Those Who Dream Can Fly

It felt like I had just closed my eyes before the alarm was going off at 5am to head up the mountain. Why do I do this to myself?

As I walked outside though and saw the clear skies, I was glad I had, as it improved my chances of finally seeing the mountains in full glory.

I had the same driver I’d had last week, which was perfect as he didn’t speak very much English and I wasn’t functioning enough for conversation, so it was fine for me to sit back and be a zombie.

My alertness came into sharp focus however, when we rounded a bend and suddenly the mountains were right in front of me, so large and imposing it felt like they were no more than 100mtrs away. A very loud “ohhhh” escaped my lips and just as quickly, they were out of view.

I waited in anticipation to get to the top of Pumdikot, less now for seeing the giant statue of Shiva and more for seeing the mountains that have been so elusive until now.

Finally, we arrived and even with my still, slightly achy legs, I practically bounded up the steps to be greeted with this…

These pictures don’t do them any justice. I simply couldn’t fit the full expanse of the mountain range in one photo.

Eventually I had to drag my eyes away from them to take in what I had originally come here for – a giant Lord Shiva statue, the second largest in Nepal.

The sheer scale of it and the detail was amazing. It was especially nice to take it in with hardly another person in sight due to the early hour.

I jumped back in the car to make our way to the World Peace Pagoda, a Buddhist temple.

Today was a holiday in Nepal as it was Buddha’s birthday, so I was a little worried that the peace pagoda would be busy, but again, the early hour meant there weren’t too many people.

What I loved (and also felt sad about the reflection on society), were the signs forbidding Tik Tok. In addition, there were signs making silence a requirement.

I know it would seem obvious given the name, but it felt amazingly peaceful. There were flowers everywhere, incense burning and the amazing snow mountains surrounding us.

As I slowly walked around the pagoda, after three weeks of feeling chaotic, I felt calm and at peace. While I stood staring out at the mountains, I felt the need to leave Callum’s photo. I hoped he finally had found his peace also.

When I’d had my fill, I made my way down to the car to head back to the hotel. My sense of calm even managed to last through the teeth grinding roadworks. I asked my driver how long the roads had been in such an appalling state and he told me a year!

By the time I returned to the hotel, I was starving and decided to maintain my calm by having breakfast in the cafe that forms part of the hotel.

After so long of constantly having dahl baht, I was in heaven having such a fresh, light meal.

Now, it may have been exhaustion from the night before, or a bit of dehydration from not drinking enough water, or a bit of both, but my decision after breakfast was probably not made of sound mind.

Pokhara’s surrounding area allows for some extreme activities and one of these is going down a zip line. The one here in Pokhara is the longest and steepest in the world, with a 600m vertical drop and nearly 2km long.

Yet somehow, I found myself walking into the Zip Flyer booking office to see if they had availability today, and half an hour later I was on a bus taking me up Sarangkot mountain.

I was fine until I stepped up near the platform and couldn’t see anything below. There was a young guy also trying to look over the edge and may have muttered some words I was also thinking.

Just as he voiced that he wasn’t sure if it was worse to go first or last, my name was called first! Then his name was called to be strapped in at the same time.

My legs were shaking when the man held the harness for me to sit into. When he told me to place my feet on the gate, I had a slight freak out, telling him he hadn’t strapped me in yet and the thought of pushing my feet against a gate that was preventing me from plummeting down didn’t seem like such a swell idea.

He told me it would be fine, and eventually strapped me, before giving me a quick briefing on which rope to pull, and when and to watch for a yellow flag at the end.

It was all happening too fast and I wanted him to take a pause, let me work myself up to it, be ready. But suddenly he was counting, five…four…three and I wanted to yell… “Wait, I’m not ready…” “I’M NOT READY!”

By this point it didn’t matter because suddenly the gate opened and I went flying out. I was terrified it would drop down sharply before plateauing, but it didn’t feel like you were dropping at all.

It was an amazing experience. It felt like I was floating over the valley, even with the rush of wind sounding in my ears. The whole trip apparently only lasts 90 seconds, but it felt so much longer.

During the briefing he had told me to watch out for the yellow flag. About halfway down, I realised I was blind as a bat for seeing things far away and began to worry what would happen if I couldn’t see the flag. Thankfully, I saw a blur of yellow and pulled on the brake cord.

I’d seen a sign on a pole on the way up, saying “those who dream can fly” and after getting out of the harness, I realised how true it was for me. I had dreamt of coming to Nepal for 20 years. I fulfilled that dream and today, I flew, literally.

I got to talking to the young guy who had travelled down at the same time as me after I recognised the Australian accent, to discover he was also from Melbourne.

I don’t know what it was, but I had a feeling he was a police officer, so I asked him what he did and I was right. He looked at me strangely when I burst out laughing and I had to explain I worked for the very union he was a member of!

This then led to a conversation about the upcoming negotiation for the next police Agreement and him questioning me on what we were thinking with a certain part of the claim. Once I explained the reasoning, he was completely turned around and thought it was a great idea. I feel like I should claim work time back! 😆

We chatted about our travels while we waited for everyone else to come down and I invited him to join us later that night.

But first, I desperately needed some sleep, or I would not make it to 7pm. As soon as I walked into my hotel room, I climbed straight into bed and felt myself do that weird sleep jump within seconds. It wasn’t a long sleep, but I felt immeasurably better.

Before I could go out though, I needed to pack my bags properly ready for the trip to Chitwan in the morning. With that out of the way, I headed off to the Movie Garden to watch Bohemian Rhapsody with Jill and Sula. Dan had bailed after our late night the previous night and he didn’t return until late afternoon from a Helicopter flight to Annapurna.

It was a really cool, laid back space, but totally booked out other than a strip at the back. There were a number of reservations that had been made, but not paid for, so we were told we could move after 6:30pm if the people didn’t show up.

We counted down the minutes and managed to score some seats in front of the screen. The police officer I had been speaking to previously, turned up just as we got the seats, but we didn’t have a fourth. He was able to grab some cushions and set up in front of our seats.

He told me he had been speaking to people at home about meeting me and gave the explanation I had given him earlier, so there were now more people on board with it. I definitely should claim for this! 😆

Then it was movie time. It doesn’t matter how many times I see Bohemian Rhapsody, the music still gets me every time and I feel such sadness at Freddie’s loss.

I was happy for a relatively early night as my bus to Chitwan in the morning is 6:45am. I have enjoyed my time in Pokhara, but I am looking forward to moving on to a new experience.