27 October 2017, Friday
This morning, I woke up at about 7am and it was a nice, cool 18 degrees Celsius outside. At 7:45am, EW and I walked to the main street to have breakfast at a restaurant called Boomerang. I ordered a Trekker’s Breakfast set, which cost Rs 325 (S$4.40) and consisted of muesli, orange juice, coffee, eggs, toast and potatoes. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for me and I never skip breakfast. Feels great to start the day right with a good breakfast.
We initially intended to visit the World Peace Pagoda right after sunrise but it was foggy in the morning so we decided to take our time and have an extended breakfast. After that, we browsed the shops along the main street and I went to a bookshop to buy some postcards to send home. Postcards are great souvenirs because they are cheap and meaningful. A postcard costs Rs 30 and an additional Rs 25 for a postage stamp, so it takes less than S$0.80 to send a postcard home. But besides the cost, what’s more important is the thought and effort that goes behind penning one. To me, it just feels nice to receive a postcard from a friend or family member who is on vacation.
At 10:13am, we took a taxi to the World Peace Pagoda on top of the nearby Anadu Hill. You can actually rent and row a boat from Lakeside and then hike up a steep trail to reach the pagoda but it is very strenuous, so the best way is to take a taxi. From Lakeside, the journey takes about 20 minutes and it costs Rs 1,200 (S$16) for a two-way ride.
Upon arriving at the pagoda, I wanted to pay the driver half the fare instead of the full fare as I was afraid that he might disappear after receiving the full sum and leave us stranded without a ride back to Lakeside. To my surprise, he flatly refused to accept even half the fare, and said he would collect the full sum after sending us back to Lakeside. Such trust! This is another reason why I love Nepal. He wasn’t afraid that that we would disappear with another driver for the return leg and lose half his fare. I felt ashamed for even thinking that he would run away with my money!
After climbing up a few flights of stairs, we reached the entrance of the World Peace Pagoda. There is no stipulated admission fee but there is a donation box at the entrance and I put Rs 50 in. The pagoda is open from 6am to 5pm in the winter and from 5:30am to 6pm in the summer.
After climbing another flight of stairs, we saw the Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhist Temple. Nipponzan Myohoji is a new Japanese religious movement founded in 1917 by a Japanese Buddhist monk called Nichidatsu Fujii and it actively promotes the message of peace and non-violence.
The Nipponzan Myohoji monks beat hand drums while chanting the Daimoku (aka Namu Myoho Renge Kyo) and there are two prayer sessions a day. When we visited at 10:45am, it was not during one of the prayer sessions but a monk was inside the prayer hall and he was chanting.
Another short flight of stairs then took us to the main area where the stupa is. The World Peace Pagoda in Pokhara is also called the Shanti Stupa, where shanti is a Sanskrit word meaning peace. Nichidatsu Fujii started building World Peace Pagodas in 1947 after experiencing the great devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. He decided to convey the message of peace by building 100 World Peace Pagodas around the world. To date, there are 80 peace pagodas in the world and Nepal has two of them – the other one is in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha.
The Shanti Stupa in Pokhara is built on top of Anadu Hill, 1,100m above sea level. The foundation stone was laid on 12 September 1973. When construction of the pagoda had reached a height of 35 feet, all the buildings were destroyed forcibly by the government on 31 July 1974 as the building was not sanctioned and did not “pass” local security regulations.
Despite the setback, the Nepalese people continued to conduct worships and religious rites at the site. After 18 years of continuous endeavour, on 21 May 1992, the Honourable Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala came personally to Anadu Hill and re-laid the foundation stone. Construction then continued unabated and was finally completed on 30 October 1999. Shanti Stupa became the first World Peace Pagoda to be built in Nepal and the 71st one worldwide. It stands at 115 feet tall with a circumference of 344 feet.
The pagoda aims to convey the message of peace and everyone who visits can experience peace in abundance. There are signs all over the compound reminding visitors to keep their silence, and drone camera video shooting is not allowed.
The gleaming white stupa sits atop a round base, like a two-tiered cake. In the four cardinal directions are four statues of Buddha presented as souvenirs from different countries. At the front (East) is a giant statue of Lord Buddha in Dharmachakra Pravartan posture, a gift from Japan. On the West side is a statue of Lord Buddha in Meditation posture from Sri Lanka. On the North side is a 6-feet long Mahaparinirvana statue of Lord Buddha in bronze from Thailand. And finally, on the South side is Siddhartha’s birth statue in bronze made in Nepal.
From the pagoda, we had an amazing view of Phewa Tal and Pokhara below. We could just about make out the location of our guesthouse amid the sprawling mass of low-rise buildings. In all, we spent about 40 minutes at the World Peace Pagoda.
On our way back to the carpark, we passed by a cool coffee house and decided to pop in for a drink. It was close to midday and the sun was out in full force. The early morning mist had dissipated and it was about 24 degrees Celsius now. The coffee house was simply called World Peace and it had a very chilled vibe about it. I ordered an affogato, which is an Espresso with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
We spent 15 minutes enjoying our chilled coffee and soaking in the marvellous views. As we were leaving, we chatted with the owner of the café and found out that he is a Japanese who used to work as a skydiving instructor at Pokhara for 10 years. He then married a Nepali and set up the café. So nice! I would love to do something like that one day.
