Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Flying Pokhara and what else?
It was a long time since my last blog update, well, "long" in "normal / non-traveling" timescale, short if time just fly’s by, day by day.
What have I been up to, in summery:
-Flying
-Motor biking
-Flying
-Participate in the "Nepal 9th Open Paragliding Championship 2008
-Flying
-Being sick
-Visiting Bandipur
-Flying
-Rafting
-Flying...
All in all: Everyday busy - but without being able to say where the time has gone, time just slips, slides away.
Flying in Pokhara: It is a trap, a paraglide trap, designed to catch paragliders. Some paragliders arrive "just for a few days" and end up staying for months. Some of them have been here already 15-20 years ago and, of course, can tell about the old days ("...you should have been here 20 years ago, there was nothing, everybody became sick and the most important conversation was about stomach problems and the results of them....").
If I would not fly, Pokhara would bore me already after 2 days. However, it has a nice lake and is surrounded by several mountain ridges. The lake creates a micro climate which makes it the most time of the year more pleasant and warm than Katmandu. The lake and the mountain "Sirkot" is the main reason for the paragliders to stay here. Sirkot offers a good start point for cross country flying whilst at the same time the lake offers the opportunity for the acrobatic orientated pilots to train more safely above the lake. Compared with India, or some other parts of Nepal, it is easy, too easy, to stay here, offering good food, good flying and good people to meet up with.
Well, people, or better pilots: Some of them spend the European winter here, working for one of the 3 Paragliding companies as a Tandem-Pilot. Not such a bad job, staying in an easy going and cheap city, doing every day 1-3 Tandem flights. A Tandem flight costs the customer appr. 80 US$, of which the Tandem pilot gets 40US$, resulting in a 1.200 - 3.000 US$ tax free monthly income! And that’s in a city where accommodation costs are low as 2-3US$ a day and a full meal is sold for 1US$. Easy to fly, stay, eat and drink for around 5-10US$ a day. That’s the amount what I would usually spend for a breakfast in Munich, well, not full breakfast, only the Munich standard including one Cappuccino and Butterbrezeln. The one thing which might look like as it wouldn't go along so well with being a responsible tandem pilot is to start, continue and end the day with a self built tubular shaped cigarette. However, I fully trust them, would go flying as a passenger any time with them and in the air it feels way out more safe with expired tandem pilots than with some other international "would-like-to-be" pilots.
A common paraglide day starts not before 9, having breakfast and "checking" the weather (which stayed until the last days always the same: partially cloudy). Most Paragliders would drive up around 10-11am, wait until the thermal's start to work and would go on a cross-country flying.
It is a great feeling to fly close of the Anapurna range, directly in front of the Himalayan range. Some pilots manage to fly 100km, which is quite a distance in the Nepal terrain. However, I used to drive up with a few other paraglide pilots who would do Acrobatics above the lake. They would soar up as high as possible to arrive high above the lake just to train to spiral, loop, twist down, and land beside the lake, jump into a taxi to drive up again, 3-5 times a day. It takes almost 45-60 minutes from landing to re-start. With the small lightweight wing I can not do any acrobatics (besides the fact that the pilot wouldn’t be able to do it) and I can not do XC-flying. The wing is a toy machine and so I am flying close to the trees down doing wing-overs: 10min flying down, 10min to pack, 45min to drive up... and another great flying day just passed by, day by day, slipes slides away
For a few days somebody lend me a bigger wing. I used it on one day to participate on the "9th Nepal Open Paragliding Championship". Sure, I am not a competition pilot and the entry fee was more a donation for the local organization and pilots than anything else. There was no GPS record required, it was simply based on mutual trust of the pilots and was rather set up a fun contest.
I managed to start of with the "real" competitor pilots, finding myself almost with the leading pack on the turn around point. What a pity that after the turn around the wing was simply almost too big (it is always the wing - never the pilot :-) )to fly against the upcoming strong wind... so I ended up landing in the valley after my longest distance flight (well, I assume it was not more than 5 - 10 km) in Nepal.
