Anil Rai The day started when my flat mate woke me up. I had overslept. Again, I was sleeping even though the alarm was going on and on. It felt like it was yelling over me "Get up, you lazy bones". So the lazy bone got up. I looked at the time and it was 6:35 A.M and I was supposed to reach Deerwalk by 7:00 A.M and it took approximately 30 minutes to reach there via 'local bus'. So, I was pretty screwed. I started getting ready in a hurry and cursed myself for not getting all the things ready the night before. I had misplaced my camera, my wallet and the worst of all, my socks. The piece of clothing that never had found a very unfortunate time to play hide and seek. I reached the bus stop by 6:40, I think, which is super fast if you ask me. At least I got a seat on the bus as it was still early for most people. As I sat there and checked my bag I had the horrible realization that I had left my extra battery of the camera in my room. All I could do now was hope that the rest of my fellow trekkers embody the concept of 'Nepali time'. So, it can be concluded that the start of the day wasn't very pleasant. I reached Deerwalk Complex. At about 7:15 A.M. And I was glad that I wasn't the last person to arrive. So I waited. We seem to take the concept of 'Nepali Time' very seriously as we left at about 8:00 A.M. All the hurry and anxiety just some time ago seemed pointless. It felt to me something like 'Doshi Chasma' only in my case it was 'Doshi Ghadi'. I watched my watch time, time and again, fearing that it is already late. And in the end, it didn't really matter. We were dropped off at Tokha where we carried some water and from there we started the trek. It began with a trek up a hill. The climb was hard. So hard that I thought that being late for the trek that day wouldn't have been such a bad thing. We reached the top of a small hill and I realized that it was a part of another hill. I was already tired, but the only way out was through. So I kept up a slow pace and in about one an half hour, the path was straight. It took 2 hours to prepare the food. I almost got asleep about three times in that time. Once I was out for about 10 minutes. Waiting for food is one of the hardest things to do. And when it arrived, we were all grateful. The food was okay, Not bad.

But at that time, with the combination of hunger and fatigue, it tasted like there can't be anything better in the whole wide world.

But at that time, with the combination of hunger and fatigue, it tasted like there can't be anything better in the whole wide world. And the thing after a hearty meal is that you find it very hard to walk afterwards. We were no exception. Now it was a slow walk. Then, we were told that there was a waterfall with cool water where we were going to make the stop. The promise of cool shade and a waterfall was enough to keep on moving. The waterfall was smaller than I had imagined, but it was cool and soothing. There are very few good things as a waterfall on a hot day. After the waterfall, we headed towards Budhanilkantha. It was now rather easy walk up to there. The day had started to cool down and it was a downhill walk. On the way we stopped by a small shop for tea nearby a Stupa that was under construction. On reaching Budhanilkantha, we again sat down for a cup of tea and waited to be picked up. 

Suman Adhikari As like everyone, I was roused from the day beginning I joined the Deerwalk about hiking and other stuff organized by. When I heard there was a hike on the squad C, I was overwhelmed with excitement. As gossip surrounded, that played a great role in me. When I got the email I replied in no time “Count me in”, expressing my interest in the mail. When I woke up, I was incertitude if the weather remained stable or not because since my beginning at Deerwalk the weather seemed to be capricious. So, I made myself prepared for that. When I stepped my foot ahead my pulse of excitation got increased and to every step there was lots of relish feeling that drove inside me. After 15 minutes walk and 30 minute bus ride, I finally reached the premises of the Deerwalk. As contrived the day ahead on Friday, I went to the office to meet the rest of the team. As I was totally new to everyone and same there. We departed from the office at 8:00 A.M with the entire participants on the van. There was Jatra on Handigaun which nearly led us on a traffic jam as there was the proverb that “Kai nabhako jatra handigaunma”. Deepak was very alert about short root and traffic jam and lead us along the Tokha Chandeshwor. But unfortunately, after heading to few hundred meters ahead, we concluded that we were on the wrong route and then we returned back and reached Ganesthan. We headed towards south from Dhapasi on the gravel road passing the Grande tower, beautiful apartment and reached Tokha Chandeshwor at 9:00 A.M from where our journey began. When we reached Chandeshwor we bought few water bottles and quenched our thirst and warmed up ourselves and commenced our first step to our hike. After this short break, we ventured out on our exalted conquering mission of hiking in the Shivapuri jungle which has sheer road and mountains. We walked on; passing the mountain filled with the pine and the music that lead by the birds increased our hullaballoo with team member along the route. After climbing the sheer mountain, we encountered the similar steep mountain where we found a plain area on the top of it and we turned it into a spot for relieving and fueling up ourselves. We had the drink and some Wai Wai that we bought on the way on Bhatbhateni. After re-energizing and fueling up we again moved ahead, leaving the dirt and smell of the Kathmandu valley far behind.

After re-energizing and fueling up we again moved ahead, leaving the dirt and smell of the Kathmandu valley far behind.

When we saw the black topped path between the trees we were over excited that we nearly violated the rule of keeping and walking silently in the forest area as it was a wildlife conservation area and making noise was strictly prohibited. After three hours of walk, we reached to Dandagaun situated at 5823 ft (600 meters) which was occupied by military fortress. We grasped sneakers as there was a cliché “Grasp the sneaker when you had hunger”. That chocolate was bliss that I felt when I had the first bite. Watching the natural beauty and taking some photographs of the panoramic view was our first and utmost actions as everyone were excited and lured by the natural beauty throughout the journey. Then after we walked for three hours, simultaneously, the natural view and the colleagues’ songs and gigs made me feel like we reached in no time. Our memory was full and preoccupied of beautiful, natural scene and great moments along the way, however, our hunger was crossing the threshold and we assuaged our hunger in Dandagaun. After the lunch we had no time to squander so we took route from Dandagaun to Budhanilkantha. Along the journey, we traversed the way along with laugh and gags as well-even a single person couldn’t control their laugh with wicked joke cracks around. The Rhododendron, the national flower, made everyone mad with its hilarious beauty in between of forest greenery and other Rhododendron’s color. Everyone was fond of the spring that we encountered while trespassing the jungle where we spent nearly thirty minutes on photography, tasting the natural flow of water. By my experience, I never had such cold and sweet water directly from the spring, but unfortunately I stumbled and fell down. After being fresh, we made up our mind to move on and after two and half an hour of downhill way, we reached the Bipasana Center, situated at the inception of Shivapuri National Park. And there we had tea and waited for the way back. Though we were so desperate to spend moments there, but we had no option left as we all were bound to attend work on Monday leaving all memories behind. It took around an hour to get back. It was a well-organized trip, which gave us collection of a sweet memory with everlasting reminiscence. For me, in sum, it was an unplanned yet an amazing trip with wonderful people.