a further 30-45min walk back to the hostel so insteas we got 3 taxi's back at around 100 each (they had begun hiking the pricea up due to the India and Nepal border issues, which were creating fuel and food shortages. But it was still cheap and we didn't care so long as we weren't walking anymore.
We gor back and Suman our hostel owner had organised a MoMo making night, which we got back too late to make them but everyone else had got them ready so all we had to do was grab a plate and eat them! Suits us well as no one could be bothered to make and cook our own food that evening! So we ate them, chatted to the new arrivals, everyday there are new arrivals at the hostel its great, just a shame most only stay a couple of days.
Sudan had got back from his trek and was staying at the same place so I caught up with him and then had a shower and an early night as I was knackered!
So we went to yoga first which was way more active than yesterdays and then we got ready for the trip which we were setting out for about midday.
Our guide was the local nepalese guy who had travelled with the Australians to Pokhara. They had met him at their hostel in Kathmandu and took him under their wing. They had come out with money from their DJing and record company and doing lots of goodwill things like helpong build schoola, provide equipment for the schools, clothes for street children etc and Sunil had never left Nepal, it was his dream to see the ocean. So they decided, as they were headed back to India for some more goodwill trips they would buy his ticket and take him with them, stopping at some important religious areas for him along the way as they were riding motorbikes down to Kerala. And there they would introduce him to the ocean! Such cool guys and doing it out of their own money which was awesome!
So Sunil knew Pokhara semi-well and we went to go hire out boats as the most popular way is to cross the river and hike up from the other side. It was a calm and quiet boat ride, with the occasional tip of the boat but luckily we never fell in. We hired 3 boats for 1500 rupees one way so it worked out around 160 each so like a pound!
Once we got to the other side we started our climb - and I had to keep up my Asia tradition of climbing in flip flops - which probably wasn't the wisest idea as they broke after about 10mins of climbing! And so did most of the way up barefoot! They were steep rocky stairs with the occasional dirt path so it wasn't ideal but I did it with no injuries or leeches which is good. We also took a slight wrong turn so went about 15mins out of our way and ended up in a very local cluster of hilltop houses so after asking for directions got back on track again. It was a very hard hike, it was the heat of the day, stupidly humid and even though trees offered some shade it didn't make much difference! The view from halfway up was pretty awesome though so we stopped to appreciate the view, rest a little and grabbed drinks/snacks to fuel our final leg up. It took us around an hour and a half in the end with the slight detour.
Upon reaching the Peace Pagoda we were all out of breath, sweaty betties! I think you could call it a sweat shower. The views were pretty stunning though, you could see 360 degrees off the mountain, into Pokhara, the Lake, Sarangot, the mountains behind. The Peacw Pagoda itself was lovely but nothing special, I think its mainly to take in the stunning views.
We then headed up to a restaurant on the mountain and most people ordered the same food as we didn't want a repeat of last night haha. I just had porridge as the breakfast today had been savoury so I needed some sugar and carbs for the rest of our hike.
Then we started down the mountain to find the waterfalls. Now usually you would expect the waterfalls to be on the mountain right? Well we went down and down and down, steep stairs again, with broken flip flops again, losing the boys and having to navigate the right direction. But we came across no waterfalls. So onto the street in Pokhara we went. And me Bart and Maren had a guess as to whether that was it or if we were going somewhere else. Well we caught up to the guys eventually and turns out we were going to some cave first. So off we went, got our tickets and on the outside it looks prettt impressive, down lots of steps again and towards...a tiny little shrine inside, that was it! We all felt a bit bummed as we then had to hike up the steps again to get out and by now most people were over it. But wait! Thats not it, we then crossed the street further down and continued to Devi's falls which was a waterfall but not one you could swim in, again it was very touristy but it was kinda cool as it went through a gorge and canyon. After this we all thought that was it and we were headed back on a long walk to lakeside, and that we would just have to give up on a swim at that amazing waterfall we had been promised! It was a looong walk, like an hour, and we were headed somewhere but we weren't sure where. The closer we got the more tired everyone was and the more local it got. We went through little villages, rice paddies etc it was pretty cool, the kids were running out to get a look of these crazy white people walking past. But then we realised....heaven forbid we had made it to our amazing waterfalls...and there were only a few steps.
Until you took those steps and got to the next part and you saw a huge, fuckass vertical drop of hundreds of steps down, by which point me and Juliette literally stopped and were like, holy shit...really?! It was scary, big steps with a sheer drop. Locals were running up and down them...we were clinging on for dear life and getting laughed at in the process!
We then had a little walk round some grassy area and hallelujah - we had made it, only took us 5 hours though didn't it?!
So we had a nice hour of swimming (some getting caught in the downstream current and rapids) took some photos and chilled for a bit before we had to start heading back beforw it got dark.
One thing none of us were lookong forward to were those steps again...it was virtually suicidal! So up we started, i thought they were big going down but going up was like giant strides. We had to keep stopping for a rest and again get laughed at by the locals watching these silly, unfit tourists try and climb them! Eventually we made it up and started the long walk back, with a pleasant view of Fishtail mountain which popped its head above the clouds for a breif moment.
By the time we made it to the main road it was getting dark and we were all exhausted, and not too thrilled about a further 30-45min walk back to the hostel so insteas we got 3 taxi's back at around 100 each (they had begun hiking the pricea up due to the India and Nepal border issues, which were creating fuel and food shortages. But it was still cheap and we didn't care so long as we weren't walking anymore.
We gor back and Suman our hostel owner had organised a MoMo making night, which we got back too late to make them but everyone else had got them ready so all we had to do was grab a plate and eat them! Suits us well as no one could be bothered to make and cook our own food that evening! So we ate them, chatted to the new arrivals, everyday there are new arrivals at the hostel its great, just a shame most only stay a couple of days.
Sudan had got back from his trek and was staying at the same place so I caught up with him and then had a shower and an early night as I was knackered!
Buy yourself some tennis shoes love!! We don't need you getting hurt on another adventure abroad, haha :)
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