Our driver was true to his word and he waited patiently for us at the carpark. At 11:45am, we left the World Peace Pagoda and reached our guest house at 12:09pm. We paid him the full fare and thanked him for his services.
We then spent the afternoon resting and getting ready for the race. I packed the gear to put into my running bag. I tried to keep it as light as possible but I think I ended up with too much stuff and it weighed around 2.5kg. It was my first time taking part in a 50km trail race and I was inexperienced. I thought it was better to be safe than sorry so I packed in these items:
- A pair of gloves (I removed them at the last minute before the race)
- Lightweight cap with neck cover*
- Small towel
- Head torch*
- One packet of wet wipes
- Sunglasses*
- Apple Watch*
- 500ml compressible water bag
- 1-litre water bladder* (comes with the Kalenji running bag)
- Kalenji running bag from Decathlon*
- Lightweight windbreaker (not waterproof)*
- One packet of Gu energy gel
- Two packets of Gu energy Chews*
- One whistle with thermometer
- One small first aid kit with plasters, bandages and medicated oil
Not pictured:
- A pair of earphones
- Spare iPhone
- Some cash*
- Passport
Out of these items, I would say the really essential ones are those I marked with asterisks. But instead of a windbreaker, I will replace it with a waterproof one. I will also use a normal watch or a better smartwatch as my Apple Watch could not last the entire duration of the race and died halfway through. Lastly, you may also want to bring along some dry tissue paper instead of wet wipes, as you may need to answer Nature’s Call during the race (as EW will find out tomorrow!). More on that in the next post.
At 3:30pm, we left the guesthouse and walked to Hotel Barahi at Lakeside to attend the race briefing, which was scheduled for 4:30pm. When we arrived at 4:05pm, most of the participants were already seated and the race director, Richard Bull, had already started the briefing.
He said that it was his second time organising this Annapurna 100 race after taking over from his predecessor. To be honest, I felt that the race was not organised very well, in terms of communicating essential information to the overseas participants in advance. Up till the briefing, we were still not clear about the route, timings and location of the start/end points. For overseas participants, it was quite a challenge to make plans in advance to book air tickets and accommodation, and to take leave from work. As the race drew nearer, information started trickling in but there were still a lot of unknowns. Thankfully during the race briefing, all our questions were answered and we felt much more relieved and mentally prepared.
One of the reasons why EW was attracted to take part in this Annapurna 100 race is because it is still quite unknown and limited to less than 150 participants. It felt more cool and exclusive, compared to the other more established races, such as the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB), TransLantau or Borneo TMBT. Part of me wanted the Annapurna 100 to remain exclusive, but another part of me wanted it to be more professionally run, which may be contradicting because the more professional the race becomes, the more it will attract participation.
The race briefing was a good opportunity for us to meet our fellow runners. Most of them seemed quite professional and way fitter than me. I was a little intimidated but then I remembered that everyone has to start somewhere. For some, this may be their 4th or even 15th trail race but they all had their first race somewhere. And this was the starting point for me. Once I got over that, I felt more at ease. In fact, all the other runners were very friendly and encouraging. It felt nice to be part of this community of fellow avid runners.
To give us further encouragement, Mira Rai was there as well. At that point, being the noob that I am, I didn’t know who she was, but EW and our fellow Singaporean CP were well aware of her. For the uninitiated, Mira Rai is a Nepalese trail runner born on 31 December 1988, and she was named National Geographic’s 2017 Adventurer of the Year. She has won several trail running races around the world, most notably the Mont-Blanc 80km in 2015 and the 120km Ben Nevis Ultra in 2017, setting new course records for both races.
What’s most amazing about Mira Rai is actually not her achievements, but her humble beginnings. She left school at the age of 12 as her family were so poor and could not afford her education. When she was 14, she left home without telling her parents and went to join the Maoist insurgency as a child soldier. After the civil war ended, she went to Kathmandu to pursue karate and running.
One day in 2014, while she was running in the mountains, she was approached by a group of runners who were training in the same area. After running for a while, they invited her to join them again next week. Unbeknownst to her, when she turned up the following week, it was not a training session but the day of the 50km Himalayan Outdoor Festival trail race. Despite being unprepared and without proper gear or water supplies, she ran the race and became the Women’s champion, coming in under 9 hours. She had inadvertently taken part in her first ever trail race and had completed it faster than many of the men.
Richard Bull, founder of Trail Running Nepal and also the organiser of that race, was so impressed by Mira Rai’s talent and determination that he took her under his wing. He raised money to send her to compete in overseas races and she duly won them all. Being Mira Rai’s mentor, it was not surprising that she turned up at our race briefing to give us a pep talk and morale boost.
After the briefing, we asked CP to join us for dinner and we ate at an eatery nearby. After dinner, we went to the Freedom Adventure Treks office to collect our number tags. As we needed to wake up early for the race tomorrow, I went to bed at 8pm but I couldn’t sleep as I was too excited. I only managed to fall asleep at around 9pm+. In just a few hours’ time, I will be taking part in my first ever 50km trail race in Nepal!