Whether you like adrenaline, beautiful scenery or to just chill out, Pokhara has it all. These are some of the activities we did in the weekends.

 

Rafting

Water activities is a speciality of Nepal and particularly Pokhara. Canoeing, canyoning, swimming in the river and rafting are amongst the possibilities. Seven of us decided to go rafting one Sunday. This was one of the best experiences I had in Nepal! I have done rafting once in Norway in Sjoa, but this was absolutely amazing. It’s around one and a half hour, and you get to jump from a small cliff (3-4m) and go swimming halfway through. Very exciting and the water is nice and cold. The river is quite fast many places and (spoiler) you’ll get wet when you crash down some of the most heavy parts, so wear suitable clothes and maybe bring something to change into. We ordered it with the travel agency below OR2K opposite to the grocery shop, for around 5000 Rupees. TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Paragliding

This is one of the things you will want to do already from day one. Reason: every single day there are hundreds of paragliders jumping off the hill of Sarangkot and floating around in the air above the hill and the lake. This view will definitely tempt you to try it out. Originally, I didn’t feel the need to do it, but a friend who visited managed to convince me, and the daily sight of the paragliders made me more and more keen to test my flying skills.  While it’s probably one of the more expensive activities, it’s a fraction of the Norwegian prices. I paid 8000,- rupees for my 25 minutes in the air. It was a wonderful feeling! Not the “panic” you get from a free fall, but a chill, floating feeling, like a bird just sailing on the winds. If you want to “top” the experience, I would choose a clear day so the mountain tops are visible. Beautiful, beautiful view. Also it felt quite safe, although you might want to research a little to get a good company.

 

 

 

Scooter to Sarangkot

Another mountain view activity is to go to the top of Sarangkot and see the sunrise. This is not too expensive and the experience is definitely worth it! Our trip was a quite spontaneous, but I would recommend to plan it a little bit, so that you remember your camera and such. We rented scooters – in the beginning it was a strange and scary to maneuver in the left-side and chaotic traffic, but you get used to the strangest things. The way up to Sarangkot was not very trafficked and scooters aren’t too hard to drive, so we just tried to be careful. The plan was to drive down again after we reached the top, however we got hungry, decided to order food and by the time it was ready, there was no daylight left. To not take any more risks than necessary, we thought we should stay the night and surprisingly the cute restaurant turned out to have rooms for 1000,- rupee a night. In the morning we climbed to the top of the hill, had a cup of masala chai and witnessed the sun slowly slowly color the mountain peaks gold. We got back just in time for classes.

Begnas Lake

The previous bloggers described this activity perfectly, so all I will say is that we did exactly what they told us too and it turned out very nice. Seasonal comment: we found that the water in the beginning of september was still too hot to cool you down properly. So our solution was the next activity.

 

Shangri-La Hotel

This hotel is a dream come true. When you are tired of school, reading, heat, a covering dress code and not-so-western standards, go to this place. Shangri-La is only 15 minutes with taxi from Tuki hotel and costs 1000,- rupee. The pool here is big and the water cools you down perfectly. To get sunbeds – and the most out of the day – an early arrival can be smart (around 10-11am). Towels are free and for 600,- rupees extra you get a three course lunch (which is delicious). The time we went after the trekking was really great, because then we got a massage as well (a little too expensive though). We spent many weekends here to chat, unwind and get a tan.

If none of these places temps you there are plenty of other activities to do in Pokhara in the weekends, so just do some research and be creative!

 

~ Love, Marit ~