... Simply Awesome Participants : Bhanu, BinayaA, BinayaN, Binaeh, Bimal, SudeepK, Manindra, SanjitP (rookie), Lava, Rajendra, SureshG (rookie), SabeenS (rookie), Manoj and Vishnu Route : Jagati to Lakuribhanjyang to Lubu Time : 6 hours Distance : 24 km (Appx) Date : Sunday, Mar 04, 2007 Report : SureshG, SanjitP and SabeenS Photos : BinayaN and BimalK Captions : BinayaN, VishnuK Creative Support: BinayaN 

A Little Gift from hiking - Please click for the Full Size Never Comes Again! SureshG Even though it was my first Sunday at D2, I joined the Hiking Team with the inspiration of Surendra and my own determination and excitement. Almost all the other hikers were unknown to me but I easily became closer to them. We departed the office at around 7:15 am, a little later than the schedule. Throughout the hike, we talked about the current political scenario, various articles published on newspapers and many interesting incidents. Specially, Lava’s comment on the article on the Research on Smoking and its impact published at ‘Saptahik’ was a hit and the most memorable. When the hiking started from a place called ‘Jagati’, a black dog joined the hiking team as well, as if being a scout for us. None of us knew the exact route of the hiking and we had to ask for directions. We took rest in a forest and watched Vishnu play with the dog. We provided drinking water to the thirsty dog and it was fun. We found a school named ‘Shree Chandra Surya Prathimik Bidhyalaya’ at Gundu after crossing the ‘Shipadol’ area. We distributed pens and notebooks to each student and even discussed the problems they were facing. We got a surprise when they informed that only four teachers were available for six different classes. Lava was really worried about this fact and gave his word to support the school as much as possible. There was another memorable situation when we took a rest at the highest point of our hiking. The view of airplanes flying below us, the Himalayan range and the cities of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur was just beautiful. At midday, exactly at 12 noon, we reached a graveyard. The latest grave was of ‘Pratika’ On the way, we came across a burrow made by a porcupine and Vishnu narrated how porcupines make love and had us laughing all the way. Once we reached ‘Lakuri Bhanjyang’, the track flattened and all we sighed with relief. We learned that we had covered 4 districts during the hike: Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Kavre and Lalitpur. On the way, even we enjoy with the shouting of ‘Mahabadur’ and also chat with Madan Krishna and Hari Bansa. The saddest moment of the hike was when we completed the hike and returned to the Office Vehicle and found out that the black dog, who had already become close to all of us during the hike, was nowhere to be seen. We had our meal at a Thakali restaurant and returned to the Office full of pleasant memories. Lakuribhanjyang Hike SanjitP Almost all hikers were at the office premise at around 7 in the morning. Every program has to wait for some body, this program also did. This formalized our program. We started our trip to Jagati in office van at around 7:15 am. Weather did not seem good for sight seeing. Atmosphere was full of fog. However, who cares when we know in around two hours we would be above those fog? We are hikers, we fight nature. We fought nature and reached above fog in around 3 hrs. I should say we won nature (did we?). We had breakfast at Jagati, “Jerry and Swari”. I like jerry when I am hungry. I was not hungry. Refer to simple law of physics, I did not enjoy breakfast. Anyways, we started our journey. I was curious how it would be. First remarkable scene we saw was of “Kutumbinar”. There were around fifty Kutumbinar around us at Jagati. Confused? Bimal and Binaya has photos. You can check them out when they will be uploaded in http://www.everestuncensored.org . We all fourteen hikers continued hunting our path to Lakuribhanjyang through VDC “Shipadol”. Road was accompanied by bamboos and other bushes and free flowing waters. Sun seemed to be peeping through bushes. Bimal and Binaya were not missing any chances of capturing the splendid views of sunrays entering through the bushes. The village was not different from any other villages found inside Kathmandu valley. The residents of the village seem to be involved in agriculture. We could see “pathos” (new male goat) and “pathis” (new female goat) dancing around their mom. Buffaloes were tied around most of the houses. Hey, residents of Kathmandu, don’t be jealous; I should mention that their tap did not have any valves to stop water (“to stop water” not “to stop air”). We all fifteen members continued our journey. Ha! You may be thinking I missed counting. I have not, now we really were fifteen members hiking towards Lakuribhanjyang. A lady joined us. Woo! Guys don’t expand your pupil. The lady had four legs!! Lady fighters don’t take out your slippers. I mentioned the word only to specify the gender of our new companion. We do not know from where “Kali” joined us but I know that our friend