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Saturday 26 January 2019

My Nepal Trip Part 12: Bicycling In Pokhara


We finished our day tour rather early during one of our days spent in Pokhara. While the other 5 in my group chose to go shopping, I decided to rent a bicycle instead hoping to explore every nook and cranny of the city.  
Nabin Gurung, the agent who arranged our transportation for this Nepal trip (and who had followed us to Pokhara from Kathmandu for some of his personal business matter) decided to join me for this "bicycling" expedition, much to my delight.
There are probably a number of places where you can rent bicycles in Pokhara. We went to the one nearest my hotel. If not mistaken the shop is called D.N. Bicycle For Rent and the rate was 300 rupees for 2 hours. We chose our bicycles, were given the locks and off we went. 
Having Nabin around was a good thing as he was constantly watching out for me. He said he would be following me to every place I wanted to go and that was indeed sweet of him.
The first place I visited was the boat station that is located further away from the hub of the city (there are 2 boat stations in Pokhara) as I have passed the place several times on the van and it looked very charming from afar. 
Unlike the main boat station which is often crowded with people, this spot looks serene and offers a calming sight for great photography of Phewa Lake. 

There are two parks towards the southern shore of Phewa lake which I was eager to visit. Basundhara Park and Miteri Park were however a big let down as they have been neglected and overgrown with unsightly weeds and plants. We left that place and headed north by cycling the entire length of the main lake shore road. That was when Nabin suggested we visited Pame Village which is located north beyond that road.

The cycling trip was very tedious as towards the edge of the city, the road was mostly going uphill. On top of that the good tarred stretch of Pokhara road ended and we had to cycle on very bad laterite road filled with gravels. On a few occasion I had to stop to take a breather.

The journey into the village seemed endless and having to cycle on an uphill bumpy road was a backside paining experience for me. Yet my personal mission was to reach the village and return. The only consolation was the sight of beautiful scenery along the way.

Below are some remarkable snapshots of the village panorama.








Nearing the village, we walked into the paddy field where three young boys were having a gala time with a traditional village swing. They welcomed me to try it out and it was a unique experience indeed. The seat is very high and you will need to spring yourself up. It also requires someone to push you from behind  for the momentum.


A pose with my little friends who got my swing going. 
I made it to the village which appeared mundane in comparison with the alluring views of its surrounds. The thought of cycling more than 10 km back to the city was dreadful but what needed to be completed had to be completed. We exceeded our bicycle rental time by more than an hour but thanks to Nabin who persuaded the proprietor the extra charges were waived.

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