The Three Days Blow - Westerlies

Rara Lake, Mugu

If someone asks me “What is the best part of working at a bank?” my answer would surely be ‘the annual leave.’ Fifteen days of forced leave and you get paid for it. Holiday is always a big relief and additional pay for that is like the icing on the cake. When I was asked about the time I would like to have my annual leave, like previous year I opted for the month of February.  That time of year when days start to get longer and the weather is neither too hot nor too cold. This year it was a bit special with three days holiday preceding the beginning of the leave and two days at the end, it was an extended holiday of 20 days. So all the months before it finally came, my eyes were fixed on February the 18^th.

The Original Plan

My friend Sunil had been to Rara Lake in Mugu District in the western hinterland of Nepal during his annual leave. I envied him for having been there. So I along with my other friends came up with the plan to visit Rara during our annual leave as well. Out of the friends who were in the original plan Bijesh took his leave early, so it was me and my friend Dipen who were left. As the trip to Rara was almost a week long affair and even the flight to the region was never on schedule we decided to back off.

Plan B

As the trip to Rara couldn’t materialize, we came with the other plan. I had never been to Pokhara and made a plan to round trip few districts in the western hills and plains of Nepal. The plan was to travel to Pokhara then to Parbat-Baglung and Beni, from Pokhara to Lumbini via Palpa, and from there returning to Kathmandu via Chitwan – Hetauda.

February the 18^th

Mt. Machapuchchre, Kaski

Sunil came up with a plan for a two day hiking to Chisapani, Sundarijal starting either 17^th or 18^th. I was in, so was Dipen. Bijesh had plans for bunjee so he opted out. Other friends Niraj and Uddhav had busy schedule, so we had to cancel the plan. Dipen and I had decided to postpone our tour till Monday. But with the hiking cancelled we decided not to waste any more time as Dipen was already approaching last week of his annual leave.

Dipen had always in his mind to travel on bike but I was unaware of that. When he told me about the same I was surprised but thought I am not going to cancel this one anyway. After a brief talk we decided to travel by bus. We searched on the net about all the details that we could find, and then we realized that internet is overrated. We didn’t get all the information that we were looking for. We didn’t get the details about the distance between places that we planned to travel neither any appropriate map. Still we decided to head west come what may, ready to get lost!

West Bound

On the Sunday morning we met at 7:00 at the bus stop ready to travel local. I always believed that the best way to understand people and places is travelling local. You get to have the first hand experience. The journey from Kathmandu to Pokhara which is just over 200 km apart takes over 6 hours and we were hoping to reach there by 2p.m. The bus left from Bus Park at the scheduled time with half a dozen passengers. I thought that is what it is during off season. I was horribly wrong. It was running in so slow a pace that even a tortoise can out run it. It stopped many a time before reaching Kalanki that it was 9 a.m. before we reached Thankot check-post. By then the bus was full to my utter surprise.

Taal Barahi, Fewa Lake

I am well aware about the taste of music of drivers even then I opted not to carry a head phone. I thought I would be occupied sightseeing and won’t be too much bothered about the dohori that they will play. I was wrong, again. They played the same song over and over so many times that I felt I could lip-sync that song.

The farthest I had been to the west was Abu Khaireni in Tanahu while visiting Manakamana long before the cable car came to operation. So after we reached 

Abu Khaireni my eyes were wide open. As we passed Bandipur I was hoping to see the famed old bazaar and the landmark hill, but realized that it didn’t fell along the Prithvi Highway. The hills near the Kotre plant of NEA that resembled the ones in Mustang were really amazing, the only difference was it had trees, and I was hoping to see more.

Just as we were approaching Pokhara, Dipen asked “Is that the mountain?” pointing towards the hill.

 “Where” – I said.

“Above the clouds” he said.

Dipen - the Rider

It was, indeed. I was awestruck. All my life the size of the mountains I had imagined or seen was those behind the hills, with almost identical heights as them and here what I was seeing was something larger, huge, imposing, so magnificent that it made me feel tiny. It looked like it touches the heaven. And that is probably my first impression of Pokhara and would remain unfazed for a long long time.

When the bus stopped at Prithvi Chowk we asked a traffic about Lake Side, he gave us the direction and told that it was 3km away. Full with energy, we thought mere 3km! Let’s get walking. We walked and walked and it never came. Finally we made it.

We now needed a place to live, so we called our friend Sushil, who was in Pokhara for his convocation, to ask where he was staying and if there was any room unoccupied. He was out with his friends but told us where he was staying. After roaming around for some time, we finally discovered the place. There was a lone room unoccupied and we felt lucky to get one, as the whole of the Lake City was flooded with the students of Pokhara University who had their convocation the next day.

Happy to have got a nice place to stay next we decide to trot around to find a place where we can hire bike. We wandered around the Lake Side. I felt the Fewa Lake was not as blue as it has been in my dreams. Strolling down the street finally in the evening we met Sushil who was with his gang, must say, and surprised to know we were staying at the same place where he was staying. We had dinner together with his bunch of a dozen.

