On to Pokhara

Saturday, 12th May 2018

The late running of my early morning Mountain Flight meant that I had less time than planned for breakfast at Dwarika’s Hotel but I had an omelette, tomato juice and tea provided promptly by the attentive staff in the restaurant. I had decided to travel light for my trip to Pokhara so I crammed a few clothes in my rucksack with my computer and put two bags in the hotel’s luggage store until my return. At ten o’clock my guide, driver and the writer set off back to the airport I’d so recently left. The police presence was even more intense: police lined both sides of the main road every 50 yards and there were periodic groups of paramilitary ‘riot squads’, supported by lorries marked ‘Mobile Rest Room’.

At Tribhuvan Airport, I now knew the system for embarking on domestic flights. My booking to Polhara was on the noon flight. The pleasant young man who’d earlier issued my boarding pass for the Mountain Flight recognized me and explained that, because flights were disrupted by the VVIP visit, he was booking me on flight U4 609, due to leave at 10:35 but that this would leave late. I went through security and secondary security into the crowded, noisy Gate Area. On the Buddha Air Flight Information screen, many flights, including mine, had the note ‘DELAY DUE TO VVIP MOVEMENT’. Occasionally, painstaking amendments would be made to the display, or the Windows start-up screen would appear for a while or the public screen would shut down and require re-start by a member of staff with a hand-held remote control. Having found a seat with a view of the Flight Information screen, I stayed put. Thus, the morning slowly passed. Around 12:30, my flight was called and passengers filled up a couple of transfer buses. Then we waited. The Thai flight from Bangkok which I’d arrived on the previous day landed, an ATR-62 local flight took off, followed by a twin jet. Then a Malaysia Airlines 737-800 landed and taxied to the stand, followed by a Simrik Airlines local flight. Kathmandu is a very busy airport. After 20 minutes, the bus drove across the apron to the domestic flight line, where we stopped adjacent to a Buddha Air ATR-62 turbo-prop. Another wait followed. Then we boarded the aircraft and there was a further wait whilst the two stewardesses plied us with peanuts, a fruit drink and water. Suddenly, the engines were started, our snacks were hurriedly cleared away and we taxied to the runway.

We rapidly climbed away from Kathmandu, and emerged above the clouds with views of snow-clad peaks brightly lit by the sun on our right. Before long, we descended through the clouds to a plain well covered with buildings – Pokhara is, I think, the second largest city in Nepal after Kathmandu. The approach to Pokhata is interesting. When approach flap was selected, I knew we were getting close to landing, but I couldn’t spot the runway ahead. Then we commenced a steep right bank, turned right and kept turning. As we continued to turn, I saw what appeared to be a new runway under construction further out on the plain. Just before the runway threshold, the pilot levelled out and we made a fairly fast landing. Landing at Pokhara can be quite a challenge for pilots, so I could see why a new airport is being built, presumably with easier approach from the air. We walked from the aircraft to a small baggage hall but with hand baggage only, I was quickly in the small car park looking for the representative from Tiger Mountain Lodge. I located him and we set off in a black Land Rover through the centre of Pokhara, larger than I expected. A straight main road led us through ribbon development for a few kilometres then the scenery became more rural and we turned off the main road onto a steeply-inclined road ascending Tiger Mountain. It soon became clear why we were using a Land Rover as the narrow road twisted and turned up the mountain through a series of tight hairpin bends. An unsurfaced lane led us to a small car park from where we walked up a path cut into the rock and climbed stone steps to enter the main building of Tiger Mountain Lodge, my home for two nights.

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My pictures

Nepal from above
Kathmandu Airport
Kathmandu
Dwarika's Hotel, Kathmandu
Pokhara, Nepal
Tiger Mountain, Pokhara, Nepal
Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge

All my pictures on this trip to Nepal can be found in the collection Nepal.

[Pictures linked 8-Aug-2018]