Aaja bhanda 5 barsa ra ek din aghi, December 29, 2000 arthat 2057 saal ko Poush 14 gatay. Tyahi din ko samjhana ma yaha kehi kordai chu I had started this thread about 3 years ago but never got to complete it. Yespaali chahi tukra tukra gari bistarai paskine sur gardai chu.
I was scheduled to leave for Pokhara along with my Japanese and Malaysian friends (from here on, known as J and M) who were visiting me in Kathmandu at that time. We had planned a short trek in the Annapurnas. Well, it happened to be during the time of the Hritik Roshan kanda. The previous day was the “Upatyaka Banda” called by the CPN ML. There were rumors that the same party was calling the following two days as “Nepal Banda.” Of course as usual, there was no word regarding this issue from the state controlled media. However, there were also rumors that other parties, including the CPN UML, had been negotiating with the CPN ML not to call a strike on the King’s birthday (ironically the last one for King Birendra). Without knowing for sure whether the strike was called off or not, the three of us left home around 5:45 am. As we walked through the Gusingaal ko galli, there were a couple of chiya pasals open but that was far from confirming that the strike was called off since shops away from the main streets are usually open anyway. As we reached Hanumanthan, we saw a taxi that appeared to be waiting for passengers. That sight gave a little boost to our worried spirits.
As we crossed the Bagmati bridge and headed west towards Tripureswore, we saw a few more vehicles. By now, we were thoroughly convinced that the strike was called off. Tespachi pabitra Tukucha paar gari Rangasaala ko chewai bata Uttar haniyo, walking along the sidewalk raised high above the street. Tudikhel ko cheu cheu hindai we arrived Sahid Gate around 6:20 am, where we were supposed to catch our “tourist bus” at 6:30. All the tourist buses were supposed to leave Thamel and come that way. There was one European looking dude smoking a cigarette. He asked us in his barely comprehensible English if we were headed to Pokhara, I replied on the positive. It was a cold and foggy morning, and time seemed to pass very slowly. Many local minibuses, microbuses, and tempos stopped and passed by. However, no tourist bus was to be seen. While the three of us were talking and shivering struggling to keep ourselves warm, the grumpy looking European dude, who was apparently the only other person waiting for a Pokhara-bound bus, kept smoking one after another cigarette.
It was almost 7 am when one tourist bus finally arrived but that was not ours. Showing our ticket (with the bus # endorsed as 101), I asked the conductor “Ek saya ek number ko bus audai cha ki chaina?” “Audai cha” was his reply. Other tourist buses, some bound to Tandi and some to Pokhara arrived after that and I asked the same question to the conductors of each of them just to receive the same reply. Eventually the chain smoker got into his bus. I now started having doubts. I was thinking that may be the operators of that bus did not know that the strike was not called off and therefore decided not to operate that day. The two started teasing me, “You screwed us up. That bus #101 does not even exist. See, even that chain smoker is already on his way.” At the same time, I was thinking of a contingency plan of taking a minibus run by the Prithvi Highway Syndicate should our bus not arrive within the next hour or so. After repeating the same question to a couple of other bus conductors, finally one of them said “la yesai ma aunus.” So finally around 7:15 or so, we were on our way to Pokhara.
Bus pheri khataray paraycha. It belonged to Monica Travels. Unlike other tourist buses we saw, it did not have tinted windows. The two got the relatively better seats but I got the only other of the two remaining 2*2 seats. The aisle seat beside me was out of order; the backrest was tilting all the way back making it almost a flat seat. I used it to place my backpack. The window was missing a knob and was not stable. Banda garyo, ekai chin ma khyatrang khyatrang gardai khulihalne ani cheeso sireto le attack dinthyo. Tesmathi tyo knob hunu parne thau ko pwal bata aune chiso hawa ta chadai cha. After exiting the valley at Nagdhunga, we got a brief glimpse of the Ganesh Himal. After numerous twists and turns, and greeting numerous night buses and trucks headed towards Kathmandu, we reached Naubise. Dr. Harka Gurung, in his renowned book “Vignettes of Nepal” states that the road between Thankot and Naubise turns 52 times. However, I have always been forgetting to make the count myself to verify his statement.
