Is there something you’ve always wanted to do, but are a little scared of? Yeah, me too!
Wandering around Lakeside in Pokhara, I was fascinated by the paragliders flying just above the beautiful Fewa Lake. I gazed at them dancing and swinging in the air and thought that I did not have courage to do it. I was scared of heights and I was scared of flying and yet, there I was, feeling a strong urge to experience this extreme adventure sport.
I knew this was going to be difficult for a person like me, who has a hard time looking down from the fifth floor of a building. But as they say, “Sometimes, taking care of ourselves includes stretching beyond what we think is possible and getting a little uncomfortable.” So, this time when I was in Pokhara, I made sure I made my bookings well ahead of time for this nerve-wracking experience. Fast forward few days and the day arrived.
A car picked me from my hotel in Lakeside. And as I was reaching my paragliding spot in Sarangkot, I could see many paragliding flights taking off just over the hills which fascinated me even more.
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After a 20 minute drive up, and five minutes of walk through the wide downward sloping lawn, I finally arrived at the paragliding spot. The terror hit me when my pilot started clipping all the equipment on me—my hands started to shake and clam up and I caught a severe case of Jelly legs—but I knew there was no turning back now.
Sunil, my pilot, instructed: “Are you a good runner? When I say run, you run.” Even though my feet felt like they were cemented to the ground and my stomach was up in my throat, I managed an, “Ok,” in reply.
Two minutes later, he said, “OK, 3, 2, 1, RUN!” I took one deep breath, and that was it. I tried running as fast as I could but the force of the parachute was so strong, I felt like it was pulling me backward. Couple of more steps later, we were off the ground flying over the hills.
And to my surprise, once we were flying I started enjoying the flight admiring the hills around us and the lake beneath. It was a magnificent, overwhelming view and the strong winds were blowing into my eyes. It was a very exciting experience to be so high up in the sky.
Before we landed on the green lawn beside Fewa Lake, my pilot asked if I wanted to try acrobatic— we could spin. It sounded scary and exciting so I thought of giving it a try. Then we spun round and round and round while I screamed like a possessed demon.
Everything happened so fast that before I could understand anything we were already landing on the ground. I couldn’t believe that I had done it. My head was still spinning even after we landed, but it was fun. It was such a brilliant experience that even 20 minutes of being airborne felt so brief.
The whole experience with photographs and videos cost me Rs 5,500. It wasn’t cheap but it was money well spent. Pokhara has a wide variety of adventurous sports activities like Ultra Flights, Zip Flyer, White River Rafting, Hand Gliding and several trekking routes.
All in all, I had a magical experience and was thrilling to be able to tick this experience off my bucket list.