lost her in a shooting spot of “Mahabahadur” (a Nepali Tele-serial). Hikers do not follow the trails made by others. They make their path themselves. We were soon walking with our four limbs. Hikers should have more than two legs. We started tearing the bushes and elevating ourselves up the hill. Every step was taking us one foot above other friends from D2. After about 45 minutes of climbing, we started penetrating the level of fog. Then we could see panoramic view of the Himalayan range expanding around us in almost half circle. We were stopped for some time by a force, Natural beauty. However, we had to continue our journey; we knew many more were waiting us above. We reached the border of Shipadol and Gundu. Gundu was another VDC adjacent to Shipadol. There we tried to help the students of school by providing them stationeries. The school, Shree Chandra Surya Prathamik Vidyalaya was running grade 1 to grade 6 and had around 150 students, almost equal to the number of employees in D2. But less than 50 were present that day. The principal complained that the students were absent because of rituals like marriage and mundane (A Nepali procedure of making boys pure and eligible to do formal religious activities). From the school we could see a Country Kitchen Resort with green roofs. The plan was to have lunch there. The view was very attractive. Please refer to others feeling about the view here because I was feeling very hungry and that was the place which was supposed to feed us, I may have been biased. Let me tell you, even a hut under-construction was attracting me. I do not know whether we were too early or too late, but we did not see “Lali gurans” as I had expected at that height. We continued our journey. We reached a plateau “Chian Danda” (graveyard hill). We could see a cross standing on the ground. Dead body must have been buried under that. Few feet above the graveyard, we saw ruins of (may be) a house and residues of fire, nobody could exactly say what that was. Popular guesses were: “Place of party for ritual activities after death of somebody.”; “Some houses destroyed by Maoists.”; “Army’s camp during emergency” etc. We continued our journey towards the resort. Our new companion “Kali” was enjoying the hike with us. Hikers did not forget to regularly feeding to “Kali”. Kali was also bridging the gap between the groups by returning to lagging groups in timely manner. An intelligent creature! We finally reached the path, which would surely take us to the resort, the place where people capable of killing rats in my stomach resided. But guess what? The plan changed. “Chhyang” got priority than medicine to kill rats in my stomach. The path changed to 170 degree. The road was muddy red. It started reminding me of “Jerry”. I did not like to look at the sky because I knew clouds would remind me of “Swari”. After hikers had “Chhyang” at Lakuribhanjyang, we continued our journey towards Shuvatara School where our van was waiting for us. I am happy that I have never watched “Maha Chautari”. I will never wait to watch it ever. It distracted our hikers and delayed my lunch. Finally, all reached the van except our uninvited guest, “Kali”. Sorry for that but I am sure she must have got a new group, she was so gregarious, and she could have accommodated herself in any group. We stopped at a Thakali restaurant at Jawalakhel and started our lunch. Some were veg, some non-veg and some who hated non-veg. I was non-veg. Some ordered “dhedo” some ordered “bhat”. All enjoyed lunch. Initially I also did so. Everybody including me enjoyed hiking. The experience was mind blowing. I am not going to miss next hiking as well. Even my friends enjoyed listening to my experience. I hope you all enjoyed reading my experience. Hiking to Lakuribhanjyang SabeenS This was my first hike after joining D2hawkeye Services so I was very excited about it. The schedule was something like Jagati - Lakuribhnjyang – Luvu and we were around 14 in number ready to interact with the nature and all of us were the males. We started our journey at about 7:15 from the D2 Office. We had breakfast somewhere in Bhaktapur and, fully loaded, reached Jagati at about 8:30, I guess. At first the journey was like a piece of cake, around 45 minutes of easy walk and I thought, so they call this a HIKE?? But after about 45 minutes, the real challenge started. We were welcomed by the cruel vicissitudes of the trail. But we gladly accepted this challenge and the interesting guffs (gossip) of Lava and Vishnu really made the whole hike interesting. At about 1, we reached the Chandra Suryodaya School and distributed the stationeries to the students of that school and spent some time chatting with them. We were very excited by the sceneries and the whole mountain range that we can see from the Lakuribhnjyang. Bimal and Binay were always busy capturing the mountain range. At about 3, we reached our destination Lubu. Though the hiking lasted only about 6 hours, I enjoyed every moment of this hike and I look forward to participating more of these kinds of extra activities in future. 

