Pokhara Off The Beaten Path

This is the view you will be rewarded with if you trek up to Poon Hill!! Which is located on the Annapurna Trek. I've forgotten the names of the mountains but they are beautiful. It takes about an hour of a steep hike to get to Poon Hill from Ghodapani.

1 more image

Located on top of hill - Manakamana Temple can only be reach by cable car. This temple actually not located at Pokhara but in the middle journey from Kathmandu. We had lunch break at Manakamana Cafe and decide to visit the temple. As a muslim..i cant enter the temple area but since im going with my hindus freind this is a must place for them to visit while im just hanging around and spending my time enjoying the view roaming around the area. There will be long queue at the cable car speacially on Saturday coz most people doing their prayer and do sacrifice on thats day as its blessing day. So dont be suprise if u see local people bringing chicken in side the cable car and they had speacial cable car for goat!! hehe..
Actually in our place we have same cable car that we use in Genting Highlands but wthout the goat ofcourse..;0)
As we went there on winter..the weather are just great and little bit foggy. The cable care will stop operating at 1pm and start again at 2pm.So you should plan your time so that you dont got stuck on top.
Manakamana cafe located next to a river (cant remeber the name) as in winter and the water level is low we had the experince of deeping of feet in the cold water and pickup some stone as souvenir. But when in summer/monsoon season the water level are very high and really big water flow suitable for water rafting. I have seen a few group doing water rafting here from my visit on July.

A short day hike away from Pokhara are the nearest hotsprings. Unless you are a very fast hiker or do it as a jogging trip you need to stay overnight. I reckon it's about 3 1/2-4 hours walk one way from the Pokhara-Baglung highway at Majha Bhatti just above Hyangja, and via Gharchok-Dhiprang. But if road conditions are ok, you can probably also take a 4x4 jeep up to Burjung kholagaon via K.I. Singh Bridge, Lamachaur and Tallakot, and have the vehicle wait for you while you do the 3-hour hike from here up to the hot springs and back via Chaura..

The hotsprings are tiny ones located on the banks of Sethi Khola up the valley from Pokhara, and the few hot spring sources here are ravaged by monsoon floods each year. The locals rearrange the rocks and dig out a basin after each monsoon, so there is a sandy basin where you can wallow. Nearby is an official ACAP-organised camp ground, but no guest house.
The exact location is on the eastern banks of the Sethi river very near the camp ground, just above the bridge across the Sethi, north of Dhiprang village/below Mirsa village. You see the sulphur-stained rocks just on the edge of Sethi there.
These days this is well within Maoist-controlled territory, so you may wish to take care while being there and walk out to a somewhat more populated place, such as Burjung Khola, for overnight stays.
I wouldn't consider the hotsprings a target for a single day hike, unless you do it for sports; they are not that impressive, but as a stop on a few days' hike easy the place is wonderful. Or on a return from a more serious Mardi Himal trek.

There's a small (really small) island in the middle of the lake where a family sell soft drinks to boaters. It's not obvious that there's anyone there, but on a hot day you need a drink by the time you've rowed that far so it's worth knowing about!

A short bus ride from Pokhara is a small village called Begnes Bazaar from here you climb up the ridge between the lakes of Begnes and Rupa for fantastic views.

A friend of mine was here a few years before me and had taken photo's in the village on the ridge. I was returning them and I did get a fantastic reception of the villages when they saw themselves and their children in the photo's. It was a wonderful day out!

Picture to follow!

There is a Hindu temple located on an island at Lake Phewa. You need to take a ride on one of the colourful boats to get to this small island.