Everest Uncensored

Hiking Route: Kurintar – Keurepani – Manakamana Temple – Kurintar
Duration: 10 hr
Date: Sunday, August 24, 2008
Participants: RudraP, LunaG, GaneshT, SauravD, SameshJ, DijupT, SitaP, RinaM, KesavB, SangharshaB, BidhaR, SumitS, and DhilungK.
Photos: EU Team (SangharshaB, KesavB, SameshJ, SumitS, RinaM, BidhaR, DijupT, and DhilungK)
Caption: DijupT, BidhaR and BishwaS
Report by: BidhaR and SangharshaB
Creative Support: Dijup / Pallavi

This was the first EU Special hiking for the EU team members. We were all very excited as we were going to visit one of the temples-Manakamana reputed for fulfilling one’s wishes. Although some of the team members couldn’t make it, we were there to represent them too.

01 Team Members: Dijup, Sangharsha, Luna, Kesahv, Sita, Sumit, Bidha, Rina, Dhilung, Ganesh, Saurav, Samesh and Rudra.(Left to right)

02 Mountain View
This was the shot taken from Thankot/Nagdhunga. The mountains above the hills and the clouds were simply awesome and the weather seemed to be in our favor to start our enthusiastic journey. At Dhading we stopped for tea, while Rudra dai took a walk to visit his relatives. Interestingly, the tea shop was named Pandey’s Kirana Pasal, later we found that the owner was Rudra dai’s relative.

Our journey continued with the visit to our regular breakfast point at Naubise – The Chadeshwori hotel, where we stopped for half an hour.

03 Getting ready

Finally, from Kurintar – Cable car station, our real hiking started. It was already noon and we were in the worst possible time to start the hike. Under the midday sun we got exhausted and it was the time when the group got separated into two. The exhaustion grew stronger whenever we saw the cable car passing above us, like a glider and we were there walking just to reach the top of the hill.

The weather got better after an hour which brought life to our walk.

04 Thank you

As we would get late to visit the schools, we rather distributed the copies/pencils to the school kids returning from the school.

05 Children of Keurepani

Write nice things, beautiful words, draw nice pictures and remain happy as you are now.

06 Manakaman temple

Ahhhhh… the temple is here, we finally reached Manakamana with complete expenditure of energy. We worshipped there and just waited for the other group to get there. Finally they reached the place after 45 minutes. We were planning to return by Cable Car but to our disappointment we were too late to catch the Cable car. We just could not imagine returning through the same path on the same day. But there was no other option left for us. So, we had lunch and a small photo session there.

Photo Session Part I: Can you guess what were we doing out there?

Trying to make EU symbolically by our hands. It was a fun indeed.

Photo session Part II: This is the EU…

10 Ready to return
Way Back to Kurintar:
Our journey back on the same trail started at around 6:15 pm, and we were obviously late. The evening was cool though, as we walked down the hill passing through the villages on the way, talking to the locals returning from the jungle with their cattle.
The path – bright at first, gradually started to fade. As we moved ahead, we kept loosing the light.

11 Dawn

By now the sun had already bid us good bye -the sight of the twilight spilled all over the horizon. As we started rolling down the same path that we have started, gradually the visible path turned into a faded whiteness, then it slowly merged into the darkness around us. Next resort – the mild light of the cell phone guided us through the darkness and jungle. We all were little tensed too because it was a long way to get down there. But without losing hope and courage we all progressed towards our destination with as much speed as we could make. We could just see the lights of Cable car station from atop the hill and except the distant light and the surrounding darkness, all we had was ourselves, and nothing else.

“This is a dry land covered with forest… most prone to encounter a tiger” Rudra was saying while we returned. (Were we less scared already to walk on that dark trail?)

12 At the base

Finally, we reached the base, loosened ourselves, had some cool air on the suspension bridge over Trishuli, The mission had been accomplished – the steep track which seemed less possible in the midday sun had been measured with our footsteps and we were back to the station.
And then the moments of recollection started – the dry hike to the top and the dark descent back to ground zero had left us with lots of insight. We listened to the silent roars of the Trishuli waves and the reflection on the water while we waited for our friends to catch up. We spent some speechless moments.

The clock ticked 8, it was late and we still had to travel 3 hours to reach Kathmandu. So without wasting time we travelled back to Kathmandu. Running out of energy, we collapsed in the van, slowly reviewing the day that had passed and exchanging the cameras to recap the timestamps we had captured on the way..

[piclens-lite-link]Please click on the image to see its large version.

