Anjan Bhattrai
Anjan Bhattrai Our initial plan was to hike from Abu Khaireni to Manakamana Temple and use the cable car to return from the temple. We aimed to leave Deerwalk office premises on the office van no later than 6:30 in the morning, so we could start the hike by eleven. We ended up leaving the office at seven, however – half an hour later than planned. We picked up the hikers along the way from different places in Kathmandu, and it was already eight when we left Kalanki. We were altogether fifteen folks now, including the driver, Ram. Our journey started off with jokes and discussion on various topics. Our first stop was Naubishe, where we spent about half an hour for breakfast. We continued our journey and we were happy that we were making good time. Soon we were stuck in a traffic jam in Dhading – the cause it turned out was dispute over an inter-caste marriage case that had blocked the traffic. We waited for about an hour before we asked the locals as to how long the blockade would last. The answer was – indefinite, which frustrated us quite a bit. We made up our minds to wait until 10 AM and then decide on what to do next. Fortunately, the road cleared up just after ten. At this point, we made a little change in our plan. We would now take the cable car to Manakamana temple and hike on our return trip from the temple – quite the reverse of our original plan. We reached the cable car station at Abu Khaireni at around 12:30 PM. Late as we were, we had to stand up in a queue for a couple of hours to get on the cable car. We finally reached the temple at about three o’clock. As soon as we finished the worship at the temple, we rushed to have lunch. Interestingly, we had finished the worship and the lunch in a span of an hour. The hike on our return trip was all downhill. At some places, the slope was so steep that we could barely control our speed. We had fun along the way - cracking jokes, making fun of each other, and having discussions on general topics. We stopped occasionally for drinking water and taking a little rest. This narrative would be incomplete without the mention of the super delicious Lassi we had on the way. We asked locals all along the way as to how long it would take to reach Abu Khaireni. Strangely enough, the answer every time was – thirty minutes – no matter how far we had walked. We finally reached Abu Khaireni, where our van was waiting. After a little rest at Abu Khaireni, we got on the van and headed home. We stopped at Malekhu, where we had local fish for our dinner. The return journey on the van was equally fun with the Antakshari game. Overall, the hiking trip was incredible and memorable; and we, all the members of this hike, will cherish the beautiful moments of this hike forever.
