Rafting on Trisuli

At pm in Kathmandu it's difficult to get proper transport to reach your home. So you should arrange the transport before planning to leave for rafting and returning home on the same day (at least from Kathmandu!).

Waiting for bus at Thamel

On 23rd April 2011, plans were that we would leave Kathmandu by 7 am. Well said than, we were at Kalanki till 10am.

We reached Charaunde at around 2pm where boats were arranged. A crowd of rafters were already there ready to raft. But we were hungry. Eggs and breads were self served. After a couple of photo shoot and packing the cameras in boat's black box (the protection box), the guide trained us to row the boat. Here are the commands he taught

All forward!

Filling air in the raft Safety preparation Enjoying in the boat

All backward!


Left forward, right backward!


Right forward, left backward!

Simple to hear, hard to obey. Those commands were really confusing till we practised on the way. Later on it became easier to understand and simple to obey. The guide was the captain of the boat.

After the brief training, our boats was facing rapids. Twin Truck, Laddie's delight and so on. Fancy names! High grade rapids are more adventurous and dangerous because the girls in our boat fell times and again on those rapids. Pinky and Rita swallowed Trisuli water and became 'mukt' from their 'pap'. The white face girl fell off from the boat for three times, but she was tough and returned back to boat each time she fell.

Even though we did not know how to swim, it was not difficult to jump in still water with life jackets. It was easy to float but getting back to boat was tough job and needed help. The guide wanted to catapult the boat but our passenger got the hint and the plan failed.

The rafting took about 3 hrs and ended at the beach of Trisuli at Kuringhat where we ate dal-bhat. Had a brief photo shoot. Then we changed our wet clothes and returned back to Kathmandu. But on the way the tourist vehicle had problem. The tyre puncher and we had to wait for an extra hour.

It was 10pm when we reached back to Kathmandu. Thanks for Juben for providing shelter for that night.

The participants: "Sanima Hydro and Engineering" Nirja (the planner), Sudha (the event manager), Sarita, Eliza, Pinky, Deepika, Gyatri, Rita, Sajan, Maheswor, Naresh and his frens, Arbin, Deepak and others.

The cost: NPR 1500 per head (included travel, breakfast and launch) but not droping at home.

The time: Full day.

Suggestions: Spend couple of days. First day raft and stay at the beach then next day return back!

The bus Jump

The smiling tyres Boat sukaudai Me on boat

Standing at the Zero Mile

Again, as the duty calls, couldn't avoid trekking at Taplejung. Seems I am getting pro now. While trekking ,crossing trail bridge without the side support was thrilling moment in this trip. While humor of Mr Pokhrel and Jahagir was the only thing which was making our sence work. After completing the work we returned to Birtamod on the ninth day.As we had booked a ticked for night travel from Birtamod to home we had one day to spare. So we decided touch the eastern border of Nepal.

We went to eastern political border of Nepal where Mechi river seprates Nepal from India. Kakarbhitta of Jhapa lies on the Nepalese side while the other side is West Bangal province of India.This place is also know as Pani Tanki. The western edge of the bridge is the end snapping point of Mahendra highway. The zero mile of this longest highway of Nepal traversing the whole terai region starts from this place.

After crossing the bridge over Mechi river we can touch the familiar ground of India. I felt the people seems more Nepali than Indian in this part. One friend with us tried talking in Hindi to impress however he was bounced back with "Nepali Bolnus". The people seems to love Nepali Language and Culture rather than core Indian culture.The sign boards were virtually painted in either Nepali or Bengali scripts rather than Hindi. Now I understand why these people are asking for seperate provinance Gorkhaland!

Mechi Bridge	Local Merchent
Raiway track at Panitanki	Panitanki chowk

Illam, Gunmune trip

For July 09-14,2010 Sakunda and I were assigned to deliver the office eqipments(sediment samplers) to Illam, Mai project site. I had thought this would be a casual site visit with nothing special except we would meet Nabin and make him crazy with stupid discussion on bizzare topics. But thing changed and the visit was as memoriable as other places.

On day one (or rather night one) we left Kathmandu in Agni Yatayat bus. The was night bus, so we were supposed to sleep on night in the bus. But it didn't happened. The heart attacking speed of bus was really not comfortable. The time used to become extremely tense whenever there was another bus coming from the opposite direction and our driver was in cool mind to overtake the bus ahead of us. It was miracle of mighty that we reached Biratamod (Mod in Jhapali-Fataha word ;).

15 minutes later after we stepped at Mod, we were hit by rain (heavy rainfall, very heavy one). So we had nothing to do except wait for Mr. Deoraj. After Deoraj arrived we kept the equipments in a safe place and had launch. That day we had nothing to do because road was blocked, so we went to Birtnagar(Kanchanwadi) at Sakunda's uncle house. We also went to Biratnagar city, romed here and there.

Next day we went back to Birtamod. Catched a jeep and went to deliver the equipments. Nabin welcomed us. After walking for 2-3 hour we reached the site. There was still heavy rainfall in the way. Next day, a program was organized to train the local people for the collection of sediment of river. After training we had nothing to do except torturing Nabin with silly jokes. Sakunda was murderer. Later on the night we watched Fifa football final match.

Next day we had to walk to reach Birtamod. Nabin joined us while returing back. The rain followed here and there in our way. The trekking was really funny and good because of the Victim Nabin.

