Pokhara: For the adrenaline-junkie tourists of Pokhara, just an hour’s drive from the epicentre of Nepal’s earthquake, it’s business as usual with boat trips and paragliding in a town spared the destruction wreaked elsewhere.
Thousands of visitors flock to the picturesque destination every year, attracted by its scenic mountain views, clear, dry winters and abundance of adventure sports, which also include zip-lining.
Pokhara sits 73 kilometres east of the epicentre of Saturday’s quake, but when AFP visited on Monday the only evidence of a disaster that has killed more than 4,000 people, were a few cracked walls.
Two days after the nation’s deadliest disaster in more than 80 years, foreigners milled around a scenic valley lake, shopped, ate at cafes and signed up in groups for their next sporting pursuit. “It was quite scary but to be honest I barely felt it and I only realised what was happening when I saw people around me,” said Rick Tul, from the Netherlands, putting on a life-jacket for a boat ride on a Pokhara lake.
“Everything here is great. Of course, you can sense that the locals are tense and worried but otherwise, everything is normal,” the 20-year-old said. According to the US Geological Survey, the epicentre was actually four kilometres closer to Pokhara than the capital Kathmandu, large parts of which have been reduced to rubble.
But New Delhi-based quake expert Milap Chand Sharma said the township, which does not have a large number of high-rises, is most probably located on a solid rock base and not sedimentary material that shifts during tremors.
