Ganesh Thapa
This hiking was said to be a short one as some of the team members had to attend Siddi’s reception in the evening. We started our hike when Chaman, Subash, Vishnu and I gathered at D2 premises. “Is it all of us..”, “…just the four of us..” were all I could hear from my peers. I thought that the hike was not going to be interesting as we were few. We were only four. Ganesh and Sanjeet were supposed to join the team from Jawalakhel. We stopped at Nanglo Bakery Café, Jawalakhel for breakfast. Ganesh and Sanjeet showed up there. After a little chit-chat and a delicious breakfast, we moved on. The views and sceneries outside were beautiful in the morning. The player was airing ‘Asarai Mahina ma’, a new version by our very own Prasant, that was Ganesh ‘s favorite and soon became ours as well. Finally we reached the base from where we were to start the hiking. Personally, I would say the route was short, but one of the most difficult paths I’ve ever walked. We had to walk straight up through the pine forest. Vishnu’s past experience in hiking made the hiking very interesting. At the same time other members also shared their similar experience. After about 2-hour walk, we reached the Hattiban resort. The resort is in a very beautiful location. Various mountain ranges can be viewed from the same location. I found it a wonderful place to holiday. We had a cup of tea there and had a short rest. There was a tower standing by the end of resort premises. We decided to go to the top of the tower. The view from the top was amazing. But anybody can easily figure out the effects of over-population and pollution over the many years. I felt sad to see Kathmandu unorganized and crowded. Again walking about more than one hour, we reached to a point from where we couldn’t get any further ways. We decided to make it to the point for the day. We had lot of discussions on the way; ranging from a shimmering strike on street to the long-foreseen gory, ugly third world war, rising Indians and Chinese influence over world economy and not leaving, a most-talked yet under lot of hullabaloo UFOs. I found it nonchalant to talk on these matters. I like things to be done rather than just have opinions and do nothing. After spending some time there, we decided to return back to the resort. We had our lunch at the resort. I found the foods quite delicious. After finishing our lunch we decided to climb down. We wrapped up things and headed straight to where our van was waiting for us. Being a rookie myself, I found this trip to be a lot fun, a bit of effort, and myself entering to a whole new world of adventure.
