Rejuvenating the spirit
Thirteen ladies of D2 were all set to rejuvenate their spirits into one of the most cherished tradition named ‘Hiking’. The vivacious beauties congregated at D2 premises on a misty Sunday morning and left around 6:45 am with every intention to explore the adventures of the new trail. Since this was the first one-of-a-kind ladies hiking, we thought of enhancing the already unique event by coming up with a dress code. Everyone agreed to wear white tops to show uniformity. Cracking jokes, taking snapshots, and sightseeing along the way, we headed towards our destination.

We started our hike from Lele. After walking for some distance, we saw a school named ‘Sri Gupteshwori Nimna Madhyamik Bidhyalaya’ at a place called Nallu. We decided to stop by and spend some time there. We had a short interaction with the teachers and distributed stationery and chocolates to the students. Then we bid them goodbye and continued with our hike.
After a while we stopped for breakfast at a local tea. While waiting for breakfast, we came up with a brilliant idea to play “Dumb Charade” and had loads of fun. AnjanaS was victorious in the game and Brija was the funniest. She had to enact this movie called “Musafir”. By showing her white-colored T-shirt and her gesture of playing badminton, everyone guessed that the actor was none other but “Jeetendra” – some style he’s got!

After a hearty breakfast, we headed for Lamidanda, our ultimate destination. This was probably the toughest part of our hike because of the steep climb; and the simple fact that it was monsoon made it even worse. The route was teeming with blood-thirsty leeches. The frantic cries of the hikers were common after being attacked by the leeches but the parasites couldn’t deter the spirit of the thirteen ladies. Instead, we learnt a lesson from them: “Run for your life”. Whenever we stopped for some rest, the very sight of the leeches stretching their heads out to reach to us made us forget our tiredness and run further up. Brija was left wondering why the leeches stayed at places where people hardly tred. They might as well go and live in the cities.

Learning the lesson of the day, all the hikers ventured up the hill in the cool weather that further revitalized them. We finally reached the army barrack on the top of the hill. The open field and the view were both captivating. We were really amazed at the beauty of the place.
On the way back, we stopped to plant paddy as it was Ashad 15 – the day people sow grain in the country. The local population was warm and hospitable. We joined them to plant and plough, and sang folk and Ashare songs with them. So enthralling was their voice that some of us even started dancing to the tunes. They were also so delighted that they offered us some of their home made pickle. After spending about an hour in the muddy field, we headed back to Kathmandu.

Though we left the place, and the leeches, and the school, and the tea shop that took us back into our childhood, and the marvelous view, and the field planting with the locals, and the sweat behind, we carried with us memories to last for a life time.

After all, the pain and the loss of blood were definitely worth the experience.

Start Slide Show
Please click on the image to see its large version.

01 Reserving the first Seat	02 Happy to hike
03 The eager interns	04 D2 Ambassador
05 Getting ready for the tough path ahead	06 Hiking essentials
07 The trail begins	08 The march forward
09 ….and the cows accompany us	10 On the way to Lamedanda
11 The landscape	12 Heaven on earth
13 The misty mountain	14 Lonely path
15 3D photography	16 Children of the corn
17 Spectacular spectators	18 Sisters in hand
19 The peaceful mountains	20 House atop hill
21 Entering the local tea shop	22 I drink tea
23 You drink tea	24 She drinks tea
25 And we all drink tea	26 Those are for us
27 Helping hands	28 Icecream soda sugar on the top….
29 It has 10 words…..dumb charade	30 The first syllable is….dumb charade
31 Being attentive	32 Flies flying to BOSTON
33 Motherly care Part1	34 Motherly care Part2
35 The school we would go to	36 Talking with the teacher
37 Here you go nanu	38 Thank you D2
39 Innocence thrusting her nose	40 I love the lady foreigners
41 Those creatures called `D2 Women`	42 Free flowing water
43 Rain drops in the water	44 Crossing the river
45 This is how we do it	46 Time to hike again
47 Yes Jyotsna, that is the spirit	48 Interns follow
49 The steep climb	50 Sky touching trees
51 One Two Three	52 A guest hiking partner
53 In front of the barrack	54 Dai, tyo jutta ma ni juka pascha….
55 In my territory	56 Beautiful skinned insect
57 The catepillar before	58 The butterfly after
59 Bloody leach honored	60 Shooing the leeches
61 End of the descend	62 Can you see the blood
63 Checking for leeches in there	64 Walking under the umbrellas
65 And the God spoke to us…..	66 We believe we can fly
67 We believe we can touch the sky	68 Sweet Pragya
69 Women padding	70 We go join them
71 Planting	72 Together we plant again
73 Standing above our own reflections	74 Rina at home with the locals
75 Dancing to their songs	76 We all have a good time
77 And so do they	78 The muddy feet
79 Ho mane ho	80 Ashare pandra gift
81 Mark of Asar 15	82 Let`s get going now
83 Worldly wisdom	84 Another mark of Asar
85 Lunch time in Ktm	86 Wonders of Tukche
87 And finally…thanks to Ram dai!