After trekking for 6hours we reached roadhead at Bhanjyang. From there we catched a jeep (yes we were in roof) and travelled to Birtamod. It took about 2 hours. Fikkal is a beautiful place, lying on the way from Illam to Birtamod. We stayed at Birtamod in a hotel that night. We also arranged a ticket to Kathmandu for the next day's night bus.

Next day we had 12 hours on spare, so with Deoraj we went to see movie in local theater after launch. The movie was stupid, but we killed our time there. Later on the evening after waving bye bye to Nabin, we took our bus to Kathmandu.

Biratnagar chatpate

On the way to Gunmune

Gunmune bagar, Illam

Soktim tea garden

Chisapani, Illam

Village on the way

Returing from gunmune to Birtamod

Fikkal

Ice Fight at Mudhe and Kharidhunga (Spirin site visit)

With Sajan, this time I had to travel to Siprin Khola for field verification of project works, but there was some extra stuffs stored for us in this journey.

On the way...

After forgetting to have breakfast at Sharmila's hotel (the popular hotel of this route at zero kilo) we had fried fish at Khadichaur.

The real thing to share is the ice fight at Mude and Khari Dhunga. There was snow fall the day before and road was filled with snow while sun was still shining. Beautiful combination. And with Sherpa girls around, it was awesome ;)

Sajan, Pawan Yadav, Yam ji and Naresh were our (not so brave) fighters to defend against a experienced troops of Sherpa girls and school children. The school was closed that day to let children to enjoy and play snow!

Slippery was snow, but the grip was strong enough to fight. While escaping the cannon balls of cold snow, body was became sweaty.

With silver color on the background, even the ugly face becomes beautiful. See photographs for proof!

The real work…

As usual the trip ended with inspection of the project and returning back.

However…….there was still more to come on the way back…

Returning back……

On the way back, we had launch at Singati Bazaar and then travelled towards Kathmandu.

On the way, snow was still left on the road at Khari Dhunga. This time, Rabin Nepal was with us and he had missed the fight when we had shown him the photographs. However, this time, there were no troops attacking us. So we could relax and enjoy the beauty of the place.

Kalinchowk

According to Baral, experience creates confidence. And sure there were 100s of confident (and brave) dogs chasing the speeding vehicles in this tour.

You need to cross that creep between mountains!

Kalinchowk lies at North of Kathmandu about 100Km. If you go in local vehicle, you should take bus to Charikot or Jiri and then travel from road head to the hills (5-6 hrs treks). Otherwise if you take private vehicle, there a motorable road constructed upto the village near the main temple. Main temple is about half hour from this village.

The tour started at 5am Saturday morning on 12 February 2011 with Nabaraj, Naran, Raja, Kishor, Bisnu Baral and Bhairab dai. After feeding petrol to the vehicle at Baneshwor, we travelled towards the destination. At zero kilo (place where road separates to Melamchi) we had some breakfast at Sharmila's hotel!

Even with Raja, we were inside the vehicle till then! But enough is enough for Raja. So there was no option except to go to the back of the truck and enjoy the ride and tolerate the cold and centrifugal force created by Bhairab Dai's steering. We were rolling on the truck all upto the Kalinchowk village. Lots of Laligurans on the way were observed. This year, Laligurans were blooming a month ahead of its usual time (Chaitra).

After separating from Kathmandu-Charikot highway there is dusty yet adventurous road uphill that ascends to the Kalinchowk village. The road seemed to be newly constructed. Tall, fat, lanky tress resembling scene from some action Hollywood movies. And we were heading ahead.

While entering reaching the Kalinchowk valley, our joy had no bound. We screamed like crazy. The place was so beautiful. Few wooden houses on the plateau and rocky mountain in the background, blue sky all around. The experience cannot be described in mere words. It was awesome!

Gauri Shankar Tridents

At the village, we ordered food in the local hotel and then marched towards the main temple. The temple lies on the rocky mountain about 500 meters higher than the village. The village itself seemed to be about 3500m above sea level.

It took about 45 minutes for us to climb up to the temple. Tridents were plenty in this temple. It seemed that pilgrimages offer trident to the goddesses of this temple. There was a stack of trident lying.

Rajes had denied going with us. However we saw photos of his late parents there. Probably some of his family member had visited there.

A magnificent view of Gauri Shankar Mountain was observed from this temple.

Then we descended to the village and had our food and then travelled towards Charikot at Nabaraj's house.

On the way back, we saw a pair of fox that had lost its path and were on the road. Bhairab dai was chasing them. But the fox had fortune and nothing happened to the fox. Lucky fox! Probably the foxes had lesser experience and strolling on the road instead of jungle.

We travelled to Nabaraj's house from there. His house was about 28kms from Charikot. We stayed the night at his house. There we had 3 glasses of mohi in row, enough to crack the stomach all over the night. One thing to notice is, every time Nabaraj gives us new thing to drink, we have to spend night in toilet.;)

Next day we left Nabaraj's house with a goat for Bhairab Dai at 3 am. At 9 am I was at office washing my face.

I think we increased our experience and confidence!

"जो फुल पहाडमा फुली हाल्छ, अनि फुले पछि बुकु बुकु गारीहाल्छ, हो तेहि हो बुकेको फुल।"