Off to Gosaikunda for me has started
to sound too mainstream, but again work is work. Unlike other times this time I
was on a mission, I had a work to complete and was supposed to walk slow and
take about 4 days to reach Gosaikunda and return back in two days times slowly
working with the butterflies and birds of that area. I also had a small work in
a local governmental school in Dhunche. I packed my bags on Thursday and took a
bus to Dhunche. Though I’ve been to lots of places with crazy roads, that Raamche
intersection on Kalikasthan- Dhunche road scares the bone out of me at times. And
to avoid that crazy experience I took a super bus this time instead of local,
hoping it won’t pick up locals and obviously reach early at the same time, but
unlike my expectation it picked up every single locals on the road and reached
Dhunche at about 3 pm.
I went to the regular hotel that
I always stay at, I didn’t even ask the password of wifi, it automatically
connected, almost felt like home, well they say “Home is where wifi connects
automatically”. I rested for a while and went off to the school where I was
supposed to run a small program. It a small governmental school in Dhunche,
with most of its infrastructure down in rubble with recent earthquake
I met with the school teacher and
then fixed the program for Friday afternoon and returned back to my hotel. The
Langtang View hotel sits atop a hill, with decent view of Langtang Lirung right
in front of your eyes and a good view of Gang Benchen and Tibetan mountain range.
I enjoyed the view with a good cup of tea and John Grisham’s “The Chamber”.
There’s something I love about tea in cold places, had a few cup of tea before
it was too cold to stay outside, so went inside the room to continue the book. It a very interesting book, well all of
Grisham’s book are interesting, but this one in particular has a very
interesting plot. I’m not sure I long I was in the room reading the book but a
knock on a door reminded me that it was dinner time. I love the food in that
hotel and the staff there are very hospitable. I went to the room after a good
dinner and slept early because I had lots of things to do next day.
Unlike my plan I woke up at 8 am
in the morning, it was late already, went in the kitchen had a few cup of tea’s
and the went to the Market to buy few stuff that I need for the school program.
Came back to the hotel for the lunch and packed my bag and went to the school.
My plan was to finish the school program and then walk up to Chandanbari and
then start the work next morning. The program was over by 3 pm, and I had
enough time to reach Chandanbaari, but the teacher of the school insisted for
me to have a lunch with them so I stayed, it was already 4 by the time I left
Dhunche. I knew I could reach Chandanbari by nightfall and I’d stay there and
walk to Lauribina the next day working all day on the way. Less did I know that
all my plan was about to go in vain.
About 2 n’ half hour into my
journey, when I reached Dhimsa, I learned that there are no hotels anywhere in
the route at the moment, one because of off season and next because of the
Tamang Lhosar. The only option we had was to reach Gosaikunda and return to the
same place that same day. I’d have not gone and returned back but a friend of
mine who was with me in the trek, it was his first time and he wanted to go to
Gosaikunda, so we decided to do it the next morning. Even I wasn’t sure about
it, though I had reached Gosaikunda in a single day before, I was not sure if
we could reach Gosaikunda and then come back to Dhunche the same day. But still
we decided to go for it and planned to wake up at 4 am in the morning and start
the trek. The alarm woke me up exactly at 4 am, but it was so windy and cold
that we decided to wait for an hour, and that hour turned two and we ended up
walking at 6 am in the Morning. There doubts of dark clouds were surrounding my
thoughts on the possibility of us returning back to Dhunche but still we had no
option. We decided to leave our bags behind and the started walking. The route
has become very easy for me, I remember most of the corners and turns, it’s
very easy to be honest. By 10:30 am in the morning we were already in
Gosaikunda, we stayed there for while ate few noodles, oranges and biscuits and
then walked back down. At around 2 am we were back to Chandanbari and learned
that a single hotel was open in Chandanbaari, though eating biscuits and
noodles we were pretty hungry so decided to eat noodle soup and few cups of tea
again, after wasting an hour or so we started walking back down, at about 3:20
3:30 we were in Dhimsha, and our plan changed a little, instead of going back
to Dhunche, we went towards Syafrubesi via the Dhimsa-ThuloBharkhu Route. It
was new route for me so I was happy enough to go down that road, and it would
be something new to stay in Syafrubesi than Dhunche for me. At around 6 pm we
reached Syafrubesi.
I was planning to do a
Dhunche-Gosaikunda-Dhunche in a single day, and though I didn’t do exactly that
on this trip, I managed to do Dhimsa-Gosaikunda-Syafrubesi, that too starting
at 6 am in the morning, I learned that If I were to start from Dhunche at 4 am
in the morning I can easily reach Gosaikunda and return back to Dhunche before
its dark. As it took me only 3 hours to reach Chandanbari from Dhunche, though
I did it the Dhimsa-Chandanbari trek the next morning, I would have only taken
me 3 hours to reach Chandanbari If I had started the trek from Dhunche, and
from Chandanbari it will not take me more than 4.5 hours to reach Gosaikunda,
so in around 8 hours I will reach Gosaikunda easily and then return to Dhunche
in not more than 3.5 to 4 hours. A total of 12 hours! And the friend who was walking with me pulled
his hamstring and we had to walk slow, if I was alone and in my pace, I’d have
done that so easily! I was one awesome Trek!
And if you readers aren’t
convinced enough with this blog that I can do Dhunche-Gosaikunda-Dhunche in a
single day, don’t be! I’m doing this around may anyways!
Keep travelling! Don't stop
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