Everest Uncensored

Hiking in Nepal -especially in the hilly areas- is a great activity full of fun and adventure. My office, Deerwalk Services, had recently organized such a hike, and I decided to join in to be part of fun and excitement. The hike was to start at seven in the morning on March 17, 2012, Saturday. The planned route was from Majhitar to Trishuli in Nuwakot district.

As planned, we gathered at the office premises at 7 AM in the morning. We had planned for twelve members in the hike. However, two of the members could not make it due to some urgent work. So, we were left with ten folks. We left the office at 7:30 AM by bus. The hiking starting point was about three hours drive away. On the way, we briefly stopped for breakfast at a place called Ranipauwa. We finally reached our starting Point –a place called Tigaun – at about eleven.

Our walk started from Tigaun, and the fun started. It was much more exciting than I had expected.  We passed many villages, forests, rivers, and muddy paddy fields. As we were passing through a village, people began watching us with surprised look on their faces, as if we were the first outsiders to reach there. They asked us where we were going, and we replied – “Majhitar”. Looking even more surprised, they suggested that we would have been better off taking the bus to get there. Little did they know that we were on a hike!

As we walked, we were searching for shortcuts instead of using the existing trails. At one point, we resorted to following the local women – who were going to the forest to get grass to feed the cattle – so they could guide us through the wilderness of the forest. We even joked with the ladies – asking them to help search for beautiful local girls for our friends to marry.

Walking through muddy fields was the one of the interesting parts of the hike. In some places, as there was no path for walking, we had to walk through the muddy paddy fields – delicately balancing our body so we would not fall. The most memorable moment of the hike was Basant’s disappearance. While we were busy tending to our muddy feet after the wade through the fields, we suddenly realized that Basanta was nowhere to be seen. We moved our eyes to search for him – and much to our relief – we saw him waving his hands from the field below where he had fallen.

We continued walking. We passed a Hanging Bridge on Madi river, which was really beautiful. Crossing the bridge, we walked up the hill and reached Majhitar – our final destination. At Majhitar, we had some cold drinks and food, and took a little rest.

We then began our journey back to Battar, where our bus was waiting for us. It was about 3 PM when we reached Battar. As we still had some time left in the day and we had not had enough of the walk, we decided to walk further. So, we headed off to Nuwakot.

Upon reaching Nuwakot, we ordered our lunch in a restaurant. In the meantime, as the lunch was being prepared, we went to visit Nuwakot Durbar (palace), where King Prithivi Narayan Shah had lived. The palace was made by the king as a safe haven from enemies. We visited the jail at the palace as well. After the little tour, we went back to the restaurant to have our lunch. The lunch was so delicious that most of us realized only after the meal that we could eat so much. I would never forget the ghee that was served with the meal there.

After the lunch, we returned back to the office. With all the fun, it seemed that the day had passed quickly. We chose a different route on our return trip – Trishuli to Galchi and then to Kathmandu. On the way back, we passed through a place called “Devighat”, where King Prithivi Narayan Shah had died. We reached the office at eight in the evening, having captured some of those unforgettable moments in our cameras as well, which should help us relive those moments time and again…

It was a brilliant Saturday morning when we gathered at the office around 7:30am and a few of the hikers joined us from Balaju. We traversed the Balaju-Bypass road and the beautiful scenery of mountain range and view of distant hills greeted us with a promise of an enjoyable day ahead. We arrived in the Ranipaunwa from Kathmandu after a drive of about 40 minutes. We had a breakfast there and heard from the locals that Sisneri was only a hour away. So in search for a tougher route, we decided to go to Nuwakot Durbar (about 5-6 hours on foot).

We started around 9:30 am and everyone was ready to walk for 5-6 hours however we all knew that it was going to be a tough hike. We went downhill through Thangsingh V.D.C enjoying magnificent view of the greenery. We picked and relished in pomelo (भोगटे) and Oranges during the course of our journey. We forged ahead asking the locals for direction.

As we ascended higher we saw fewer houses and people and we had to rest on occasions and each such occasion rewarded us with magnificence of greenery of the adjoining hills and valleys. We also went through another small village Chaturali. It was a small and interesting village community living off the land and rearing livestock. We had to cross a small river before reaching the Malkot. After resting for awhile, we continued our hike with hungry and tired faces. Then we crossed 336 meter long Malkot-Shera suspension bridge to reach Shera at around half past three in the afternoon. Here we get to know that Malkot is one fort of Nuwakot along with Belkot, Kalikot, Bhairavkot, Dhuwankot, Pyaskot, Simalkot, Dhaibunkot and Salyankot.