M and J had emailed me about their plan to visit Nepal way back in the summer. Luckily, I happened to be planning the same. That was when the idea of watching the new millennium’s sunrise from Poon Hill was conceived. Needless to say, that was the highlight of our trip. We woke up very early in the morning, and started our hike to Poon Hill. It was a steep uphill climb, and the trail was slippery due to the previous day’s snowfall. Hundreds of other trekkers were also climbing up in a single file. It looked like a long torch light parade. Almost an hour later, we reached the top of the hill. A lot of people were already there. Within a few minutes of our arrival, perhaps there were three or four hundred people. Soon the first rays of the sun appeared and everyone cheered again, “Happy New Year.” It was a very cold morning but no one seemed to be bothered. The majestic peaks including those of Dhaulagiri, Annapurna South, and Hiuchuli were in full view, turning from dark pink to golden to white as the sun rose. Seeing different kind of people speaking different languages, it appeared that the whole world was represented there. Everyone was busy taking pictures. Collectively, several thousand shots must have been taken within the next hour or so.
A makeshift shop sold beverages at outrageous prices. There was also a view tower but I did not find the views any better from there. Quite a few people offered to take group pictures of ours, and we did the same to them. An Asian lady asked us to say “koosee” as she took our picture. We asked her what it meant, and her answer was “happy in Nepali” “Khushi” po bhaneki rahicha ta. She was from Taiwan and spoke a few Nepali words. An elderly Japanese gentleman, motioned me to take his picture by a signboard that read “Rubbish Bin.”
We reluctantly headed back to Ghorepani. A trickle of people were still going uphill. The village of Ghorepani was in full view. All the houses had blue roofs, supposedly due to a mandate to serve as a landmark for pilots flying between Pokhara and Jomsom. Baya tira himal haru herdai bistarai tala jhariyo.
On the evening we had arrived Pokhara, there were rumors that the strike was rescheduled for January 1 and 2. The lodge staff confirmed it after a phone call to Pokhara. All I could do was silently curse the Bam Dev Gautam and Company aka CPN ML. We started our descent to Birethanti after breakfast. After registering at the police station, a few minutes walk brought us to the proper village of Ghorepani. The trail was a gentle descent through pine and rhododendron woods. The last few flights between Pokhara and Jomsom zoomed above us. In about an hour or so, we reached the small clearing of Banthanti (not to be confused with the one we passed the previous day).
After a short rest stop, we continued downwards. The descent was getting a bit steeper now, but also a bit more interesting as we had to cross a few streams with very clear water. Interestingly, the streams were spanned by concrete bridges which I had not seen anywhere else in the Annapurna region. Soon, we exited the woods to the large Magar village of Ulleri.
Ulleri bata pani Himal dekhinu parne ho, tara badal le chhekisakeko thiyo. Waripari ka danda haru ani Bhurungdi Khola ko phaant ko bhane ramrai drishya dekhiyo. I noticed several churches within a distance of a few hundred meters. The missionaries must have been very successful converting the people there. After lunch at one of the lodges, we began our descent. Aba ko bato bhane ekdam apthero. Dhungai dhunga chhapeko khudkila haru bhaeko thado oralo jharnu thiyo jhandai ek ghanta jati ko. The trail was pretty crowded with a large number of trekkers as well as mule caravans bound uphill. Dhunga mathi tekera hinda ta khutta dukhne, I tried to walk from the side whenever possible. In one instance, a mule literally brushed past me, it must have been very difficult for them to walk over the stones. Je hos jaso taso tyo jyaanmara oralo siddhayera Tirkhedhunga jhariyo. There were two suspension bridges close to each other spanned high over the streams. Tespachi kehi ber araam garera aghi badhiyo. A short and easy descent brought us to Hille, from where we were to follow the Bhurungdi Khola. We were stuck sitting on the low wall beside the trail for a few minutes to allow a large mule caravan to pass (rule of the trail: mule caravans almost exclusively have the right of way). Finally, the trail was level for the most part. At one point, there was a wooden bridge over the Bhurungdi, ani Parbat jilla pani chhoincha bhanera cross gari farkie. Passing through villages of Sudame, Matathanti, and Ramghai (forgot the order in which they fall. World mapji le naksa taasidinu bhaeko bhae thammyauna sakinthyo ki), and numerous waterfalls, we arrived Birethanti just before dusk. We lost altitude by about 2000 meters that day.
