All posts tagged: Poon Hill Trek

Nepal – Pokhara Hotel – Waterfront Resort (Nepal Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

If you don’t mind a slightly further location (5 mins by taxi) from the crowds main Lakeside area in Pokhara, I highly recommend the Waterfront Resort. It is right beside the glistening Phewa lakes, where you will regularly see paragliders land. The room itself was well lit, amazingly big and clean! I must say that after a 5 days Poon Hill trek living in teahouses with mostly cold water, it was nothing short of heavenly to have a hot water bath without worrying about hot water running out. Waterfront Resort has an affliated spa 3 minutes walk away, and the 45minutes foot reflexology with soft massage on calves helped us to finally be able to climb the stairs without looking like a duck. The Resident Manager of Waterfront Resort, Mr Santosh Karki, was extremely personable, and gave us the best possible room in the resort (3rd floor, overlooking the lake). He personally spoke to us at the end of the trip to ensure we had a pleasant stay. The restaurant within Waterfront Resort, Aquabird Restaurant, …

Nepal – Poon Hill Trek 3 (Tadapani, Grandruk; Nepal Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

Day 4: Tadapani to Grandruk Panorama Hotel Teahouse at Tadapani awoke us to the most amazing view after Poonhill – a different side of the Annapurna ranges including Machapuchare (Fishtail) Mountain. It was an experience of a lifetime eating Shin Ramen breakfast facing these amazing Himalayan mountains. More photos of the amazing view: After breakfast, it was a relatively easy descent in the forests, and we stopped by Lonely Planet Restaurant for my favourite Chicken Dal Bhat this trip. It was my favourite, because shortly after we ordered our lunch, the lady boss walked downhill to her backyard, plucked fresh leaves and broccoli, brought them back to her kitchen to watch and cook for us! Nothing gets fresher than this! We arrived at Grandruk after a leisurely 3-4 hour walk for the day. I found Grandruk extremely scenic, with fields of wheat growing, nice cascading fields and donkeys on nice cobbled stairs. Our teahouse for the night, Manisha Hotel was also the most “advanced” hotel we had the entire trek, with attached bathroom n one …

Nepal – Poon Hill Trek 2 (Ghorepani, Poon Hill; Nepal Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

Day 2: Thikedunga to Ghorepani Right after breakfast, we embarked on our “3000 steps” morning on cobbled rocks and loose stones, occasionally giving way to donkeys coming downhill with chickens and suppliers for the locals. I think I climbed 300 steps (which is already 15 floors if you think in city terms) and I asked my guide if we are near…he laughed and said we have at least another 1.5hours to go. It was then I realized how bad my judgment on distances and height was :P. It was heartening to have many trekkers with us, encouraging one another. It was humbling to see older porters carrying 40kg on their backs or local old men carrying heavy logs passing us! Our guide also told us that his grandfather, who is an ex-gurkha, who is in his 70s but still able to walk with 30kg load today. All these sights and stories only remind me of the mental barriers I have created for myself. If so many other older people can do it, I can definitely too, with God’s …

Nepal – Poon Hill Trek 1 (Tikhedhunga; Nepal Travel Review Series)

Published by Beatrice

This is the blog entry I am most excited to write about Nepal, because the trek has been a life changing experience for me: 1) All through my life, when things get difficult, I sometimes give myself excuses to stop going. But on this trek, no excuses are allowed and I cannot give up because if I stop, I will have no tea-house to stay at for the night and I will be stranded in the mountains, so the only option is to keep going no matter how exhausted I was or how much my leg muscles were crying. Despite having mild food poisoning and a cold at some point on the trek, God helped me to keep going, one step at the time, to complete the step. 2) I tend to limit myself in my thinking especially in relation to physical fitness, for example, I can never do a marathon or a vertical marathon (~climb 90 stories in Singapore Raffles City). But without realizing it, on day 2 of the trek, we had to …