13 Lava and his philosophy 14 all set and ready to go 15 EU photography 16 EU shutters 17 carrying things 18 this is how we look form back 19 Time to go school 20 waiting for future 21 Experiment 22 Here we come 23 jamka bhet 24 We are getting late 25 buddha stupa 26 Fountain 27 Scenery 28 Land of temples 29 start 30 we can do it 31 The journey begins 32 it looks impossible 33 exhausted yesss 36 holding the car 34 behind the scene 35 Here comes result 37 what to do no monkey in the town 38 I can smile though…… 39 ready for shot 40 what is the price of this smile 41 Dhilung with his shot 42 Exhausted not, GT opts for a short halt 43 balak what do u want 44 Back together 45 is this real smile 46 It`s tough yaar 47 hdr 2 48 running time once again 49 Tough road 50 water supply exhausted 51 looking to the other side 52 Paani ra Tirkha 53 this is the smile of rest 54 working full time 55 working part time 56 All about EU 57 innocent 58 children of the nation 59 we will be ready to walk with you 60 Childish shot 61 there you go 62 Ramro sanga padhnu hai 63 will anyone cary my camera 64 height of dream 65 View from height 66 Our destination 67 things have changed a lot 68 finally we are near the destination 69 Small shops at the temple 70 Balla darsan garna payo 71 means of transportation 72 Want to know my wish…. 73 Devotees 74 let`s call some one 75 salute to EU 76 Planning 77 both side of EU 78 dancing ….. 79 E 80 Temple 81 Dhilung with trisul in his hand 82 Feels good 83 U 84 Side view of the temple 85 What is the EU ? 86 Glorious dusk 87 Blissful moment 88 Light of life 89 View just after sunset 90 Time and nature 91 Dawn 92 Lets take a nice shot from here 93 Its too dark can`t see anything 94 A night to remember 95 haha can u do this 96 Light birds

Theme: Revisiting the History – Part II ‘Destination Nuwakot’
Hiking Route: Trishuli Bazar – Nuwakot Durbar
Day: July 13, 2008, Sunday
Hike Coordinator: Ganesh Thapa
Participants: Ganesh Thapa, Vishnu Kshettri, Raju Maharjan, Sajan Sangraula, Bhanu Chalise, Madhav Sigdel, Babins Shrestha, Sunny Shakya, Prajwal Shrestha, Dipti Khanal, Shristi Rawal, Rajani Chulyadyo, Manisha Singh, Puja KC
Caption: VishnuK/GaneshT
Camera: SajanS, BhanuC, PrajwalS, ShristiR, RajuM and GaneshT
Report: SunnyS/GaneshT
Creative Support: Dijup/Pallavi

I am not exaggerating, but I didn’t really get a good night sleep on Saturday night as I kept on thinking about the trip the next day. On a cloudy and misty ,Sunday morning, D2 team was all set to depart with the motto of making the hike to Nuwakot Durbar a historic one. The weather continued to be the same throughout the day with some occasional drizzles. The winding roads, amazing waterfalls, chilling foggy weather and lofty mountains entertained us throughout the journey.

We reached Trishuli Bazaar at around 12:15 pm. We had not expected Trishuli Bazaar to be so such a hot and humid place. Many of us were already drenched with sweat. We somehow managed to start the ball rolling up the hill to Nuwakot Durbar which was about 6 kilometers away from us. After climbing up through the forest for a while, the hikers were confronted with two ways, a regular motor way and the other being through the forest. These two ways divided the hikers into two groups. The steep and muddy way seemed to bring anybody down to their knees. Both the groups united at around half way up the hill. The group that took the way through the forest reached 15 minutes before us and that’s because “Two roads diverged in a wood, they travelled the one that was least travelled by and that made all the difference” difference in time taken to be precise. From the half way, all of us climbed the hill as a group. The group disbanded and reunited at many points.

Throughout the way, Shristi and Vishnu dai made us familiar with many species of plants over thereAfter a while, the sun appeared all of a sudden out of those clouds and it was too hot for us to climb up the hill. Climbing up the hill in such a hot and humid climate was the arduous part of the hike. All those efforts paid up, once we reached the Nuwakot Durbar. The panoramic view from there simply took us by surprise. Eastern views of the Himalayan foothills, the Tadi River through the valley below and on the river’s bank , the lush green fields of the agricultural farms, Western views of the Trisuli Bazaar, the narrow market streets of Trisuli Bazaar views of the Bagh Bagaincha (Tiger Garden ) and the traditional trekking route to Gorkha were simply breath-taking. Too bad, we could not see the beautiful scenes of Ganesh and Langtang Himal.. All were filled with joy and ecstasy when somebody from the group shouted, “Saat Talle Durbar”. Standing tall at seven storeys, it was the very Saat Talle Durbar, the once-palace of King Prithvi Narayan Shah that we had read in the school text books, back in the childhood days. What was more fascinating to know about the building was that even the 1990BS earthquake could do no any harm to it. But the joy couldn’t hang any longer in anybody’s face when the security person informed us that the palace was shut down for the time being due to present political condition in the nation.

