Morning fun in Pokhara - bicycling to the Stupa

The World Peace Pagoda

One of the ideas of the Yaktrack blog is to write about things that you actually have time for even though you have a fulltime job. Bicycling to the Stupa (The World Peace Pagoda) in the morning in Pokhara is a perfect morning exercise before you go to work. If you wish, you also get a nice singletrack down through the jungle on your way down.

On the way to the Stupa in the sunrise.

The easy way up is on the highway. We start all our biking from German Bakery at Damside and from there you follow the road East until you reach the main road towards Terai. Here you turn right and you follow the road slowly going uphill until there is a sign to the World Peace Pagoda (after about 4-4,5km from the German Bakery). Here you bike on a short steep uphill before you start climbing to the Stupa. From this point it’s about 1,5-2 km (last half is a dirt road) until you reach the top of the road and go off road the last couple of hundred meters to the Stupa. You might have to carry the bike a littlebit.

Don´t forget to have the milk tea on the top! (and of course also to visit the Stupa)

On the top with the spectacular view of the Annapurna range: Leyla, Anette and Santosh.

It´s mandatory to jump on the top of any hill or mountain.

The view is really not bad!

Downhill there is a nice singletrack all the way through the jungle. The first time we went there, we went with our friend Santosh (a Nepali mountain biker, who also has a biking company which provides mountain bikes for rent and guided trips – Himalayan Singletrack) and he showed us the way. The first time it might be nice to bring someone who knows the way down if you are going through the jungle.

Downhill through the jungle!

The rice fields you meet when you come down from the jungle.

The track back to Damside.

We spend about 1,5 hours on the whole ride including the tea break on the top!

(If you don´t want to go by singletrack down, you can go the same way as you came up).