We climbed up the hill for almost 2 hours to reach Nuwakot Durbar which was our final destination. The historical palace area of Nuwakot located at 76 km far north-west of Kathmandu has been regarded as an important place since ancient time. The Saat Tale Darbar (Seven Storied Palace) is the main attraction of Nuwakot. It was built by Prithivi Narayan Shah by evicting labourers from Lalitpur in 1762 and still it is regarded as a model of effluent architecture. It was already 5:30pm when we reached Nuwakot Durbar. So we just roamed around Sat Tale Darbar, Taleju temple and had some photographs. We had meal around 6pm in the Hotel, then we headed back towards Kathmandu in the van with tired legs but a satiated heart and a relaxed-peaceful mind. It was a memorable day for all the participants of the hike.

Hikers Experience:

Sajjan Shrestha: “It was just amazing, fun & adventurous hike for me. All those landscape, bhogate, tiredness ,leg pain and river crossing will always remain unforgettable. And most importantly I enjoyed the company of Dambar, Sunil, Rosina, Nisha, Resha, Ramesh, Suman, Sumit , Aawart, Shukra & Basant. So I like to thank Dambar, Sumit and the rest of the hikers for changing the destination of our hike to Nuwakot instead of Sisneri. Otherwise it wouldn’t be as fun as we had in this hike. Therefore for me this hike ROCKED although it was tough…..:)”

Reshu Shedain: “This was my first hike from deerwalk and i enjoyed it fully. The hike destination was completely new to me.It was very beautiful and serene place. We walked for almost 8 hours enjoying the nature and eating “Bhogatey”all the way. I got a chance to become familiar with many people during the hike. All were very helpful and caring. Of course I was very tired but the company was awesome. Overall the hike was incredible.”

Rosina Shakya: “The start of the day with sunshine gave a pleasant feeling for the hike. I had never been to Ranipauwa and so the excitement began from the day the hike was set. On reaching the starting point, there went discussions of where exactly we should head and how. The boys were busy discussing while we girls were happy fetching the sun. The short hike turn out to be a really long one with the steep downhills. It was a real pain when more than half the day we had to go down and down and down. But along the way, we fueled ourselves with pomelo and some oranges directly from the trees. Finally reaching the destination after climbing the steepy hill, we could cherish our accomplishment what had seemed impossible earlier. It gave a sheer pleasure when we could see the sublime beauty of the mountains and the rivers we had crossed. ”

Ramesh Banjade: “The hike was really fun. During the journey, it was nice to see fantastic view on the way to Ranipaunwa to Nuwakot. We had a lot of funny jokes . We walked around 8 hours but I didn’t know how the time had spend. Thank you all for making wonderful moment, I enjoyed a lot!
”

Participants: Anupa, Nishchal, PradeepG (rookie), ManojR, Abishesh and Vishnu
Route: Ranipauwa to Jagarebhanjyang to Sisneri
Date: Sunday, Aug 26, 2007
Duration: 4 hours
Trip Doom: 12-Kilo meters
Report: PradeepG
Photo: NishchalS and Abishesh
Creative Support: NishchalS

Hiking from Ranipauwa to Sisneri

Vishnu, Nischal, Anupa, Abishesh, Manoj and myself were the team to enjoy the day together. At 7 am journey began from D2 office and we moved towards Balaju, where we bought some drinking water and few audio CDs to make our journey melodious. In the mean time, we picked up Nishchal at Balaju as well.

We crossed Osho Tapoban, through an unsullied weather and misty environment and stopped at the middle of way to take breakfast at 8:15 am. We took Chiura, Aloo and Khasi ko though mashu for an unusual repast and it was difficult for me to eat the mashu, nonetheless we had to take those in the hope that the place had to offer for best and that was not true. Soon after, we resumed our journey and reached at Ranipauwa from where we commenced our journey. Though we estimated, our tour would finish in one and half hrs, at the end it took four hrs in total to complete.

In the beginning, leeches troubled a lot even though they were very tiny in size, but enough to make us very conscious to make unable to walk freely. Those bloodsuckers were clever enough to enter inside our shoes also. Nishchal was wondering about why most of the leeches trying to attack him at most frequently. I thought it will mess up our journey but later on we did not had to worry about them as the magical nature differed from obvious one. We enjoyed walking through as well the place offered in variation as pine forest to mudded landscape, Rocky Mountains, and via small village.