Start Slide Show

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DAY 1
Escape from Kathmandu Valley
Unfortunately, it was the day of strike in Kathmandu valley. With a small discussions with the protestors at Koteshwor, we headed towards Bhaktapur and then Jagati so as to make a narrow escape.

Vehicle Tour to Charikot
It was nothing less than a good tour on the office vehicle. We had the advantage of both hiking and tour in a single package towards. We were all equally excited and curious about reaching the destination. Some jokes and gossips on the way, enjoying the nature and taking wonderful snapshots of the beautiful and natural views of mountains, rivers, streams, we reached Charikot, the district headquarter of Dolakha.

Dolakha, Bhimeswor and Charikot
Charikot a town situated on top of a hill and surrounded by mountains is one of the most wonderful places in Nepal. With little rest, we went to the famous ‘Dolakha Bhimeshwor’ temple. Legend has it that the idol perspires as a warning of a possible disaster in the country.

Charikot to Jiri

We continued our journey towards Jiri crossing beautiful Tamakoshi River, small Maina Pokhari village and savoring the greenery on the highway. Finally, we reached ‘JIRI’ at about 7:00 PM. With little rest and some tea, we decided to start our hike from Khawa. Among 13 hikers, only 9 decided to go to Thulo Patal as it was already getting dark and rest planned to stay at Jiri and hike to the School, paper factory, monastery and cheese factory the next day.

Night Hiking

As compared to previous hiking at D2, this one was completely unusual as the real hike started from 8:00 PM (hiking under night sky). Added, we forgot to take the dry foods that we had bought earlier. After buying small torches for each of us so as to kill the dark and help ourselves to walk in night, we moved ahead towards our real destination ‘THULOPATAL’ to be a one day villager. The supposed half an hour hike did not end even in an hour. All of us started to wonder if THULOPATAL existed at all. “Are we on the right trail? If yes, how far is the destination?” These questions started haunting us. The lights were getting dimmer and the night was getting deeper. Then to our relief, we reached a place called ‘Lahare Mane’ at 9:15 PM. There we came to came to know ThuloPatal was still far far away. Having tea and a little discussion with the local villagers over there, we again decided to continue our hiking over the night sky. ‘JUKA VOKA CHAN’ (leeches are hungry) was the phrase used by villager to lure us to stay in his hotel. But, we had to reach our Dhurba dai’s ghar at ThuloPatal, so we had no choice but to move on.

The Rescuer ‘Tilak Bahadur Tamang’
Moments later we came to know that we actually were to reach DandaKharka, situated in remote hills of ThuloPatal VDC. Our previous assumption of half an hour hike was then a big blow to all of us.
As the clock was ticking towards midnight and most of the people were sleeping in their cozy bed, nine of us were wandering in the forest seeking the right direction towards DandaKharka. We didn’t know we were heading towards the wrong direction until we heard someone cough nearby. Luckily, the man replied to our shouts and decided to join us.

Dhurba
Finally, we reached Dhurba’s house under guidance of Tilak Bahadur. But to our dismay, we came to know that there were many persons named Dhurba in that VDC and the Dhurba we were referring lived at about half an hour’s walk from there. We had no option, but to walk. Everyone was quiet on the outside and equally furious from the inside. Tilak was a great motivator. After 5 hours and 30 minutes of continuous hike over slippery and dangerous jungle trail we reached our destination at 1:30 am (the house of Dhurba Kafle). Dhruba was a cheerful person and he couldn’t believe we had made it to his house under such conditions. We enjoyed the dinner on the top of his house (Buigal) and discussing the earlier events, we then went to deep sleep.

DAY 2
Warming up
We had to wake up early in the morning as the village life had already started. We had no idea where we were, and it was a surprise to look outside and find ourselves in the middle of a cliff. Dhruba’s family members were nice to us and served morning tea to us. It was already getting hotter, and we had a big day ahead. Four hours of hiking lay ahead, so we gathered our belongings and bidding goodbye to Dhruba, we decided to return back to JIRI following alternative descending trail at 8:00 am.

Devi’s house
The journey back was rather interesting. We met different people on the way and shared wonderful experiences with them. One of them was Devi. We reached her house on the way for information on the actual way to JIRI. She served us plums (aalu bokhara).One of us took her photos as if she were modeling. Another one talked to her and he came to know that she was not married yet.