Power shut down: Blink! It's dark again; all lights are out, no machines running anymore. Until some generators jump in or candles are lit and my eyes are still blended by the light bulbs, there is a short quite and dark moment. But everything is normal, normal and scheduled. Well, most of the time it is scheduled, but it is an Nepali schedule which is extended according to.... well, according to.... nobody knows exactly "according to what": There is a general power shortage in Nepal, therefore the government schedules power shut downs, app. 3-5 hours every day, but it can be as well more than that. Apparently in the dry season, there isn't enough water to produce enough electric power, 
and buying electric power from India is just too expensive and, well, would as well undermine the independence of the state Nepal. So, no power, sitting by candles light and drinking Chai tea. No power means as well that some Internet shops will shut down their business. Running a generator for power supply uses up app. 3-5 Liters petrol per hour. At a price of 60 Rupees per Liter, it costs 200-500 Rupees to run it for an hour while the travelers will pay app. 50 Rupees per hour for using the internet. Anything below 5,6,7,8 paying customers would barley cover the costs and so it is better to shut down too...
However, even the "quite" moment right after the power shut down is not quite at all. There is almost every time at least one car or motorbike pushing his crying warn-horn to make sure that passengers on the road are aware that a car or motorbike is coming and that it wont stop. Some drivers simply continuously pushing the horn while accelerating and speeding up to 80km/h right into the Lakeside main road where people rather would walk on the middle of the road than on the sideways. Even if it looks sometimes close, everybody takes care about the other and it works most of the times without accidents. Well, most of the times... but not always.
And there is the noise pollution of the traffic and also the air pollution. Driving behind a truck might become a real challenge as the exhaust smoke is sometimes so dark that it becomes almost impossible to see anything. And breathing becomes more a kind of gasping...
What’s next? Good question.
After becoming a "true traveler" in India :-) and after being on the treks in Nepal, I did what I originally planned to do. Staying more than a month in Pokhara only for flying was not planned but rather the result of the old traveling wisdom: Go with the flow.
O.k. but do I stay here until I will know where the flow will sweep me next month? I have no desire to go back to India yet, and even Pokhara is not representative for Nepal at all, I feel as well that my time in Nepal has come to an end. Some of the pilots I used to drive up for flying just left, other will go for trekking, so it feels like I am stranded and it is time to move on. To where? Mhhhhhh, Tibet is one option, but I do not feel that I have to go there, in Kashmir /Ladakh might be still to much snow, flying to Thailand for one month doesn't sound so bad either, as well I would not mind to fly to Australia... just for change, or I simply stay here and buy myself another paragliding wing as birthday present... and for sure, I will be back in India in March to meet up with my Parents and my sister in Puna. Well, I will see, don't know yet but will find out the next days, depending on the flow...
What have I been up to, in summery:-Flying
-Motor biking
-Flying
-Participate in the "Nepal 9th Open Paragliding Championship 2008
-Flying
-Being sick
-Visiting Bandipur
-Flying
-Rafting
-Flying...
All in all: Everyday busy - but without being able to say where the time has gone, time just slips, slides away.
Flying in Pokhara: It is a trap, a paraglide trap, designed to catch paragliders. Some paragliders arrive "just for a few days" and end up staying for months. Some of them have been here already 15-20 years ago and, of course, can tell about the old days ("...you should have been here 20 years ago, there was nothing, everybody became sick and the most important conversation was about stomach problems and the results of them....").
If I would not fly, Pokhara would bore me already after 2 days. However, it has a nice lake and is surrounded by several mountain ridges. The lake creates a micro climate which makes it the most time of the year more pleasant and warm than Katmandu. The lake and the mountain "Sirkot" is the main reason for the paragliders to stay here. Sirkot offers a good start point for cross country flying whilst at the same time the lake offers the opportunity for the acrobatic orientated pilots to train more safely above the lake. Compared with India, or some other parts of Nepal, it is easy, too easy, to stay here, offering good food, good flying and good people to meet up with.
Well, people, or better pilots: Some of them spend the European winter here, working for one of the 3 Paragliding companies as a Tandem-Pilot. Not such a bad job, staying in an easy going and cheap city, doing every day 1-3 Tandem flights. A Tandem flight costs the customer appr. 80 US$, of which the Tandem pilot gets 40US$, resulting in a 1.200 - 3.000 US$ tax free monthly income! And that’s in a city where accommodation costs are low as 2-3US$ a day and a full meal is sold for 1US$. Easy to fly, stay, eat and drink for around 5-10US$ a day. That’s the amount what I would usually spend for a breakfast in Munich, well, not full breakfast, only the Munich standard including one Cappuccino and Butterbrezeln. The one thing which might look like as it wouldn't go along so well with being a responsible tandem pilot is to start, continue and end the day with a self built tubular shaped cigarette. However, I fully trust them, would go flying as a passenger any time with them and in the air it feels way out more safe with expired tandem pilots than with some other international "would-like-to-be" pilots.