Modi Khola ko kinarai ma raheko Riverside Lodge ma baas basiyo. That lodge was located right next to the more upscale Laxmi Lodge. Surprisingly, I saw the staff making many food runs to Laxmi. I wonder how much more the Laxmi guests had to pay for the same food. Another surprise to me was that Birethanti, a major village in the area, still did not have electricity despite of being located barely 3 or 4 km upstream from the Modi Khola powerhouse. Furthermore, Nayapul, along the Pokhara-Baglung highway just a half hour walk away, already had electricity from the national grid as of 1997. Enough talking about electricity, we had our beer and dal bhaat under laltin ko ujyaalo.
By 8 pm, it appeared that all trekkers had retired to their rooms. I decided to socialize with the lodge staff, porters, and guides. One of the guides was a native of Solukhumbu and educated in Darjeeling. Everyone enjoyed listening to his veg and non-veg jokes, all told in typical Darjeeling accent. Kehi ber geet haru pani gaiyo. Just before 10 pm, sabai jana afno kotha tira lagyaun. Ek chin samma ta Modi Khola susairaheko suninthyo, kun bela bhusukkai nidaiecha.
By around 7 o’clock the next morning, words from Nayapul were trickling in that there had not been any vehicular movement so far, and only a few taxis operated on the previous day. That meant we would have to walk all the way to Pokhara, which, otherwise would have been a 30 min walk followed by a bus or taxi ride of no more than two hours. The highway distance was 45 km, and I knew it would be next to impossible to make it to Pokhara that way in a single day. Fortunately, one of the guides came to our rescue. He agreed to let us follow his group through shortcuts and assured us that we could reach Pokhara the same day as long as we maintained a reasonable pace. He was leading two beautiful young ladies from Singapore, and addressed them as Jethi and Mahili.
Our departure from Birethanti was delayed for a few minutes as a huge flock of sheep had blocked the bridge. The shepherds soon cleared the roadblock and we proceeded on the same trail we had taken from Nayapul on the opposite direction. Our shortcut began just before the suspension bridge to the highway. After a steep climb, we followed the highway for some time. The only signs of vehicular movement we saw were some tire marks left on roadside dust. Then we saw some children on a tricycle. It was a tough climb on a sunny day, but it was softened by the friendly company of our new friends. Singing songs and playing dhunga ko football, we soon passed Lumle and reached Khare around 11 am.
The highway distance from Khare to Nayapul was 20 km, and if we had entirely followed the highway, it would have taken at least 5 hours. That is also where we saw the first vehicle of the day. The owner was doing some minor maintenance work on his taxi. We made a brief stop at a roadside shop, and had lemon fanta (the only soft drink still in stock) and radish. An ambulance from Baglung zoomed towards Pokhara. The shop owner told me that the same ambulance had made a trip to Pokhara the previous day, carrying some Japanese tourists after they paid an outrageous sum of money. I am not sure how far it was true. Meanwhile, I wondered who was riding this time. Hopefully, it was some needy patient but could it be another group of tourists again?
