 |
| Pokhara Paragliders |
After the bus ride from hell, I was out of commission with a high fever requiring us to stay put for at least five days. Our original idea of trekking was out, at least for the moment. Once safely in Pokhara though, we were pleasantly surprised to find that there is much more to do in Nepal than just trek from tea house to tea house and circumambulate stupas until dizzy.
Pokhara is a lake town best known for its proximity to the Annapurna trail and a host of other epic treks—if you want to trek, this is the place to do it. Besides hiking, however, it offers a host of other outdoor activities, including paragliding, white water rafting and canyoning. Now being sick doesn’t mean I was dead—surrounded by all this was making me a bit antsy. After a few days, we thus decided to get a better view of the lake and go paragliding. Totally worth it.
 |
| What fever? |
For those not familiar with it, paragliding is a rather young sport—imagine what would happen if a parachute and hang glider had babies. Yeah, it’s something like that. You basically strap a parachute-looking glider on and run down a hill until the wind gives enough lift to glide away.
 |
| Akemi in flight |
For the non-thrill seekers, the takeoff isn’t scary at all, and you even have a nice little seat for the whole ride. Like with skydiving, they will normally make you ride tandem with an experienced pilot the first few times, so no training necessary. Skilled pilots good at catching the slipstreams can get higher and stay up for hours, but rides here lasted about 30 minutes.
For the thrill seekers, they got you covered, too. Pilots will often do some funky little tricks on the way down if you ask. Akemi’s pilot was way better than mine though, so it may pay to be picky with your pilot.
 |
| Bird's eye view of terraced fields |
While the tricks are nice as a side attraction, the real draw here is the spectacular views you get from thousands of meters off the ground. This was easily the best view in town—our senses were overloaded with an epic 360-degree bird’s eye view of the lake, rivers, hills and mountains.
 |
| Pokhara views, as nature intended them |
Paragliding is more common in places with steep hills—we’ve now seen it in Pamukkale and Fethiye in Turkey in addition to Pokhara—so you’re guaranteed some once-in-a-lifetime views which are more than worth the price of admission.
Speaking of prices, a ride on a paraglider will normally run you around $60-80 for a 30-minute ride in Nepal (for Turkey, change that $ to a €). You might be able to negotiate yourself better rates in the off-season; we wound up flying for $50 a pop. There are plenty of companies in Pokhara, so shop around.
We opted out of it, but they’ll tack on a video and picture package for an additional $10-15 I think. If you don’t have a good camera, it’s definitely worth it.
And there you have it—Nepal is definitely one of the cheaper locations to offer paragliding, so if you’re there then definitely give it a look!
If you too choose to go dancing with the clouds above Pokhara, be sure to make a stop by our favorite restaurant in town, Pokhara Beach Club. Pokhara Beach Club is run by a rather interesting Canadian and Indian couple who cook everything themselves with nothing but fresh, organic ingredients. Best salad in town, guaranteed. It’s a little bit out of the way when coming from town, but is located just a short walk down the hill from the glider landing zone.
After jumping off a mountain and recovering a bit more, our next stop was the Nepali capital, Kathmandu. More on that next time, and check the Flickr account for more Pokhara pics!
Pokhara Paragliding Pvt. Ltd.
+977 61-460260
+977 98-1515-5343
Nice information. Paragliding in Nepal is one of the best place for paragliding.
ReplyDelete