Pokhara one of the wish list of every traveler who visits Nepal. Not only foreigner but for a Nepali, Pokhara has always attracted people. What is so unique about Pokhara? Why people wish to come there and spend their time even though everything has become so commercialized?
I think it is because Pokhara offers you everything from entertainment to natural beauty. As far as I know, Pokhara is the pathway to different superb places like Ghandruk, Dhampus, Mardi, Annapurna Base Camp, Jomsom, and many others. Through Pokhara, we can travel to Sikles, Begnas Lake, Rupa Lake featuring different site seeing. This could also be another reason that many travelers visit Pokhara, as it stands as the junction between different traveling destinations.
Many people love traveling because it adds joy to life. Just like different ingredients make food so delicious, traveling to various unknown places makes life more beautiful. Besides busy schedules, people often enjoy traveling putting the work related affair apart.
Likely this, 3 days trip taking you to the height of 4,130 meters would be quite marvelous. Yes, Annapurna Base Camp via flyway from helicopter adds you to the daring adventure of life. Traveling via air, trekking destination which almost takes 4-5 days to reach ABC from trekking trials and route which could be reached around 20 minutes by helicopter is quite fascinating.
It is, of course, a real piece of life time adventure which requires courage, time and almost some handsome cash on hand.
For the people who have limited time but want to enjoy the Himalayas, this 3 days trip to Pokhara via ABC will definitely add you to the moments you are seeking in life. It’s not the tour package that may be booked by the travel and tour company but it can be called the self made a travel plan to enjoy the beauty of Nepal.
Starting the journey with the domestic flight to Pokhara via air transport from Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) would be fine as it saves time to travel via buses or local transport. The wow factor was that the destination Pokhara could be reached within the time interval of around 25 minutes.
After reaching Pokhara, finding a suitable hotel according to your needs is the other necessity. Once the hotel is booked, it is safe for any traveler so that they can leave their backpack, eat something, freshen up and go out to explore the beautiful city Pokhara.
There are many places for sightseeing in this city. So hiring scooters or motorbikes would be very helpful. There are local microbuses which will take you to your destination. But it consumes time and we won’t be certain when the next local bus passes by. There are many motorbikes hire centers around the Halanchowk area where the bikes could be hired. Once you hire the bike for hours, it will make you easier and comfortable so that you could visit the places which ever pop out in your mind.
Sarangkot, we have heard a lot about it. The paragliding destination and perhaps the best place to see the valley. It takes almost around 45 minutes to reach the place through motorbikes from Halachowk. People often come here to have an adventure, fly in the sky but apart from that, we felt sorry that the landing off place for paragliding was not made according to its standard level.
It looked quite risky to do the take off. The funny but bitter reality was that the local street dogs were running after the people who were about to take off from the paragliding spot. Is this the preparation of Visit Nepal 2020?
The next place to travel via scooter would be Begnas Lake. The pollution level seems like the same as that of Kathmandu but in most cases, natural beauty may overlap it. If you desire to do boating over there, arriving before the evening time would be a suitable option as the service stops after noon.
Begnas Lake is the heavenly place with an abundant number of birds. It can be experienced during the morning time where the whole of the place gives you different vibes. Though there are different medium to luxurious hotels around the Lake, there is also typical local home stay service offered by the local boat riders. They seem like trying to promote local tourism via local participation. They are trying to provide the hotel facilities inside their home.
But most of the travelers are unaware. It is good to spend money promoting local tourism as it will provide employment opportunities to the people who are the people of the particular community. So a small deal of communication with those boat riders would open the room about the services they offer and it will definitely minimize the cost with the new set of experience.
The hiring of scooters would help you in many ways like going to Rupa lake, Shanti Stupa, traveling around the city and many more. If you are at Pokhara, fly away to Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) would be the best adventure of life.
Nepal being the land of Himalayas, every people must take the step in the mountain for once in life. Among all, the helipad experience would be just awesome. Though, ABC is made to trek crossing, turning and completing different valleys.
But this helipad is also the hell of an experience. It requires luck, the suitable weather timing plus your holiday month you had planned to see the spectacular mountains via mountain flight.
It seems like a huge business for the helicopter companies during the trekking season as there are lots of tourists desperate to see the mountains and have the moment of their life. For around 20 minute helipad experience from Pokhara Airport to the ABC, it costs around 25K.
It might also differ according to different air companies. But it is completely commercialized. Once you experience it you won’t regret it as you will definitely have lifetime memories. Landing in the shadow of Annapurna Mountain with snow flying in the air, viewing the glaciers with Machapuchhare Mountain just ahead of you is definitely some thrilling and amazing experience.
Annapurna Base Camp is one of the mostly admired places in the world and it is in the lap of the 10th highest mountain Mount Annapurna which is 8,091m above the sea level. It is mostly popular for trekking. Every year it is estimated more than 50 thousand trekkers trek to the ABC region. The best trekking season stars from October to December and March to May.
ABC is also inside the Annapurna Conservation Area covering the total area of 7,629 sq.km. It is also equally rich in natural resources with abundant varieties of wild species which are rarest animals in the world like Blue Sheep, Himalayan Thar, Red Panda, Snow Leopard etc. This region is definitely one of the wonders of the world and the gift of nature.
Apart from the excess richness of natural beauty, recently this region was hit hard by an avalanche last January 2020 where Koreans with their local Nepal guides were missing. The incident took place in the trekking route between Deurali and Machapuchhare Base Camp due to bad weather and rainfall.
This region is quite a vulnerable zone so travelling here definitely requires guts and courage. Recently, Chartered helicopter services were banned inside the Annapurna Base Camp region. Annapurna Rural Municipality recently announced a plan to restrict helicopters from flying in the area but will however allow rescue helicopters to fly the area.
The reason behind it was the people of the region used to see Himalayan Monal, Ghoral and Kasturi in the village but due to the noise pollution caused by helicopters, they all are being chased away. And it’s true that it definitely has an impact upon the ecology of the region. The area being insanely commercialized is a fact that the people have to listen the whole day the noise of the flying planes if there are the appropriate weather and season.
But Visit Nepal 2020 being announced the people from the strategic level should implement certain plans and strategies in order to promote tourism in the region without hampering the eco -system benefitting the travelers and trekkers from around the world.
Annapurna region is definitely a wish list of every travel seekers and one time visit zone. There are many such types of regions in the country that should be promoted not only targeting the Visit Nepal banner but by encouraging local tourism.
The Covid-19 had seriously damaged the tourism area with Nepal losing the tourist of the world. Let’s hope that these disaster would end soon and those touristic areas would be revived again.
Namaste 🙏🙏🙏 