Ashish Bhujel recollects:
Shivapuri-Sundarijal

Wake up at 5:30; be at “SAKHA complex” at 6:30 and the plan for rest of the day was unpredictable. All I knew was, we were hiking through Northern Hills of Kathmandu valley, a well known hiking trail from Shivapuri to Sundarijal. Since it was my first hike from D2, I was not sure how things were going to be for rest of the day but I was sure that it will be good hike.

It was approximately 7:00 am and almost all the people listed in the hiking list that was forwarded on Friday evening were present, some faces were familiar to me and some new ones. Everybody tried to grab a comfortable seat. Even though I guess I was last person to enter the van, I was happy that I got my favorite seat, the last one to the left. It always feels good to be a “backbencher”. Then it was decided that our first visit will be “Budhanilkantha” temple and will have breakfast near the temple area. We finished our breakfast with Nepali Style – “Cel-Roti” and “Chana” with “Fanta” for drink at around 8:30 am.

The hiking started at around 9:00 AM, with Subin purchasing an entry pass to Shivapuri National Park. We were all geared up with water and snack for rest of the trail, passing through an Army Barrack. I remember that the start was so beautiful, sunlight passing through leaves of trees, smoke coming thought chimney of the barrack. It was like misty morning greeting us with fresh air to breathe. It always feels good be in nature and runaway form busy Kathmandu roads. It all started with a high note, some with groups, some preferred to hike through the woods alone and enjoying the natural beauty. One thing was for sure, everyone was in chatting mood. Some were talking about sports, some were discussing about how the weather might turn out for the rest of the day. During this time all eyes were on the GPS device that we carried and we were trying to figure it out. But luck was not on our side. We could not use it for the rest of the trail due to ‘weak signal’. Among the different topics, me, Adam, Sanjish and Badri were talking about human nature and one topic we stuck for moment was “Men are like rubber bands, Women are like Waves” and Subin asking logical questions. We didn’t even realize that we walked through “Panimuhan” to “Nagi Gumba”. From there, the trail turned out to be a game of hide and seek with the bright sun, sometimes passing through the wood and being in a sanctuary of shades and sometimes exposed to sun. We walked through the trail taking snack breaks in between, taking group photographs, asking for single shot and what not. We did not even realize that we passed through “Taulung” then to “Tarebhir”. And when the trail was about to end, we heard stream flowing and every-body’s spirit was raised high and seemed so eager to play in the water and enjoy every minute of it. We stayed there for half an hour. After feeling refreshed and rejuvenated from playing in the stream, we continued our hike towards Sundrijal.

When we reached Sundarijal, we realized it took us approximately six hours, a whole bunch of topics like, music, sports, work gossips, what we did other day, and whole lot of laughter. Our hike ended in “Purkhauli Ghar” having lunch, which we waited for two hours and accompanied by some good old music. The best part was the starting song that Purkhauli Ghar played was Pink Floyd’s “Comings back to life”.

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• 01 Pundits on business
• 02 Sleeping Vishnu
• 03 All set
• 04 Hike route
• 05 Dade kaila
• 06 Rays of Light
• 07 Glowing hikers
• 08 Something fishy going on
• 09 Kathmandu North
• 10 Kick-off
• 11 Colors of Nature I
• 12 Hariyo ban Nepal ko dhan I
• 13 Risky business
• 14 Armymen at work
• 15 Prayer flags
• 16 Gabbar-Sambha-Kaliya
• 17 Tarebhir
• 18 Break I
• 19 Shivapuriko Momo cha
• 20 Tarebhir or Thadebhir
• 21 Polluted Kathmandu
• 22 Kathmandu North-East
• 23 Lonely Cyclist
• 24 Lonely tree
• 25 Gateway to heaven
• 26 Timepass
• 27 Missing someone
• 28 Colors of Nature III
• 29 Cracker promo
• 30 Jay hos
• 31 Little devil
• 32 Dead snake
• 33 Million $ Smile
• 34 B & B
• 35 Do not disturb
• 36 the 3 stooges
• 37 Hiking ma shortcut
• 38 Cool route
• 39 Sundari bina ko jal
• 40 Hariyo ban Nepal ko dhan II
• 41 Best pals
• 42 Ravi at work
• 43 I lost mobile
• 44 Masterpiece I
• 45 Sallu bhai
• 46 Masterpiece II
• 47 Helping hands
• 48 Moz gardai chha
• 49 Splash II
• 50 Concentrate here
• 51 Channel V
• 52 Kaat diu
• 53 Splash I
• 54 Almost done
• 55 Beauty of Nature
• 56 Abandoned
• 57 Mister Muscle
• 58 Mechanical lever
• 59 Hero no1
• 60 Hamile khane pani
• 61 Mister Hiker
• 62 Colors of Nature VI
• 63 D2 bina ko hawk
• 64 Master photographer
• 65 Mero no. kaile aauchha
• 66 Haku chhoila
• 67 Colors of Nature II
• 68 Colors of Nature IV
• 69 Purkhauli ghar ko sukeko jharana
• 70 Colors of Nature V
• 71 Reflections