Vishnu, Abishesh and Manoj were always ahead on walking but me, Nischal and Anupa were far behind them through entire hiking. In between, we played music out of the mobile of Anupa and Nishchal. The song “lakhau patak” by Nabin K Bhattarai had been played for lakhau patak, and that was exciting to walk with music in background. In addition, yes how can I forget the activeness for photography of Nishchal and Abishesh. They tried to capture every moment and wonderful scenery including group and single snaps. Two interesting incident were also there during the walk, Nishchal got sting of Sisnu and Anupa slipped at her feet twice. Nevertheless, the beautiful view and cool breeze at the top of the hill swept away all our pain. Sometime we thought that we were lost as invisibility occurred by the thick mist but we relieved when we reached at a small village at last. Since we all were tired and wised a rest with a cup of hot tea and light snacks. Our photographers once again made busy themselves for capturing the photos of village Children and Women. It’s already 12:30 pm by now so we descended our journey to reach Sisneri, at the main road of Kathmandu to Trishuli. And that was the toughest walk I felt and my feet were tottering.

As soon as we were moving down raining started and became heavy when we were reaching to Sisneri. Where we met our van and after a short riding, we arrived at “Falls and Rainbow Trout Restaurant” which is famous for the Rainbow Trout fish farming and fish recipes. This place we chose to take rest and have finest lunch. The locals have there their own ponds for fishery and they use to cook those fresh fishes as visitors desire.

We rested and ordered some beer and cold drinks along with very famous fish item. It was delicious though Anupa did not take a single piece because she fears fish bone. Abishesh has discovered a new recipe of cocktails called submarine and Nishchal tried that quickly. At 2 pm, we began with our lunch and that became tastier when Vishnu narrated some interesting stories of his life including two major accidents he met earlier.

At 5 pm, it was still raining though we had to live for Kathmandu as some of us were afraid of getting dark and at around six in the evening, we reached Balaju where Nischal got off. Avoiding terrible traffic jammed we finally managed to reach to D2hawkeye premises and time asked us for break up to our individual destinations.

By nature I am less talkative although I listened more and I enjoyed listening others talking and their stories silently. It was my first memorable hiking with D2 in spite of it made me exhausted but without a question, I enjoyed a lot.

01 Favorable to lives to move in

02 Free from noxious matter

03 Machinate-silhouette

04 You could reach Jagare in one and half hour-not really

05 provision of space and equipment helpful to others is religion-Ambulance says

06 Jitpur-Kakani-Ranipauwa 4 days treks

07 Warming up beneath blue sky

08 Enterprising

09 Let’s put the music on

10 Music and pace go together

11 Sense of hearing

12 Walking with regular steps

13 One house village in Biredanda

14 Niks please DO NOT SMOKE this will destroy you

15 Niks in a series of related events-1

16-Two

17-III

18-4

19 And five

20 Follow us it is good walking here

21 This gentle man has goat-farming herefrom other village

22 OFF U GO Anupa

23 A request to participate

24 The place of two stories down-left area of Surendra’s forefathers-right-up SharadP was not that happy in previous hike

25 Man at work

26 Man in the middle 76 walks everyday 3-4 hours

27 They need 2-3 months to cash them

28 Amazement!!

29 Recalling yesteryear while climbing up here

30 The facial expression of locals pleased us

31 Niks pulled a fast one on here

32 But this wood stood strong-stood proud-stood tall

33 Impersonal involvement yet togetherness

34 Pradeep when you hike second time please do like this

35 The trail on the left takes us to Jagare

36 Cautiously attentive

37 Manoj and Vishnu looking up

38 Lower-central-higher

39 An abrupt transition-the fun of the trail

40 They did it for the fun of it

41 For the power of retaining and recalling the past experience

42 The place fit to 4 & 2 appendages

43 She waited Nishchal to meet her

44 On the right from here we could have beautiful views towards Nuwakot

45 First timer PradeepG enjoys views

46 See you in Jagare

47 Resting at Jagare

48 The door made to her height & size

49 The other hikers of Gosaikund we met them at Jagare

50 Anupa and Niks curious about their adventure as they were carrying most needed stuffs with them

51 They left with weight up and we beganweight down

52 Niks was interested on her ornaments

53 Manoj was waiting here for us

53 The hill says get ready all of you and leave those umbrellas at home

54 The act of making less strict

55 Bharati’s Rainbow Trout- Rough and tough and strong and mean- do not lose your head and stay in the basket