Skip to main content

Visiting Heaven On Earth: Rara

I met Rumi when I was working at Luniva Tech Pvt. Ltd. and we just clicked and she became my little sister from thereon. However, she had been pursuing her masters in Japan and after 3 years was visiting me back here in Nepal. We had been planning to take a trip for a long time since she bought her tickets back home but no destination was finalized because of the time limit. Only 3 days before the trip, we finally decided it will be Rara: all-girls trip -Me and Rumi. But I also had another sister at my current workplace equally adorable and when she asked her parents, she also got the green sign and on the whim, just like that, we bought the tickets to Nepalgunj for October 18, 2019. We had inquired about the connecting flight to Talcha airport with one of the travel agents of Nepalgunj who had assured we will get the tickets easily and so we flew off Friday morning, with excitement and nervousness all mixed up.


Friday, Oct 18, 2019: We reached Nepalgunj at around 10 am in the morning and long story short we did not get the tickets to Talcha. We, however, bought the tickets to Talcha from Simrik Air for the next morning so we decided to roam around Nepalgunj for the day. We went out and ate our lunch in a hotel near the airport, booked an  Oyo hotel, checked-in, and then visited around Nepalgunj. A detail of which you can read here.

The hotel seemed all worth the money at first glance, but when we finally settled in, here is what we found:


Nevertheless, Nepalgunj was a surprise but I cannot emphasize how hot it was. I was constantly turning the Fan ON and OFF as turning it on was giving us a headache and turning it off made it too hot and humid to tolerate.



Saturday, Oct 19, 2019: The next morning we woke up early as there was no strict flight schedule because it all depends on the weather and where the plane will take its first flight. As it turns out, the same plane flies to Simikot, Jumla, Talcha as well as Tumlingtar. Anyway, so back to the story, when we woke up, forget about the breakfast but the hotel owners did not even wake up on our constant call despite their assurance the night before that our breakfast would be ready by 6:15 am in the morning. Fumed by their poor service, as soon as they opened the gates, we took off, caught a tuk-tuk and just enjoyed the serene morning and the sunrise of Nepalgunj.

The flight, however, did not take off until 11 am in the morning and we had to rely on the airport food which was a bunch of cookies and samosas. Despite all of this, we felt very lucky we had the tickets to Talcha in our hands.

The flight was one hell of an adventure and we, at least me and Shreya, were scared to death because the plane literally flies in between two hills. If you take your hands out the window, you can catch a branch: that close. We swore to take a bus on our way back: that scary. When we finally spotted Rara and the Talcha airport, I suddenly remembered a video I had seen years back. A video about one of the scariest airport with a very short runway. That was Talcha airport. This rush of memory was just icing on the top of the adventure we were having. The plane when landed kept on speeding that we caught our breath for a long while and only took a sigh of relief when it finally slowed and stopped.

The first thing we did after we landed was handed over the package that was given to us by the employee of Simrik Air. It belonged to someone from Nepal Airlines. We also confirmed our return tickets for the next day with him. All relieved and excited we started our climb and were grateful to have a herd of uncles off our back as they had been eating up our space since the Nepalgunj airport. We got lucky on this, because they took horses, although I must say I am against such atrocity.



My bag tore two times on our way, but since I always carry a needle and a thread during treks, so I easily sewed it back. After walking for about 2 hours we finally sighted the magnificent lake (It might take you less than that as we were strolling and taking in the view and the pictures of the view).


We had pre-booked our hotel at Danphe so we were pretty relaxed about finding a room and hence we walked leisurely and finally reached our destination at 4 pm only. We were among the few to catch a room with an attached bathroom. But the tents, as we heard, were equally comfortable too. The funny thing about our room is that we had no idea it had an attached bathroom until bedtime.  
After settling in and changing, and warming ourselves with hot tea, we went around to the mini football court. As we were hoping, we were asked to play if it interested us and we did although we hardly got a chance to touch the football.


The evening was even more joyful as we made friends with officials from Rastra Nikunj( the ones who offered us to play football with them) and with another group who were here for an official purpose as well. And after listening to all of them talk, we also decided to visit Murma top the next morning and canceled our flight as one of the rangers assured us a return ticket on Monday.
We sat around the fireplace, sang songs, some of us danced, and we played dohori at the end and finally ate our dinner and said our goodnight. Thank god the next thing we discovered was our attached bathroom because we joined the beds for a warmer comfy sleep which blocked the door and the first question we all had was what if one of us had to go to the loo. That's when I opened the door to the bathroom thinking it's the backdoor from where we could sneak out at night.

Sunday, Oct 20, 2019: The next morning we woke up early, ate our delicious breakfast, packed our bags with essentials and headed off to Murma top. My two girls, as it was the first trek of their life, were having a hard time climbing but I kept on pushing them (sorry girls for being so strict) and we finally made it to the top in 3 hours. There we sat on the treehouse, had our snacks (almonds, cashew, noodles, cookies, raisins ) took lots of pictures, surrendered to nature and just laid lazy for a while.





After our hike, we dipped our legs in the cold water of Rara for cold water therapy and again settled in for some snacks and a good time around the fire. We also took this opportunity to spend some time with the water boy there, who was such a sweet little child and gave us a cute name "baby dijju".