Fulfillment of the theme of the Hiking

We met farmers busy in their fields.. As fulfillment of the theme ’Being a one day villager’, we decided to help them in their work. It was good to give a helping hand to an old lady. We took her photo along with her son and promised to send it to her. We left the village back and continued with the descent. As we were already hungry and no signs of any shops or hotels were to be seen nearby, we asked a young boy named GAMBU BIKA to prepare some food for us. He boiled some potatoes, and provided us wheat, maize and some plums. We thanked the boy and moved forward.

On the Way
We had already been hiking for five hours, and Jiri was still a distant dream for us. Then suddenly it rained. As we waited patiently for the rain to stop, we realized we weren’t going to make it to JIRI if we were to keep waiting. We bought an umbrella from a man who was returning to his home. Then, another man gave us his umbrella on the condition of returning it back to him by dropping it in his friend’s shop in Jiri-encouragement for hiking in the heavy rain.

Get Together
As some of us had hiked faster and some were lagging behind, the hikers reaching JIRI first had to wait. People who stayed at JIRI reached Hat Bazaar at 5:00 PM and finally, all of us were altogether. We decided to journey back to Kathmandu and it was 12:30 am Monday when we reached Kathmandu.

Start Slide Show

01 Capital`s crippling life	02 Break, Leak, Smoke, Breathe Time
03 Waiting for breakfast at Zero Kilo	04 Silent Road (Noisy Van) to Nowhere
05 BLSB Time (Part 2)	06 Sub hiking at Mudhe
07 Messing with local children	08 Feeling shy
09 Helping family	10 RajendraB sharing the Load
11 Smile My Little Sunshine	12 Mudhe Bazzar
13 Great Sky	14 NirajS (Read the T shirts)
15 Culmination point of Araniko Highway	16 Entrance to Dolakha
17 Driving into the Clouds	18 Courageus RajendraB
19 Frozen in time	20 Free Flow (Charange Any Time)
21 Stairway to Dolakha Bhimsen	22 Dolakha Bhimsen
23 English speaking Sadhu	24 Sacrificing rate @ Dolakha Bhimsen Temple
25 Riding the Bull	26 Together with Dolakha Bhimsen
27 Bird`s eye view of Tamakoshi from Peepalbot	28 On the Tamakoshi Bridge
29 Swollen Tamakoshi	30 Funtime at Tamakoshi
31 Scaffolds…	32 Sunbathing on one sunny afternoon
33 Tamakoshi Bridge Links Charikot to Jiri	34 Waiting for the tide
35 Pensive	36 SanjeetB and ManojR
37 Lunch at Tamakoshi	38 Serene Khawa
39 Drunken Master…Disaster!!!	40 Jiri or Zurich!
41 Jiri Bazaar, finally	42 Happy to hike at night
43 Midnight Harsh	44 Being lost and yet happy (Spot the Tiger in the background)
45 Ke ho yo	46 Typical shop at Laharemane
47 Traiditional kitchen at Laharemane	48 Rare hotel on the way to Danda Kharka
49 2AM and eyes wide open	50 Good morning
51 Tea time	52 Still moment at Dhruba Kafle`s house
53 (L to R) Sanjeet, Manoj, Dhruba Kafle (House owner), Tilak Tamang (Rescuer)	54 Bajai
55 Farewell	56 Second day`s hike began @ 8 am
57 Lost in the mist	58 ShankarS the Forester
59 Come on Guys!	60 A little rest
61 Enjoying Devi Sunuwar`s hospitality	62 Passing across villages
63 Waiting for fellow hikers	64 The dawn mist glowing, the water flowing, the endless river, forever and ever
65 Lava the Leader	66 They helped us
67 Go this way .. and left … and right…	68 …and up
69 ShankarS and ManojR	70 Wait a sec … Let me take a nap first
71 A march for Haat Danda	72 Long way to go
73 Do we have time to step down	74 Trying hard
75 Did I get it right..	76 Going easy
77 Helping hands	78 Two Maheshes MaheshS and MaheshR
79 Gambu`s small shop	80 Gambu`s hospitality
81 Solely from Gambu I	82 Solely from Gambu II
83 Gambu (on white shirt) saved us with filled belly	84 Towards Sikri
85 Just sown	86 Signs
87 Khimti River	88 Dragonfly
89 Busy day	90 Rain !! Does not matter
91 Villagers with traditional umbrella (Ghoom)	92 Good bye Sikri!!!
93 Final push to Haat Danda	94 Jiri Bazaar
95 Sidelined	96 AashishK and NirajS distribute notebooks and pencils to local kids in Jiri
97 They want more	98 There you go
99 Clearing marks off the yak cheese	100 Nepali paper in production