Baglung and beyond 

Kaligandaki river, Parbat

The previous evening we had stroke a deal to hire a bike for our trip to Baglung and beyond. If you are to hire a bike inside the valley don’t pay more than Rs500 for a day, but if you want to take it outside they will make you pay a bit more. So, here we were early birds ready to head further west. The bike owner kept our ATM, 2k bucks as safety deposit as well as ID cards. He handed us a copy of the bikes blue book, and now at eight in the morning we were ready to hit the road. But first we needed to fill the tank. We moved ahead looking for a gas station and suddenly the bike stopped. Damn! There wasn’t enough petrol to reach even the nearest pump. To our relief there was one some 100 meters ahead. And from there we headed to Baglung Buspark and then took the Pokhara – Baglung Highway.

Baglung and Parbat had always fascinated me since my childhood. My niece had been there, and the story I heard…riding on pony, stone paved roads and more… I was really looking forward for the day since so long. It was a clear morning sky and looked like a perfect day in making. With the sky covered with clouds the previous day we arrived in the Lake City we saw Machapuchchre for the first time that morning. The wind was cool but the morning glory made us forget it all.

Baglung Bridge over Kaligandaki

From what we had gathered we knew that Baglung was some 72km away from Pokhara. We were hoping for a busy road but it turned out to be empty, literally. With the open road the speed meter read 80 and higher 90s, and I thought we would reach Baglung in almost an hour! But there were uphills to come and between them our regular interval for photo shoots. Now we realized the bike we hired though good in pick up has its meters not properly functioning.

Downhill from Lumle we entered Dhaulagiri Zone and Parbat. Kushma turned out to be a small bazaar, which came and passed in a whisker. I had expected it to be a bit crowded but it wasn’t. Maybe the settlement was further away from the highway. Crossing the Baglung bridge we reached Baglung but missed the shot of Kaligandaki with Dahulagiri’s backdrop. Baglung tuned to be a big settlement compared to Kusma. Though an old town we found it hard to find a place where we could have our lunch. Finally we got one. We had our lunch, the only hotel that served dal-bhat, wasn’t that good though but hunger made it tasty.

 I had it written that it is 12 km to Beni from Parbat and 13 from Baglung, so after having our tummy full we headed to Beni. Rather than going back to the bridge, and following the road along Kaligandaki, we opted for the road down the hill which according to the hotel owner [someone Chantyal] was graveled and in ‘ok’ condition. We went on and on… and that road down the hill turned out to be a biker’s nightmare. The road was so rough that we were praying silently that the tire won’t get puncture. It kept winding without a trace of settlement. There was a beautiful school in the middle of nowhere but we had miles to go. 

View of Beni Bazaar

After driving almost half an hour we asked an old man how far Beni was?, he said 25 minutes … we went on and on… Dipen was getting desperate; he even asked if we should return back… I told to see for another 10 minutes… the 13km road took almost one-an-half hour to drive. Finally, we reached Beni. The hills around were almost like cliffs, and we were surprised to see people settled on the top of them.

After few snaps we headed back, this time taking the road along Kaligandaki. We reached the Baglung Bridge in 15minutes. Felt pity for self for not taking that road earlier, but that was a bitter-sweet experience. The wind was blowing hard and sometimes felt like it will blow off our helmet. The sky was cloudy. We finally reached Pokhara at 3.

Worn out we were, felt like running out of gas. We headed to our room, took shower and 15 minutes after that we were reloaded. We headed for Begnas Taal. It was a damn big lake, bigger than I had imagined. Then we headed uphill to Rupa Lake, didn’t have energy enough to go close and see it,  so just did it with a glance from the top.

Back to Lake Side, returning the bike before 6 and taking our belongings we headed to our room. 

Shivaratri at Lake Side

Fire at Centre Point, Lake Side

Sushil had not yet arrived from his convocation, so we decided to hang around Lake Side. In between Dipen was in contact with two sisters Susmita and Sneha who did intern at his bank and were in Pokhara for convocation. Plans were made to meet in the evening but that never happened. It was Maha Shivaratri and the streets were alive. More foreigners and less locals. People gathered around the pile of wood that had been set ablaze for dhuni. Locals had this ritual of heating the sugarcane in the fire, and when it was ready, they blasted it on the street with blazing sounds. We enjoyed it lot. Old people, children, foreigners watched it in delight. And the remnant of the sugarcane was taken as prasad. We tried our luck, and outcome was awesome. Doom!

Back to our room around 11 we discussed about where we were heading the next day. Dipen had some work so we had to return to Kathmandu by Thursday. We had asked the women from where we hired the bike about how far Palpa was from Pokhara and she told it was some 5 -6 hours drive. So here we were in dilemma. We had planned to visit Palpa next day and leave for Lumbini the same day but now we realized we couldn’t make it to Lumbini before night.