Pills for the Chest Pain 

Commencing from Jagati 

We saw it too early 

Dog Joins from here - We named it Kali 

Guess! Who is missing? 

Enjoying warm from the Sun 

First sight of the Sun 

Heading for the challenging route 

Inside the Shipadol 

Walking towards Newa Village 

River that flows through the Sipadol 

Kali Template at Sipadol 

Vishnu tasting the root of the asparagus 

Towards Gundu 

Recognize who is being pulled 

This is Sudeep Karkee 

Twos are not enough here 

Bimal's exposure 

Do not know the Name :( 

View of the Sipadol 

Would you like to wear it? 

Trees and Trail of the Gundu Danda 

View of SuryaVinayak 

One of the Village in Sipadol 

Treating The Guest with Biscuit and Water 

Mountain through the gate 

Just a Little Rest 

...and now through Trees 

This trail also takes you to Lakuri Bhanjyang 

Shree Chandra Suryodaya Primary School 

School Board 

Would you like to join the Birth Day Party 

From Party Place - Class III 

BinayaA Counting the D2Note Books while handing over to Headmaster - Mr. AnantaRaj 

First girl of the Class-III 

Students in one place after receiving the notebook along with their teachers 

Imagination of Unwritten stories 

Smoking makes you thinking of ... 

We named it GOLDEN ROAD 

Twin House of Ghyampe Danda 

Bhanu takes the Lead 

We did not know the names of the hills while taking the snap - but it is called Chihan Danda 

Rhododendron in Blossom 

The Red Flower of the Jungle 

Climbing towards Chihan Danda 

View of the Jagati from Chihan Danda 

Looking at the Majestic Himalaya 

Jagati from another Prospect 

Dorje Lakpa - Next time we like to hike here ;) 

From the trail where we strode... 

No More Photo ... To Bimal ;) 

Munching just below the Chihan Danda (Place for burring) 

Hills of the Jagati with green cap 

View of the Country Kitchen 

Ask Bimal about Vishnu's fore figure :) :) :) ;) 

We were top of the Royal Nepal Airlines 

Dorje Lakpa in different tone- May be Hiking in Future 

Obviously wild Jokes - makes you all Laugh 

Thought you may like it 

This is Chihan Danda 

And the Proof 

Reflection of the Ghumaune Danda 

Saile Bari Chiya Bari... 

Gift from Peoples of Republic of China 

Lau hernuhawas Nepali Danda haru... 

The Trail invites you 

Lava was drying up 

and he says yes ;) 

Vishanku Narayan 

Phulchoki from Lakuri 

The brightest time of the Hike 

Cleaver Shot 

Football Ground 

Man At Work 

...and women 

and again with about 40 Kgs :D 

Here is no Kilos ;) 

Chilling Time 

First one you can walk on; second one we can not; and third one just to see 

View of Lubu 

Buffalo was more tired than us 

The Sky of the Lakuri 

Shuvatara School 

The last descent 

Hari Bahadur Madan Bahadur Teli Serial Shooting 

The Late Arrival 

Thakali Treat - But we pay the Price for it ;)