It seems almost pointless to visit Pokhara without going to the mountains. The entire city is filled with travel agencies that advertise different trekking adventures, or white water rafting, or canyoning, or paragliding, or most likely all of the above. Sadly, all of these activities cost a whole bunch. Since this is only the first country of our seven month RTW-trip, we can't go around spending all of our money here. So we opted for cheaper options. One of the things our newly bought Lonely Planet suggested was a 54km bicycle trip from Pokhara to Sarangkot and Naudanda. The suggested route would apparently take us through some rough terrain and the entire thing was suggested not to be done with cheap rented mountain bikes. We decided to try it anyway.

Finding a bicycle rental shop in Pokhara is not hard. There are plenty of options right there on the main street of Lakeside. The first place we asked offered decent looking bikes for 1000 rupees a day and was willing to go as low as 900 per day. However, we found a place on our street that was renting similar Giant-brand bikes for 400 NPR a day. We also got to take those with us the evening before so we could get an early start, without any extra cost. The place was called Fishtail Adventure and you can find it on the street just south of the largest eastward-bound road heading out of Lakeside. We ended up getting our bus tickets there later too, the guy was friendly and helpful.

The bikes were OK, all that could be expected for that price. The brakes and gears worked (loudly), we tested those before we rented the bikes. My bike was normal size whereas I am not, so I had some minor problems pedaling. With that in mind we decided early on that we wouldn't try to go as far as Naudanda, but instead only to aim at Sarangkot, which is actually higher. Our guy at Fishtail Adventures told us not to use the road Lonely Planet suggested, which meant going up the smaller road straight from the city and coming back along the highway. Apparently it would be too steep. We of course didn't listen. Luckily so, because he was only partially right. The road which takes you up the hill is paved almost all the way and even though it rises about 800 meters in only few kilometers, it was mostly easy enough. We did have to push the bikes a few times, but that's partially because my bicycle was so small. For someone with a slightly better bike (and a bit more exercise behind them) the route would be no problem. Finding the road up was also quite simple, just follow the main road that leads out of the city and north (but don't follow it quite that far…), go over a small bridge and soon you'll see a sign on your left saying "the road to Sarangkot".

As previously said, the road is steep at parts and there were times when we had to push the bikes. The entire trip up took us nearly three hours, all the brakes and photo shoots included. We also didn't want to leave our bicycles totally alone in the world as we climbed the stairs to the top at the end so we paid a local restaurant owner 50 rupees to park and lock them next to his porch. After that we took to the stairs which turned out to be hard work after the initial climb with the bikes. Once at the top, though, the view was totally worth it. At 1592 meters you are not quite at the top of the world, but you get a perfect spot to awe at the Annapurnas, which at their above 8000 meters couldn't get much higher. You also see the lake and the city from the above and get to contemplate on how far you've come. The taxis at Lakeside are all the time offering sunrise or sunset trips to Sarangkot at a high price and those seem to be somewhat popular. As we were there in the middle of the day there were no crowds what so ever and we got to enjoy the view without any noisy teenagers our guidebook warned us about.

We had already decided to only go as far as Sarangkot so we didn't look further along the road to see if we would have had the energy to go to Naudanda as well. We had wondered if it would be a bit of a drag to go back the same way but instead it was maybe even the best part. I've had only a little experience with mountain biking, but even with that we both got a real kick out of the ride down. At parts we were too fast for even the mopeds to pass us. Also, as it turned out, the roads in the city as well were all going downhill on the way back, so the whole ride back was over in about 50 minutes, again with photo shoots included.

All in all the bicycle trip was the coolest thing we've done yet on the great RTW-trip and it ended up costing us all of 910 rupees (7,49€), including the rent for the bikes, the entrance fees of 30 NPR apiece and the 50 NPR we paid the guy to watch our bicycles. The view of the Himalayas was amazing both on the way there and especially on the top. The nicest part however was the way down with the speed and the wind in our faces. Some people need to go paragliding to get their kicks (we passed several of the spots where they take off from), but for us, this was all we needed.