Pokhara

Pokhara (827 m-1740 m) is the most popular city of Gurkha, lakes, and valley (466 sq. km) with the Himalayas views, 204 km west of Kathmandu in Gandaki Pradesh of Nepal. The tourist city is dotted with Shimmering lakes, a river, forested hills, picturesque villages, and spectacular views of Dhaulagiri (8167 m), Annapurna (8091 m), Lamjung, Manaslu (8163 m). The diverse land of Pokhara Valley blazoned a hanging garden of the earth. Lumle (1740 m) is the rainiest area of Nepal to the northwest of the valley. Ekai Kawaguchi, a Japanese monk who visited Pokhara in 1899, has mentioned in Three Years in Tibet: 1909: P 42-43, 'In all my travels in the Himalayas, I saw no scenery so enchanting as that which enraptured me at Pokhara. Pokhara Valley had filled with a large volume of layered clastic deposits of gravel, silt and clay of the Quaternary age, brought from the Annapurna mountain range probably by a series of catastrophic debris flows some 12000 and 800 years ago. It was researched in 1998 by the Department of Mines and Geology in cooperation with BGR, Germany.

The valley's Nine Lakes (Phewa, Begnas, Rupa, Dipang, Maidi, Khaste, Nyureni, Kamal Tal, and Gude lakes) are listed on the Ramsar site. Pokhara is the largest Metropolitan City (464.24 sq Km) of the Kaski district, established in 2017 (2073/11/27 B.S.) and has 33 wards with a 4,02,995 population. Gandaki Pradesh settled in Province No. 4 in the Kaski district of Nepal. The annual summer temperature remains 32° Celsius, and the winter temperature stays 6° Celsius. Phewa and Begnas lakes use boating and fishing. The bank of Phewa Lake, called Lakeside, established numerous restaurants, cafes, shops, massage, bars, hotels (375 tourists standard hotels/16000 rooms), internet cafés, and discotheques. The beautiful towns of Mahendrapul, Chipledhunga and Prithvi Chowk have established a shopping mall. The valley has a school and college (156), health post and hospital (61), agriculture, service centre (61), animal service centre (4), Pokhara University, airport, and bus park.

There is a sanitary landfill (2060 B.S.), children's park, industrial area, camping site, golf course, fishing, and picnic spots. The surrounding hill stations of the valley are Sarangkot (1592 m), World Peace Stupa (1100 m), Kahun Danda (1520 m), and Matepani Hill. The worth visiting places in and around the valley are Seti Gorge (4.43 km long), International Mountain Museum, Gupteswor Cave, David Falls, Annapurna Butterfly Museum, Bindya Basini, Matepani Gumba (Karmadubgyu Chokhorling Monastery), Hemja Gumba (Jangchub Choeling Monastery), and Tal Barahi Temple. Suggested activities are hiking, sightseeing, pony riding, Ultra-Light Aircraft, Paragliding, boating, mountain flight, helicopter tour, retreat, nightlife, fishing, bungee jumping, Zip flyer, Annapurna Cable Car (30 November 2021), Hot Air Ballooning, photography, ethical cuisines, and local interaction. The valley produces rice, corn, millet, mustard, vegetables and fruits, pear, banana, orange, guava and lime. Annual locals celebrate Dashain, Tihar, Tamu Lhosar, Shivaratri, and Eid.

Pokhara is the gateway of Annapurna, Upper Mustang, Dhaulagiri, Kali Gandaki rafting, Kali Gandaki Gorge, Muktinath Temple, Damodar Kunda, Sirubari Village, Palpa, and Lumbini. Simple to Luxury five-star hotels are available in the city. Kathmandu to Pokhara is accessed by local and tourist bus (7 hours) and flight (25 minutes). Every year, millions of domestic and international tourists visit Pokhara City. Pokhara has a Regional International Airport. Further information is below.

Sister Cities

1. Bharatpur Metropolitan City, Nepal

2. Dharan Sub Metropolitan City, Nepal

3. Komagane City, Japan

4. Gangbuk-Gu, South Korea

5. Adalar, Turkey

6. Linzhi, China

7. Kunming, China

8. Guangzhou, China

9. Yibin City, China

10. Haikou City, China

11. Nanning, China