Nepal: Parahawking!

There's one adventure sport that you can do in Pokhara, and nowhere else in the world: parahawking.

Which is to say, paragliding with a trained hawk (actually Egyptian vulture, but "paravulturing" doesn't sound quite as good).  Literally soaring with the birds.  It's precisely as awesome as it sounds.

How did parahawking come to be?  About 15 years ago, a British graphic designer named Scott Mason, languishing in his London office, longed for something more. Through a series of strange events, he landed in Nepal and started a paragliding business. He was also an avid falconer and bird trainer. And so The Parahawking Project was born. The hawks' reward for their service is chunks of raw buffalo, which they eat out of your hand (or glove, since they could rip your hand off) as you gently ride the thermals, floating over the stunning Pokhara Valley, surrounded by the snow-capped Himalayas.  The birds (Bob and Kevin) are rescues who, having imprinted on humans, are unable to be returned to the wild.  While "our" bird seemed plenty big, we also saw several wild griffon vultures cruising around, whose wingspan compared favorably to the size of our paragliders.

Kevin

Bob.  He was a very chill bird in the car ride up.

The Parahawking Project is part adventure sport, part conservation and education effort.  As scavengers, vultures play a vital role in our ecosystem.  Without them, dead animal corpses rot, contaminating drinking water, and populations of other scavengers like rats and feral dogs explode, spreading diseases such as rabies, anthrax, and plague to humans.  And yet, the vulture populations of Asia have been decimated by the use of a drug called diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory used to alleviate the pain and suffering of dying livestock.  The vultures are unable to process the drug; they die within 24 hours of eating from the carcasses of treated animals.  The impact of the vulture crisis are particularly stark in India, with its huge human population, over 99% decrease in vulture population, and sanctification of cows.  The resulting public health crisis has cost billions of dollars to date.  While the veterinary version of diclofenac has been banned, the human version is still widely and cheaply available.  For a fuller description of the epidemic, see here and here.

The Parahawking Project participates in the Himalayan Raptor Rescue project, which rescues, rehabilitates, and returns many birds to the wild each year.  Mason also helped establish the Ghochowk Vulture Restaurant, a safe vulture feeding site near Pokhara.

Nepal: Pokhara III

As we descended from the Peace Pagoda, we found ourselves in Pokhara proper, away from the tourist haven of Lakeside and amongst everyday Nepali life. There, we stumbled across the entrances to Devi's Falls and the Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave.  Both were worth visiting in passing, I think, but wouldn't have been worth a trip of their own.

The name of Devi's Falls comes from a story about a Swiss tourist named David (or Daniel) (and/or his girlfriend/wife Devi, or Mrs. Devi) who tumbled down a sinkhole and died (or not).  The accident led to the discovery of the falls, which plummet 100 feet below ground into a cave.  The true details of the story have been been lost to the mists of time and the garbling of the internet.   The waters continue to fall.

The base of Devi's Falls can be seen in Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave, which is also known for a huge stalagmite venerated as a Shiva lingam.  Musty passageways lead deeper and deeper into the cave, and eventually open into a large cavern.  There, the waterfall, lit by sunlight filtering in from above and framed by the dark inner cavern walls, confounds legions of camera-bearing tourists.

Nepal: Pokhara II

Pokhara is known as the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit.  Its popularity stems not only from its natural beauty, but also from its position as the starting point for many treks through the mountains and villages of the Annapurna Conservation Area.  Three of the ten highest mountains in the world -- Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I and Manaslu -- lie in this range, within 30 miles (as the crow flies, not as the hiker hikes!) of Pokhara.

Lacking time for a proper trek, we settled for exploring the region through day hikes from Pohkara.  A short 3.2 mile hike from Lakeside, starting with a relaxing boat ride across Phewa Lake, leads up to the World Peace Pagoda. 

Pokhara's World Peace Pagoda, also known as Shanti Stupa, is one of about 80 Peace Pagodas built worldwide.  Most have been constructed by the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist order, which started building peace pagodas in response to the devastating aftermath of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  They aim to spread the message of world peace to all people. 

The white, two-tiered Peace Pagoda stands 115 feet tall and 344 feet in diameter.  The second tier displays four statues of Buddha, presented by four different countries.  Sitting at the top of Ananda hill, the World Peace Pagoda offers beautiful views of Pokhara and the surrounding area.   

While our hike up involved mostly stairs, we took the longer route down.  Scattered houses dotted the bright green, terraced slopes of rice paddies.  The path down also took us past Devi's Falls and the Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave -- post coming soon!

Nepal: Pokhara

Dragon Boat Festival comes again.  While most of my colleagues have headed back to their hometowns for our lone summer holiday, B. and I are relaxing in Shanghai.  Last year, we took a day trip to Suzhou; this year, we're enjoying a quiet moment in the midst of our summer storm of visitors.  (Definitely not a complaint!  Just means that life is a bit busier than usual.)  While I should really be working on writing a chemistry paper, this seems like an apt time to catch up on writing about our Chinese New Year travels to Nepal.  Posts about Xi'an, Tokyo, and Chengdu/Emeishan are also forthcoming!
 

When B. and I booked plane tickets for Nepal in February, we braced ourselves for frigid cold -- like Christmas in South Dakota cold.  We were very pleased to discover that the valleys of Nepal are actually quite temperate, even in February.  With predicted highs around 70F / 22C, I packed some layers, bought new hiking boots, and left my proper winter coat at home.

Pokhara, as I alluded to in last post, is charming.  The tourist area is concentrated around Lakeside, away from the everyday hustle and bustle of the city.  From breakfast on the roof of our hotel, we looked out at Phewa lake, the Peace Pagoda, the swarming paragliders and, when the clouds lifted, the peaks of the Annapurna mountain range.

The main drag of tourist-Pokhara is lined with shop after shop, selling outdoor gear, adventures, a world of cuisine.  Everything you could want or need to explore the region, available in English at a moment's notice, without any oppressive hawking or overbearing tourist-ness.  Brightly colored prayer flags and boats accented the natural beauty.  It's a rare traveler's paradise.

 

While Nepal is a newer tourist destination for Chinese travelers, it's growing in popularity every year.  
Many of the store signs now feature Chinese translations.

The one above comically adds "You're good (Hello), I'm good, Price is good"

 Natural organic products!  Just like my PhD project, right?

We spent a fair amount of time wandering around the lake, enjoying the scenery and stopping occasionally to sample different cuisines.  We ducked out of the rain and ate some fantastic Middle Eastern food.  B. took a particular liking to Nepali (Tibetan) salty butter tea, a combination of heat, water, caffeine, salt, and fat (traditionally yak butter) which is well-suited to life in the Himalayas. 

During early morning strolls starting in the pre-dawn hours (thanks, jetlag!), we luxuriated in the still, peaceful quietness -- a dramatic change from life in our bustling city of 24 million people.  Sunrise bathed the hills and lake in beautiful morning light; the mountains behind played coy, shrouded in clouds, occasionally peeking through to show white mountain against white sky.  A sunrise trip to Sarangkot would reveal the mountains in their full glory. 

This post is photo-heavy enough, so I'll hold description of our other activities around Pokhara -- a hike to the Peace Pagoda, to Devi's Falls and the Gupteshwor Mahadev Cave, a sunrise trip to Sarangkat, and parahawking(!) -- for later.  Instead, I'll close with a series of boats and cows.