Khare marked the entry to the Pokhara Valley, but the city itself was another 25 km away. To our relief, the guide stated that we would completely bypass the highway and take another route from Naudanda. We had an option between descending to Pame, and taking a boat from there, or walk all the way via Sarangkot. We walked for an hour longer and reached Naudanda. Part of the way included passing through the proper village of Naudanda that used to be on the trekking route before the highway was constructed.
One interesting fact about trekking that I have found is meeting the same trekkers again and again at different points along the trail. During my first trek in 1997, we met the same people on the bus from Pokhara to Kathmandu that we had met in Muktinath and Kagbeni. On the beginning of this thread, I had mentioned about the chain smoker that we met at different points on our bus journey (the chain smoker and we were on separate buses). Well, we never met him again, but as we were having our lunch at Naudanda, I suddenly heard the voice “C Man!!†The Canadians and the Japanese we had met at Ghorepani were there. They had also spent the night at Birethanti (in a different lodge right across the bridge) and asked us if we were the noise makers. Sure we were :)
Pipalbot, thanks. Photo haru chahi maile khicheko hoina ni, I haven't scanned mine yet :) Aru site haru bata choreko ho, I have cited the sources along with the second picture.
Banki bistarai lekhdai garula. Ani kata ko pipalbot pariyo ni afoo? New Road ko ki Dillibazaar ko?
After a brief rest stop admiring the views, we continued towards Pokhara. It was a steep descent through a stone paved trail. Perhaps due to exhaustion, that stretch seemed to be even more challenging than the descent from Ulleri to Tirkhedhunga. After several crossings of the gravel road that ends near the temple of Bindhebasini, the trail entered the woods. There were many tourists headed upwards, apparently to spend the night at Sarangkot to catch the famous sunrise views. M and J maintained a relatively quicker pace. I was on the middle. All of a sudden, I saw a woolen cap on the trail. I instantly recognized it, it was M’s cap that he had bought in Pokhara after some tough bargaining. Ke gari khasaeko hola mora le, he was definitely not wearing it at that time. I soon caught up with them, and handed the cap to him. After a tough descent of an hour or so, we finally reached level ground at Sirse, right beside the lake.
Lau ekchin araam garu, chiso pani khaau bhani euta pasal tira ke lagieko thiyo, the Canadians and Japanese were there as well. Soon, the group of Jethi and Mahili was there too. As we sipped on some soft drinks, the rest were planning to hire a boat to Baidam. We decided to proceed on foot. It was getting dark, and we made quick steps on the road that ran along the lake shore. A walk of half an hour or so brought us to the Baidam area.
We were delighted to be back to civilization, at the same time we wished we could be trekking for longer. Well, it was impossible to have both. We were longing for a shower, hearty dinner, and a good night’s sleep. We, however, needed to take care of our return tickets before that. M and J had to catch their train from Gorakhpur three days later, and therefore needed to take a bus to Bhairahawa. I, on the other hand, needed to go back to Kathmandu. As we stepped inside a travel agency, we were informed that no tourist buses were available to Bhairahawa. I was also told that there were rumors of a transportation strike in Kathmandu in protest of the government decision to ban vehicles older than twenty years. The travel agent stated that, they were, however, selling bus tickets to Kathmandu for that day.
लौ हेर ! यस्तो मज्जाको कहानी नै छुटेको रे'छ मेरो त। चिप्ले जीले धेरैनै चिप्लेटी खेलिसक्नु भे'छ, म त एकै दिनमा चिप्लेटी खेलेर सक्काएँ है। :-) गजछ चिप्ले जी, आज देखि म पनि नियमित पाठक। अब अर्को भागको प्रतिक्षामा।
डीभी परेन भने खुसि हुनु होस् ! अमेरिकामाधेरै का श्रीमती अर्कैसँग पोइला गएका छन् !
शीर्षक जे पनि हुन सक्छ।
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कल्लाई मुर्ख भन्या ?
Morning dharahara
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