It was the southern view of the Devighat, Battar and the confluence of the two rivers that gave us some relief. The Nuwakot Durbar looks historic with those ancient wood carvings and sculptures. The wood carvings that aged back to seventeenth century were fabulous piece of artifact. Besides Nuwakot Durbar there was Rani Mahal where dancers used to perform for the kings. It amazed us when somebody informed us that the dancers were brought in, even from Lucknow.

Beside palaces, there were Taleju Temple and Bhairavi temple. After visiting all the places, we rested for a while at Naya bazaar and went to Devighat where Tadi River and Trisuli River meet to become the greater Trisuli.- roaring aloud.. On the way back from the Devghat, we also discovered that the only school at Devghat was closed for summer vacation. We distributed copies and pencils to the local children over there. They were more than delighted to receive them.

Then we started the journey back to Kathmandu. On the way back home, the game of “Antakshari” between the front and back sitters made the journey even more fun-filled. After the nice meal, we continued the journey back home and nobody knew when the game of “Antakshari” had turned into a solo performance. Solo performances from Raju, Madhav, Shristi and Vishnu kept us entertaining throughout the way.

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Please click on the image to see its large version.

01 A working class hero is something to be	02 We bent, crawled, tiptoed and climbed
03 Beauty on the trail	04 Dipti, giving a second thought on whether to continue with the route
05 Five plus kilometers of path like this and I will pat you a good job	06 The anticipated challenge
07 Creatures in different shape and sizes	08 Preferring the tougher trail
09 Vulnerable and delicate beauty	10 Go anywhere, you`re not away from beauty anytime
11 V searching for peace everywhere	12 Well, why not a shot before we begin a good work
13 The wind blows west as I whistle down the road	14 the man of stunt
15 Rajani on the lead, a rare and dear scene	16 is Sajan boasting over his cell
17 Trying hard to catch the leaders	18 V always there to lead
19 A short halt after an arduous job	20 The rendezvous
21 Some therotical lessons	22 the land of temples it is
23 No confrontation here, lockdown is a lockdown	24 Sketching the police in roots and leafs
25 A PN Shah replica in the making	26 the old roof penetrating the sky
27 An ancient art of work	28 another magnificent piece of work
29 Please take what I say on your own risk, can`t guarantee its true	30 Krishna standing gracious even in the woods
31 Waitin for preservation	32 the roof to touch the sky
33 Survived what not, deadly earthquake, heavy rainfalls, snowy winter	34 Immense as it looks, the composition is of such tiny pieces of art
35 Woods speak its centuries old story	36 a clever art of work
37 Artifacts aging centuries back	38 With Rangmahal mood
39 Can`t take my eyes off you	40 immense, giant, the PN Shah palace
41 Saat Talle Durbar tanding tall and proud	42 PN Shah built this skyscraper with skills from Lalitpur
43 Tadi river as seen from the durbar premises	44 a piece of temple in itself
45 Three Malla Kings lived here before PN Shah	46 Support, for each other
47 Another look of Tadi river	48 The Washerman bird captured, exclusively for EU
49 Competing with the sky	50 Torn apart
51 The art of the magic hands	52 Bhairab goes all red
53 Malla`s durbar taken in by Nepal Army now	54 The romantic story generator Rangmahal
55 the premises of Nuwakot Palace	56 The Taleju temple
57 Hoping for blessings	58 Leaving behind the durbars
59 Zooming into the giant	60 Hope to live more than 5000 years
61 I`d love to retire at this place	62 Love to look after this plant after retirement
63 Stopping by the giant palaces	64 the virgin sky
65 a view of Trishuli bazar from Nuwakot	66 The dream destination, the clouds
67 harmonious brick and stone	68 Manage business working around for Aloe Vera
69 Nuwakot Indra chowk linga	70 An elderly lady preparing cotton strings
71 Local industry, incense	72 Guarded or threatened by wire
73 In her seventies	74 Pleasing to the eye
75 a scenic beauty	76 a true friends to each other
77 1 Captured in a moment	78 the Trishuli
79 the swinging road	80 in the name of the Trishuli
81 a lil bit of helping hand	82 a moment to be with them
83 As the dusk takes over the day

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216. Catching up with Rhino
Photo By: Bertrand Linet
Posted Date: 16 June 2008

Description:
The One-horned Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Unicornis) are found in Nepal. Because of human influence their range has shrunk and now they only exist in small populations in northeastern India and Nepal. It is confined to the tall grasslands and forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.(Wiki)
Children at Sauraha grow up close to these wild animals, and nature. It was shot from Chitwan National Park.

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Life In Nepal