Monday, August 11, 2014

Weekend trek: Nagarkot – Chisapani – Sundarijal



Well, sorry guys for updating so slowly nowadays, there are too many experiences to live especially after one realizes how short time is left from all those five month that seemed to be so long before coming here…
Anyway, let’s start the story with a trip that I just took a few weeks ago. This time I decided to go back to Nagarkot which is a great starting point for a whole lot of trekking routes. I planned to take a two-day-long trekking in the hope of seeing some huge mountains and also getting some training for my trek that I’m planning to do in the area of Langtang at the end of the month.
So finally I took off right after work and took the already familiar bus to Bhaktapur and from there to Nagarkot just to be there right in time to get the same small room that I had the last time I was there. So back to the same place but different experience: this time I was already walking through the small village knowing almost all the streets and the local shops and small restaurants.
After spending a relaxing evening by reading – for which I didn’t save too much time since I’m here – I got up early in the morning for the sunrise. And for my great surprise – and in contrast to my expectations to see just rainclouds, since it has been raining all night – I realized that above the clouds that sank down in the valley actually some peaks of Himalaya were facing me! I didn’t expect this being in the middle of the monsoon season and after that last time I was only facing the fog in the morning. Anyway, I happily took some walks around the village searching for the best views of the mountains until I realized that the best place was actually right in front of the door of the guesthouse. But after the sunrise still a whole day long trekking was waiting for me: I planned to reach the village of Chisapani this day. So I took off and first my way was leading through a forest after which I ended up in a small village. Although a while asking for some directions a local man tried to scare me off from continuing my trip alone by describing how many leeches are going to fall on me from the trees, I still continued. Though as for the matter of the leeches although I didn’t have any falling on me from the trees, it is true that I would have an advise for trekkers in monsoon period: please be aware that you won’t only need the rain poncho, but it’s even more important to bring long-long socks, unless you enjoy finding quite a few leaches hanging on your ankle and legs when taking off your shoes! But still, don’t let them scare you away from the trek, it would be a great loss of experience! So getting back to the trip: I think this day I took a big extra loop about which I’m still not sure where exactly I have been to. But it’s for sure that it took strangely too long time to get to the next village while sometimes I had the feeling that I’m walking in a big-big circle. Still, during this time I got to see rice fields with people working on them, tiny villages with people sitting in front of their houses, gathering and playing a chess-like game and many more. After getting back to the real route, the way was already easy to find, but still contained some challenges of climbing several hills. The end of the route truly lead through deep forest – just like the man of the leeches told me. It was here where I met with a young girl who this time tried to scare me away by the tigers: she said if I don’t let her draw a mehndi (henna which is supposed to protect you and bring luck) on me, it’s going to be very dangerous for me to walk through the forest where there might be some tigers, too. I don’t know how much reality is in the existence of tigers in these forests, but I met none – and also as I got to know later in Chitwan National Park, tigers are known to be pretty shy animals who only attack people in special cases (like if they are sick etc.). Anyway, the end of the route already leads to Shivapuri National Park, where foreigners are supposed to pay some entrance fee, but luckily I never found a ticket office with an officer present – it seems there are really some advantages of trekking in monsoon season! :) Finally the trip from Nagarkot took me a bit longer than what is written in the books: instead of the 6-7 hour long walk, I got to Chisapani after about 8-9 hours of walking so I was really happy to find a nice and cheap room there for the night. Soon I had to realize why the room was so cheap: since this is already a trekking area, the system works the same way as at Annapurna trekking: although the prices of the room is kept at a low price, you will pay a lot more as soon as you get a little bit hungry…
Next morning I wasn’t as lucky with the weather as before: this time although again I woke up for the sunrise, I had to realize that deep fog was covering the sun itself. Well, after this I set off early in the belief that I was walking in the way of Sundarijal which is a village by the feet of the hills and at the edge of Kathmandu and which was supposed to be my final destination for the weekend. As I said in the belief of that… Because it was only after walking about 1,5 hour, all the way down and down that a villager explained me that I was walking in the opposite way… Just to the north instead of south… This would have been such a big problem, I thought, only if there was any way to get from here to the next village where I was heading to. I only started to get a bit worried when the villager told me that the only way to get to Sundarijal is by going back to Chisapani and starting my daily trek again from the beginning, hopefully on the right route this time. Well, after climbing back to Chisapani, I set off again, still not being 100% sure about that the way I chose this time was the right one. Not being sure means that I was walking and walking for almost two hours in the middle of the forest without meeting any human being or even seeing a house around… This time I started really realizing that I’m in the middle of the hills all alone… It was only after about 2 hours that I met the first people: two Nepalese guys who were about the first people during the whole weekend who I could actually start a conversation with and who spoke English, too. I got to know that I was at the right route and soon I would get to the other side of the hill, from which I would already see Kathmandu so I would only have to walk in the way of the houses. I also got to know that they grew up in an orphanage in Kathmandu – they even invited me there – and right now they were trekking to a village where the grandparents of one of them lived and they were bringing a satellite for the television for them as a surprise. Aha, so that was that big strange-shaped thing on one of the guys’ back – I thought. So after a nice chat with them I continued my way and found out that the guys were right: soon a new view appeared in from of me: down by the feet of the hills I saw the city crowded with houses as well as the traits of Bagmati river – I was almost back in Kathmandu. After about 2 more hours of walking – but this time already knowing where I was – I reached my final destination, I took a bus back to Kathmandu and got home tired by happy about my weekend adventure.
I only drew two conclusions about this weekend for the later trekkings: one is to bring proper socks and shoes and maybe some salt too to avoid the leeches, but the most important is to buy a map before setting off for a several-day-long trek. It can save you quite a few kilometers, I think! :)









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