Even if we leave at 10, we will reach Palpa at 3, it is one hour drive to Butwal and about 2 hour to Bhairahawa. We decided to scrap Lumbini and head to Narayangadh. Then Sushil who was leaving to Narayangadh the next day told that his grand-pa has passed just few days ago. So reaching Narayangadh via Palpa which takes almost  identical time as Lumbini was also now not feasible as we had planned to stay at Sushil’s place. So, we decided to head back to Kathmandu, the only place we can reach before dusk.

Taal Barahi

Barahi Temple, Fewa Lake

Dipen had been to Pokhara before for a short period but it was my first time. So I wished to visit Taal Barahi, it would else feel like, been there but not done that. At 8 in the morning we headed to Taal Barahi in Fewa Lake. It was a nice place to be. On return Dipen called Sushmita. They were here to stay that day and visit places. So when Dipen said about it, we decided we too were staying as we had been to Pokhara two days early but not visited any places at all.

The Whirlwind

We hired a bike, again, but from a different place. The sisters were at Pokhara University so we headed for it. After we reached there we were introduced to the gang… Divash, Irina, Sagar, Smita, Sneha and Sushmita [in alphabetical order]... they had hired two scooty and a bike. From there we headed to Begnas Lake. What a pleasant place to be… we hired boats for an hour, two apiece. It was a sail to the past.

From there we headed to Mahendra Cave. Pokhara actually turned out to be larger than I had imagined. Chances are high that I could get lost, which normally doesn’t happen, too many junctions and crossroads. The cave was not too big but the exit point was a bit narrow. From there we headed to Chamero Gufa [Bat Cave] and it was damn exciting. We could see people turning back giving up hope they can come easily from the narrowest of its exit. Divash had been there, done that twice. So Dipen, Sagar and I dared to have a go. There was too huge a queue. But we finally made it!

Davis Falls

From there we headed to Davis Falls. But most of us didn’t have a clue where it was. Begnas was in the east, Mahendra Cave was in the north and now Davis Falls was in the south. It was turning to be a whirlwind. Irina who turned out to be local knew the direction. So when we reached Davis falls, we decided to visit Gupteswor Mahadev instead. There were too many Indian pilgrims, maybe they had come for Shivaratri, and most of the shopkeepers looked like Indians as well.

The cave was a masterpiece. The end of which lead to a crevasse from where you can see the water from Davis Falls splashing. It was a peaceful abode. After that we headed back to Lake Side as Susmita & Co. were to return their hired vehicles by 5.

The Last Supper

We had a wonderful day but a forgetful evening. So we decided to have our dinner together as all of us were leaving for Kathmandu the next day. Divash got tickets for two of us on the same bus that they were returning. So around 9 we met at a place opposite to Paradise… I couldn’t stop humming Coldplay’s … paradise… ho o o oh oh. .. the best part of night life in Pokhara is there are too many live bands, less local crowds, and ever peaceful… you can be on your own without anyone staring at you! So we had a light meal and a group photo session. We parted our ways to meet the next morning before 7am.

Westerlies

So here we were to an abrupt end of our journey with nothing much to regret and too much to cherish. I do regret not going to Sarangkot or Dhampus or Bindawasini Temple and the likes but that does give me ample reason to come back again. Now I wish we should have planned to travel to Besisahar [Lamjung] or somewhere else when our plan for Palpa was scrapped. But I am satisfied with the way it went. It is just the beginning and I wish to travel more all throughout the year and not only during annual leaves.

The bus had a comfortable seat but at times the pain could make me feel all the parts of my body. But I was not worried; the joy of going home outdid the pain. So when I reached home I was welcomed by ever excited Rox, jumping in circles, wagging his tail and licking my face, you know how it feels coming back home.

I thank all the people who helped me make memories during this trip.

Gracias.

Post Script : Things To Carry While Travelling

A Nice Read

Essentials : Tickets and itinerary (airline, bus etc.), Backpack / suitcase / sports bag, Notebook, Pencils, Pens, Address list and list of important contacts or numbers.

    

Clothes: Boots, shoes, sneakers, Undergarments, Dress shirts, long-sleeved shirts, Jacket / light jacket, Jumper, sweater, Pyjamas / Sleepwear, Socks, T-shirts.

Toiletries : Anti-bacterial cream, Comb or brush, Deodorant, Earplugs, Fingernail clippers, Hair products (gel, spray etc.), Lip balm, Mirror, Moisturizer (face and body), Razors, Shaving cream, Shampoo and conditioner, Soap, Sunscreen and after sun cream, Toothbrush, toothpaste.

Clothes Accessories: Cap / Hat, Belt, Cotton handkerchief or tissues, Raincoat / umbrella, Safety pins, Scarf, Sewing kit, Sunglasses.

First-Aid Kits : Band aids, Compression bandages, Medicines/prescription Drugs, Motion sickness tablets, Small scissors, Water purifying tablets.

Other Items : Backpack rain cover, Batteries, Books, Bottled water, Camera, film, batteries, Memory Cards, Chewing gum or mints, Electrical adapter and plug converter, flashlight or torch, Guidebooks, iPod, Maps, Mobile phone or SIM card, Plastic bags, Recharger for electrical items, Swiss Army knife, Toilet paper, Towel, Ziplock bags.