A common paraglide day starts not before 9, having breakfast and "checking" the weather (which stayed until the last days always the same: partially cloudy). Most Paragliders would drive up around 10-11am, wait until the thermal's start to work and would go on a cross-country flying.It is a great feeling to fly close of the Anapurna range, directly in front of the Himalayan range. Some pilots manage to fly 100km, which is quite a distance in the Nepal terrain. However, I used to drive up with a few other paraglide pilots who would do Acrobatics above the lake. They would soar up as high as possible to arrive high above the lake just to train to spiral, loop, twist down, and land beside the lake, jump into a taxi to drive up again, 3-5 times a day. It takes almost 45-60 minutes from landing to re-start. With the small lightweight wing I can not do any acrobatics (besides the fact that the pilot wouldn’t be able to do it) and I can not do XC-flying. The wing is a toy machine and so I am flying close to the trees down doing wing-overs: 10min flying down, 10min to pack, 45min to drive up... and another great flying day just passed by, day by day, slipes slides away
For a few days somebody lend me a bigger wing. I used it on one day to participate on the "9th Nepal Open Paragliding Championship". Sure, I am not a competition pilot and the entry fee was more a donation for the local organization and pilots than anything else. There was no GPS record required, it was simply based on mutual trust of the pilots and was rather set up a fun contest.I managed to start of with the "real" competitor pilots, finding myself almost with the leading pack on the turn around point. What a pity that after the turn around the wing was simply almost too big (it is always the wing - never the pilot :-) )to fly against the upcoming strong wind... so I ended up landing in the valley after my longest distance flight (well, I assume it was not more than 5 - 10 km) in Nepal.
Power shut down: Blink! It's dark again; all lights are out, no machines running anymore. Until some generators jump in or candles are lit and my eyes are still blended by the light bulbs, there is a short quite and dark moment. But everything is normal, normal and scheduled. Well, most of the time it is scheduled, but it is an Nepali schedule which is extended according to.... well, according to.... nobody knows exactly "according to what": There is a general power shortage in Nepal, therefore the government schedules power shut downs, app. 3-5 hours every day, but it can be as well more than that. Apparently in the dry season, there isn't enough water to produce enough electric power, 
and buying electric power from India is just too expensive and, well, would as well undermine the independence of the state Nepal. So, no power, sitting by candles light and drinking Chai tea. No power means as well that some Internet shops will shut down their business. Running a generator for power supply uses up app. 3-5 Liters petrol per hour. At a price of 60 Rupees per Liter, it costs 200-500 Rupees to run it for an hour while the travelers will pay app. 50 Rupees per hour for using the internet. Anything below 5,6,7,8 paying customers would barley cover the costs and so it is better to shut down too...
However, even the "quite" moment right after the power shut down is not quite at all. There is almost every time at least one car or motorbike pushing his crying warn-horn to make sure that passengers on the road are aware that a car or motorbike is coming and that it wont stop. Some drivers simply continuously pushing the horn while accelerating and speeding up to 80km/h right into the Lakeside main road where people rather would walk on the middle of the road than on the sideways. Even if it looks sometimes close, everybody takes care about the other and it works most of the times without accidents. Well, most of the times... but not always.
And there is the noise pollution of the traffic and also the air pollution. Driving behind a truck might become a real challenge as the exhaust smoke is sometimes so dark that it becomes almost impossible to see anything. And breathing becomes more a kind of gasping...
What’s next? Good question.After becoming a "true traveler" in India :-) and after being on the treks in Nepal, I did what I originally planned to do. Staying more than a month in Pokhara only for flying was not planned but rather the result of the old traveling wisdom: Go with the flow.
O.k. but do I stay here until I will know where the flow will sweep me next month? I have no desire to go back to India yet, and even Pokhara is not representative for Nepal at all, I feel as well that my time in Nepal has come to an end. Some of the pilots I used to drive up for flying just left, other will go for trekking, so it feels like I am stranded and it is time to move on. To where? Mhhhhhh, Tibet is one option, but I do not feel that I have to go there, in Kashmir /Ladakh might be still to much snow, flying to Thailand for one month doesn't sound so bad either, as well I would not mind to fly to Australia... just for change, or I simply stay here and buy myself another paragliding wing as birthday present... and for sure, I will be back in India in March to meet up with my Parents and my sister in Puna. Well, I will see, don't know yet but will find out the next days, depending on the flow...
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