Hiking
to Ghanpokhara
Date: August 21-August 22, 2016
With packed bags and hiking shoes, we left
the office premises at 7am in the morning. We hadn’t reached very far when we
got a call from Sameer. He had missed the van so we asked him to catch us at Kalimati
where we opted to have tea and a light breakfast while awaiting him. At around
7:45, of course after also picking Sameer, we headed for our journey. The road
from Kalanki to Thankot was a mess. Leaving aside the details of where we
stopped and where we had our breakfast, after crossing Muglin, near marsyangdi
hyrdo power area we stopped at a waterfall site. God help us hike since our
shoes and our single pair of socks were totally drenched in our adventure of
climbing the rocks to get a nearer view of the top of the waterfall. Off then
we went, everyone, taking a turn to try playing the ukulele, singing songs at times
too loud with a hungry stomach. We stopped at the very popular Besisahar khana
spot of Verisk which was “Puspanjali Hotel”. Unfortunately, the hotel phone number
we had was not working and hence we couldn’t pre-order our lunch, making us
wait another half hour to ravage any food. We discussed the Annapurna circuit
map (which was proudly displayed on the hotel walls), our hike route and
whether or not to include Ghalegaun in the route arguing on our chances of
reaching there in a favorable hour.
Unfortunately from this spot on we had to take a local vehicle and we
were told the public bus was to leave not until 4pm local time. We decided to
wait at the bus park, and only a few minutes after we reached the “pippal ko bot”
park, a “Safari” came in our sight. The ride of half hour to Khudi bazaar on
the “Safari” was priced at NRs 1500. Squeezed on the seats, very bumpy roads, the river on the right view, what an adventure the ride on the “Safari” turned out.
At 5pm local time, we stepped foot in Khudi bazaar, started our hike from
there, constantly discussing everyone’s dilemma on whether to hike all the way
to Ghalegaun? We met a school teacher and a local boy who was heading to his
home, which was on the way to Ghalegaun route. While many of us discussed our
low chances of reaching Ghalegaun before 12 noon, the boy kept encouraging us
to keep on moving forward. After an hour of walking, we stopped at a resting
place, washed our face, drank water and then started our journey again. 10 mins
into walking, we heard a local girl calling to us. Turned out Aayush had left Ashish’s
camera tripod. Someone from the group was wondering if the local could have
used it to plow their fields!
After more walking, more dilemma, we
sighted two jharnas (waterfall). We asked the local boy, who was accompanying
us (the school teacher had already parted ways by then) if reaching the
waterfall by tonight was possible and if we could find any shelter there to
stay the night. His response was that the waterfall though looks near is at the
very end of the village and is very far. We decided to stay at Ghanpokhara if
we could arrange a homestay. Asking here and there, someone suggested there was
a place where we could find a shelter. We then reached the school of the
teacher we met at the very start of the hiking journey. He told us of our slim
chances of getting shelter and asked us to rather return back to Khudi and
stay at “Maya” hotel. But we did go and take our chances but were turned down
and so we decided to return back to Khudi bazaar. On our way, I encountered,
probably, my second or third leech biting. It was scary. Bimal at one point
said “let's hurry up and cross the river kholsa before it gets too dark”. And
then everyone started reasoning with fun, whether that is so due to our chances
of encountering a ghost? Walking, walking and more walking, encountering a
crab, few frogs, stopping at a local kodo ko rakshi pasal, we then finally
reached back to Khudi bazaar. Dinesh an Aayush had already reserved the rooms
when we reached the hotel. The pricing was based on head count rather than room
count. All I want to say about the room is that it was very dirty, and the
pathway was a trap. Only one door could be opened at a time. Opening the door of
one room meant the pathway was non-traversable. The best thing about the hotel
was that it was on the river side. Early in the morning, sitting on the rocks
by the side of the river, drenched by small waterfall, pondering on nothing was
like a much-needed meditation.
We took a local bus from Khudi to Besisahar
this time, enjoying the tv of the bus, the road felt less bumpy this time. Having had our breakfast in Puspanjali, we
went off to our next destination “THE WATERFALL” on way to Besisahar near Dumre.
The waterfall had a man-made swimming pool, through stacked small rocks and
stones. It was mesmerizing. The guys jumped into the natural pool, had the time
of their life, swimming and enjoying. Arjun lost his power spectacles in the
pool and asked the local kids to look for it offering them a reward if they get
successful. Most of us had left our shoes to dry meanwhile. By the time we were
leaving, our shoes were dried, so one can imagine the temperature of the day.
At Abu Khairini, we had the most delicious
lunch. It was full of flavors, everybody deciding to come back to that thakali
bhancha ghar again. I don’t remember the name of the hotel but I do remember it
was just beside the “Singapore hotel”. We were early so we decided we could
jump to the very popular riverside spring resort in Kurintar, with the
exception of Dinesh. We all dived together, did dolphin underwater, some guys
joined the in-pool bar. More than swimming we had fun. We even played “rock
paper scissor” underwater. After an hour of fun, we left RSR. We got stuck in a
1 and a half-hour long traffic in Satungal, where we also caught a small
accident. Our van collided with a stalled truck due to a road bump. Finally at
around 8:30 we reached back to office premises and hence ended an overall very
fun hiking. It was full of unplanned routes and plans, new bonding, ukulele, and
Aashish’s suitcase.
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