OzBus 14

The morning starts early for me and Liam.  First on the agenda is an Ultra-lite flight (Liam and I are the only ones that booked to do it), then moving on to a paragliding session, all before lunch.  For those that don’t know, ultra-lite is basically a small, egg-shaped, pod-like seat for two attached to the bottom of a glider with a huge fan-like enclosed propeller stuck on the back. 

The flight was for one hour over the lake and surrounding city, leaving from the airport situated a short taxi ride away.  Upon arriving at the airport, Liam and I stumbled around like lost tourists looking for our ‘departure gate’.  Once we found where we needed to go, we walk out of the airport toward a hangar at the far end of the runway.  As we get there, we see the previous flight land.  Small, unstable looking and a loud buzzing sound was the first impression we both had of our aircraft. 

We head into the hangar to sign some forms and put on some extra clothing.  The weather was bright with little wind and even less cloud, but they provide us with thick, large, bright coloured jumpsuits, gloves and a helmet all the same.  I was only wearing slippers and thought this was enough.  I was wrong.  As I clamber into my flying pod using a small set of wooden steps, I notice a ‘flight attendant’ attaching a camera to the end of the wing, but I imagined the pictures wouldn’t be worthy of purchase.  We taxi out to the runway, he does his pre-flight checks and then it’s all go!  The propeller, only inches away from the back of my seat, starts whirring frantically and deafeningly.  Before I knew it, we’re off the ground.  The pod is cosy to say the least, with the pilot’s back so close that I could wrap my arms around him without leaving the safety of my harness.  The sides of the pod are so low to my side that my thighs overhang.  Higher and higher we go, with the occasional gust of wind shaking everything around me and tilting us one way to the other.  Despite all this, it’s hard to ignore the stunning view of both the mountain range and the city below.  After a while, you even manage to block out the constant purr of the prop.  As we reach our highest altitude, my pilot, Alexander, cut the prop and we just glided, circling around the mountain range.  Unparalleled views with sun behind us, I nervously got my camera out and took as many pictures as possible.  Then, Alexander would tap me on the knee (which was nestled securely behind his shoulders) and point towards the tip of the wing where the camera was located.  With a click of a button, a picture was taken of me, with full view of both our pod and the range behind us.  As we come to land, prop buzzing away, a sense of euphoria engulfs me and the smile, despite being only 8am, was a mark of a satisfying day.  In the end, I decide to buy the photos – five pictures for 30USD, what a jip.

Next on the list was paragliding.  For those that don’t know, paragliding is launching yourself off the side of a steep incline (in this case, the side of a mountain) with a deployed parachute in tow, guiding yourself around and using vertical drafts (or air pockets as they can be known) for lift.  I had booked for an hour flight, while the rest of the group participating booked only thirty minutes.  Because of this, my scheduled “flight” was going to be a couple of hours after everyone else’s.  I go back to the hotel to have a little clean up of my bag and get picked up via mini bus and taken to the paragliding office.  From there I hop onto another minibus, this time filled with the people doing the same thing as me.  Once we arrive to the launch site, our pilots start to unload their equipment.  Onil was my pilot.  He was born and raised in Nepal, one of the few Para gliders originally from the region.  After a small introduction he talks me through what is about to happen.  Basically, run till your feet can’t touch the ground, then sit back and hold on.  It’s pretty difficult to explain what happened next unless you know the feeling, so I won’t try.  A few tricks and some high altitude photography later, we land at the landing point where we’re treated to a complimentary drink.  My choice?  Heineken.  My flight was only thirty minutes because Onil forgot about the agreement, but it was all sorted out in the office once we got back.

When we arrived back in the office, I find Liam there waiting for his pictures to be put onto a CD from his flight.  We get to talking and decide that we should go for lunch.  We head out for a walk to get some food, occasionally passing others from the group who we hadn’t seen since the night before.  After lunch we decide to get lost and walk around town.  Pokaha, being so high up from sea level and having its own very impressive mountain range, has the highest amount of rainfall in Nepal.  As we were getting lost, we experience this precipitation.  A huge downpour covers the land we had just walked across as we scurry into a local bar.  Once there, we figure the rain won’t stop for a while (4-5 hours it turned out) so we might as well get a drink.  There’s nothing more relaxing than a bottle of whiskey and rain on a tin roof.  After we finish the drink, the weather lets up and we head out to have some dinner.  Tomorrow is another sunrise start, so we call it a night.

Our bus journey for this morning was longer than our maiden voyage in the country, but nothing too far from what we were already used to.  The main difference between this bus journey and the rest so far is not the time or distance travelled.  It’s the altitude.  1000m above sea level.  For me, it was a very exciting and enticing place as the vast majority of high adrenaline activities on the trip revolved around this city (3rd largest in Nepal, in case you wanted to know).  Our leader informs us about the hotel we will be staying in, Hotel Lake View.  Walking distance from the lake, it was contending for best hotel on the trip.  Once we got there, we could see why.

The journey was winding and slow.  In spite of this, it was amazing.  Rice fields scattered on mountain sides, seemingly plateaued at a time long before we could envisage- the kind of period where the Empire was still around and everyone drank tea from fine china table sets.  Clear blue skies, mountain ranges, warm sunrays and the wind in your hair – the ultimate road journey.

As we pull into the city, we’re all giddy and excited like school children.  The lake, a dominating and daunting aspect of the part we were staying in, seemed to continue endlessly.  Hotel after hotel we passed, betting to see which once would be ours, all the while awestruck by how different it seemed from Chitwan.  Eventually we roll up to our hotel and, as stated on the tin, the lake was a stones throw away, literally only needing to cross the road to be at the waters edge (albeit elevated by about 10 metres).

Just like giddy school kids, we all cannot wait to go for a roam in our new home away from home.  First stop, food.  Now, the food on the trip so far has been amazingly diverse and culturally enlightening.  That heightened sense of culture and diversity suddenly went out of the oz bus window when I walked into a restaurant on the high street – they served bacon….  Bacon!  This giddy, excited school kid was now jacked up like he’d drunk a glass of triple chocolate milkshake, eaten three chocolate bars and was sucking on a lolly covered in candy floss.  The significance of this find?  Such meat hadn’t passed my eyes, let alone my taste buds, for over two months (most of which was on our trip).  Throw in a rum and coke, a balcony with table and parasol and a front row seat to a football game between some local groups and it’s an intoxicating cocktail of ecstasy.

Dinner was at the hotel and outdoors.  Like Chitwan, it was a buffet service.  And, like Chitwan, there was entertainment in the form of dance and song.  The night was capped off with a healthy dosage of drinking before retiring.  The morning sees the start to my action packed, adrenaline fueled, activity crammed morning.  Nepal was getting better by the minute.

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