Our room:






The night was not as pleasant as a whole new group of people joined the fun of Rara and disturbed our precious sleep till late in the midnight.

Monday, Oct 21, 2019: We checked out early the next morning. Our hotel room cost us Nrs 2000 per night, and our final bill concluded to NRs 10000. But be aware, as we found out that the manager was habitual of adding in some extra price to the final bill for his profit. Nevertheless, the staffs there are too sweet and so we said our goodbyes and went to the boating area. We had planned to take a boat to the point where we first spotted Rara. It cost us NRs 700 per person. 10 people jammed with their packed bags, it was a tough boat ride with our legs all soaked by the clean and crystal water of Rara. It all changed when we found out a heli had crashed here long ago and its debris's lies beneath. That alone was enough to put images in our heads.



On reaching Talcha, we found out that there are no tickets available for us. So we confirmed 3 tickets for the next day. We ordered our food and waited for it by playing cards. After confirming our tickets, which happens only by words as they do not even accept an advance, we decided to help our brothers, our newly made friends in their job which was "apple tree carbon sequestration".  They left after 4 pm and the 3 of us finally let loose as we had no more hills and mountains to climb and we were all by ourselves.













Tuesday, Oct 22, 2019: We finally went around the yeti air's ticket counter at 8 am in the morning, paid for the tickets and came back to our hotel for light breakfast. After freshening up and buying dried apples and beans we waited for our flight by the ticket counter. We ordered some boiled potatoes as lunch and as we were finishing up our plane came into sight and we took off by 1 pm and reached Nepalgunj.




We bought our tickets from Khalti as it was cheaper compared to the ticket price from Buddha Air's ticket counter at Nepalgunj. We booked a 7 pm flight back to Kathmandu.  We had plenty of time to spare, and since we had discovered Nepalgunj had GO Kart, we decided to give it a visit. But first, we left our bags at the airline's counter and headed to Nepal-India Border. We went to NY Fashion Bazzar, spent some money on shopping and by 4 pm we were already waiting for our go-karts. We had planned to spend at most 15-20 mins for shopping and 30 mins at Go-kart and everything was going as per the plan. Go-kart was fun and the first experience for all of us.




We reached the airport by 6 pm and learned that all the flights had been delayed. The flight of 2 pm was only taking off then. Our flight arrived a half-hour late than the schedule and we were at Kathmandu Airport by 8:30 pm.











It is one of the most memorable trips of my life as it was the first time I planned as well as took the responsibility for a trip but my girls were a big support. With our joint efforts despite situations where we were unsure of how to reach Talcha, and how to fly off from Talcha, everyone calmly handled the situation. We are also dearly thankful to everyone who made our trip so wonderful and easy: our brothers who shared the trip with us for a short while, our ranger brothers from rastra nikunj, our water boy, cook and bala dai, the hotel manager of danphe. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Days of life

Lifeless am i? Laying down On my bed I cant move I can see I cant hear Thoughts have conjested A cup of tea i ask Nd a bed to sleep And let me live in peace 12 inch washing tub Placed in my bedroom  I have shame but had no washroom So let me live in peace So the other day i text ya know? My bunch of people I tell em am tensed got some problem at work Ya know they were tensed equally? Alas not a lil trace of it for me , shoot. Why are you scared? Did you do something wrong? Am only human, too much on my mind, you only add to my pain Oh my mother don't know But she has nothing to worry about She asks me to help her But i cant move a feet She is tired of physical pain I am tired of my thoughts At nights i awoke, there was a fight i had to win Asked for help And now the enemy is butchering me My body lies in my bed Lifeless I cant move a feet I can only see My heart is so heavy Weaving thoughts and we

My Lucid Dream

I want to spread my arms As wide as i can Close my  eyes  Shut everything off And let myself go Fall so deep And as i fall I want to fly  As high as i can go Live my dream Feel the excitement of flying No more as a dream No more so real yet so dreamy feel The clear blue sky above me And oh so far the land is I rest then upon the green grass ground See the beautiful white clouds Like a hot air balloon In the sky I see the beautiful mountains Oh so beautiful they are As i am flying  Only my eyes and memories have them captured My eyes open I am in my bed But i cant let go of my dream So i wana spread my arms As wide as i can Shut my eyes off And let myself go Fall deep  Fall so deep  And as i almost touch the ground I will find my wings....

A strange friendship

Lately I haven't been a morning person. Well who am i kidding i have never been a morning person. Anyways, today i had to visit a temple nearby because my mom wanted me to. So in my own time i went there. I organized my puja thali. And when i was doing so I noticed a little girl who was looking at what i was doing fascinatingly. There was this goat as well who was also fascinated by some flowers and a raddish i had in my thali.  I started doing my puja, fully aware the goat was eyeing my puja thali.  In our culture we first offer puja to lord ganesh. Only then we offer puja to other gods. After doing the same, offering my puja to lord ganesh,i went inside the main temple of Bhairav. She tagged along and later i realized so did the goat.  The goat was disturbing  in a cute way. And the lil girl forcefully offered her help by holiding my thali for me. While i was kneeling down and doing my worship, she was making offerings from the thali herself.  And our bond started. The tem