Overwhelmed to Okay - Taking to the Nepalese Sky

For the first couple of days, I was having real problems being here. I was unsettled, angry and irrationally scared of everything. No common context was here for me, other than having a travel companion, but even he isn't someone that acts as an anchor for me. I think that the feeling is slowly passing, though. I'm more comfortable with the strangeness, especially having seen some patterns in the way the locals behave, and in the pulse of things around me. The streets which were crowded and filthy in the afternoon are broad, quiet and clean in the 5am darkness. The once imposing tiny storefronts harshly lit with a bare bulb and having 10 people loitering about, are now friendly, family businesses with a floor they keep clean, a well-stocked fridge, and a curiousity about who I am and what I think of their country. Its not so bad. Different and strange at times, but certainly not as threatening as I first felt. I may not have an anchor here, but I'm getting okay with being able to drift with the current a little bit.


We had a relatively normal wakeup call today, although it was still too early for my tastes - I was in a bit of an ambien-induced haze for a while. (I hadn't slept well for a couple of days) Our excursion with our guide and our new Pokhara-based car driver was to Begnas lake, a quick stop before doing our adventures in the air. The drive to the lake was about 30 minutes, and our tour of the lake was aboard a small wooden boat with a 17-year-old girl at the paddle. It was a piece of work for her, I'm sure, paddling 3 men across the lake and then hiking up the hill with us. She and our guide got along well, and their nepalese banter was almost hypnotic along with the sound of the paddling and the warmth of the sun. I could have easily dozed off, but with a slow leak in the boat, I was a bit wary of getting my stuff wet. The lake would have been ideal for waterskiing, but the only motorboat available belongs to the royal family, and while our guide is good, he's not that good.
When we finished the boat trip, we got a call that our paragliding had been postponed. While the weather here is mild and warm, the overcast conditions don't allow the thermals to form which are necessary for the gliding. We had lunch, and after lunch the word came that the gliding was off for today - though there's a chance it might be on tomorrow. To kill the time prior to our ultra-light flight, we went to a rooftop cafe for some tea and beer and dessert, and I knocked out a round of post-cards. Maybe they'll beat me to the states, but I'm not holding my breath.


Getting to the "Avia Club" at the Pokhara airport for our ultra-light flight was interesting. Our driver wasn't allowed in the parking lot without a ticket, so he had to determine how to drop us off first. Once we got there, there was an issue of the airport tax to be paid. That got handled. Next was getting us to the hanger where the ultralights were stored. We got to go through security, which consisted of a line for women, and a line for men to a little curtained off area for each gender: no machines here, just a good old-fashioned feel-up. Having cleared security, we got to go through the departure lounge, and walk on down the taxiway to their hanger. Just 1 ultra-light was being run, and I got to go first. I was suited up with snow pants, a coat, scarf, head-liner, helmet and gloves, and moments thereafter I was in this tiny scooter-sized machine taxiing toward the runway. In these ultra-lights, the pilot controls the flight surface with a rod attached directly to it, and it seemed effortless when he tilted it at speed and the ground dropped away. The flight was outstanding, heading first out over Begnas lake, where we were earlier, and along the foothills of the cloud-wrapped himalayas. Only one snow-covered peak was visible for a while during our ascent. Above 2000 meters, the air whipping by was cold and chilled my exposed chin. When I didn't have the windscreen on my helmet down, pulling in a breath felt forced. After a while of flying over Begnas and the east part of the mountains, he descended a bit and the air was warmer and it was exhilarating soaring above the villages. At one point while heading north, we had sight of a rainbow off the wing as the clouds around the mountains opened up. Our flight went from the north part back toward Pokhara, around Sarangkot, where we had seen the sunrise, and then over the lake, where an eagle was flying around with us abover the water, and then the Shanti Stupa. Plenty of photos, as well as a video. The flight was about an hour, and when we pulled back into the hanger, Franz was suited up and ready for his flight after the craft refuelled. He came back just as excited as I think I was from the flight. As we were wrapping up money and photos, the sun set against the Annapurnas, and the clouds were breaking. Unfortunately, the tower was closed, so there wasn't going to be another flight up there to see it, at least today.
Tomorrow we're going to try for the gliding again in the morning, but if its cloudy again, we've got a tourist stop to make near Gorka on the way back to Kathmandu. We're going back there for a night prior to going into the mountains.


Watching CNN international, I just realized that although I voted already, I probably won't know the outcome of the elections until the 16th at the earliest, unless we encounter someone in Sagramatha that knows. We're trekking from the 5th through to the 16th.


TV from India is hilarious, especially the pop-up video spin-off on MTV-India called Piddhu the Great. I don't understand it, but can tell they're playing with the language, with the mix of hindi and English in the pop-ups. The dancing is over the top.