Trip Itinerary
Day 1
1. Dawn and a typical one hour delay in Kathmandu
2. Brunch and V Shots at Riverside Springs Resort
3. Late lunch at Pokhara Thakali
4. Sunset and golden mountains from Sarangkot
5. Pool and R Punch at Amsterdam
6. Live music and V Shots at Busy Bee
7. V Shots and sleeping-like-a-baby at Grand Holiday and Trek-o-tel

Day 2
1. Rowing and paddling at Fewa
2. Hiking to Peace Pagoda
3. Visit to Devi’s Fall
4. Visit to Gupteshwar Mahadev Cave
5. Fish and prawns at Malekhu
6. Traffic jam and weapon-brandishing at Nagdhunga
7. Midnight at Kathmandu

Bill Abraham and Lucien St Cyr ‘s Story:
The van stopped by the Y&Y at 6 am Saturday morning for our weekend journey to Pokhara. Joining Lucien and I were Bhaskar, Roshan, Pramod, Rohan, Sudeep, Pawan, Neeraj, Dipesh, Amit, and our faithful driver, Ram. We stopped for breakfast on the way at a small resort called the Riverside, which coincidentally, happened to be alongside a river. After breakfast, we continued on our journey.

We arrived in Pokhara at around noon and checked into our hotel. After we settled in, we went out to lunch at a local restaurant that everyone was quite familiar with. After a nice relaxing lunch, Ram drove us up to Sarangkot to view the sunset over the Annapurna Himalayas. We watched the sunset turn the mountain snow caps a beautiful golden color.

we somehow managed to turn a 1 hour hike, into a 3 hours journey to the top.

The next day, we went on a trek to scale a “mountain” (a mountain in my book) to view the Pokhara Stupa. First we had to cross the Fewa lake. Most of us opted to take a paddle boat across the lake, but there were four brave souls who dared to take a rowboat. Once across, we somehow managed to turn a 1 hour hike, into a 3 hours journey to the top. Once at the top, we viewed the beautiful white Stupa and also had another beautiful view of the mountains, as well as of the surrounding Pokhara valley.

Coming down the “mountain” was a lot easier than going up. We made it down with only minimal stops in between, with Ram there at the bottom to greet us. Once at the bottom, we all hopped into the van and went to David’s fall, a deep and narrow waterfall that is best viewed from behind. In order to do this, we had to cross the street and enter a cave. From inside the cave we were able to catch a much better view of the backside of the falls.

After leaving the cave, we stopped for lunch at the same restaurant we ate at the day before. As before, lunch was good and relaxing (everyone was tired). We finished lunch at about 4 in the afternoon and then hit the road back to Kathmandu.

On the way home we stopped at a small road side restaurant for a quick snack, and then continued on our way back to KTM. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic and did not arrive back at the Y&Y until after midnight. Everyone was tired, but we had a great and memorable time. Our hosts were terrific.

Dipesh Shrestha ‘s Story:

a great place to get the view of the mountain range and the pokhara valley

I was very excited about the trip to pokhara because it was my first hike from office. After leaving the office at 6.30 we moved towards pokhara. The ride from Kathmandu to pokhara was really interesting. Upon reaching pokhara and having lunch we went to Sarangkot to view the sunset which was the most amazing view of the Annapurna range and the sunset I had seen. Another thing that I saw that day was a face of the tiger on Machhapuchre. After the sunset we came down towards the lakeside and roam around the pubs. The next morning we took a boat towards the Peace Stupa after the boat ride we started our short hike towards Peace Stupa. It was a great place to get the view of the mountain range and the pokhara valley. After staying there for some time we moved down the other way where the office van was waiting for us which took us to Davis fall and Gupteswor cave. The view of Davis fall from the cave was great. And after having our lunch we returned towards Kathmandu. On the whole the trip was really great experience to know pokhara as it was just my second trip there and also to know the people we travel along.

Amit Nepal’s Story:

Surely, one of the most awaited events. D2 hiking (Trip to Pokhara) was the kind of refreshment that I was looking for. I was wondering whether I could wake up at 5 in the morning. And I did wake up. That’s amazing. Isn’t it?

The trip was interesting from the moment we took off from the office. I got this opportunity to meet new colleagues from D2 (Nepal) as well as two different colleagues from D2 (Boston). I definitely had a great time with them.

Guru’s Melody in the Van, having shots in Riverside restaurant was one hell of a moment. The most memorable of them all would be the moment while returning from Pokhara: We were stuck in traffic for about 2 hours and there was a stranger who was carrying a KHUKHURI in his hand and was guiding all the vehicles as if he was some traffic personnel. This may be the kind of attitude that Traffic police should have in order to prevent Traffic jams. ?

So, overall it was a hectic schedule with an awesome experience.

01 A break on the highway	02 Aaanch
03 We bond	04 We pose
05 Communication	06 Lucien
07 Strings	08 The Gyanendra Pose
09 Roshan, Amit and Dipesh	10 Team at RSR
11 Not much snow in Machhapuchhre	12 Team at Sarangkot 1
13 The shoot	14 The sea of sky
15 Perspective	16 Orange
17 Lucien Smiles Cyr	18 The sun has set
19 Bill Smiles Abraham	20 Burn
21 M1	22 M2
23 M3	24 Team at Sarangkot 2
25 The shot	26 There It Is
27 We play	28 Movement
29 Boats in Fewa	30 Lucien, Dipesh, Amit and Rohan take the Row Boat
31 The rest take the Paddle Boat	32 The climb begins
33 Lucien leads	34 Up Up
35 From the Peace Pagoda	36 Raniban
37 Guess who	38 Pawan, Neeraj, Amit, Sudeep, Lucien, Rohan and Roshan
39 The Eagle Has (not yet) Landed	40 Life is a Struggle
41 The easiest part	42 Life is a twig
43 The Buddha	44 The Peace Pagoda
45 Life is full of thorns	46 So This is It
47 Yellow	48 Blue
49 Misty Pokhara	50 Roshan, Sudeep, Bill, Lucien, Rohan and Neeraj
51 Team at Peace Pagoda	52 Embrace Thy Soul
53 Which One Shot	54 The Pull
55 The Four I`s	56 Please Go Quietly
57 More Downhill	58 Chautari
59 Downhill	60 Onlookers
61 Pigeons at rest	62 Devi`s Fall 2
63 Devi`s Fall 1	64 Stalactites
65 Pythonlikes	66 Down the Gupteshwar Mahadev Cave
67 Cavemen 2	68 Cavemen 1