Kathmandu-Liping-K-K
Participants: Aashish, Abishesh, Rajan, RiteshS, Rejan, Sandeep, Chiranjib, Binesh, Vishnu, Shristi and Wajphiya (the guest)
Route: Kathmandu to Liping to K to K
Date: Sat-Sun, January 27-28, 2008
Duration: +5 hours
Trip Doom: +10-Kilometers
Report: Aashish Dutta Koirala
Photos & Caption: AbisheshJ
Creative Support: NishchalS
Getting to the office at 5 in the morning was a headache, but it was worth it in the end. Off we went in the true “road trip” spirit. Through Bhaktapur, Dhulikhel, Panchkhal we went, and it took us quite a while to get to Tatopani. We had to leave the office van in a jungle of disarray that was formed by the vehicles waiting to get cleared by customs. After a very short hike, we got through the Chinese customs across the border. The nine of us squeezed into a six-seater, strange spectacle of a vehicle and ascended the “gantang mantang” (for lack of a better word) terrain into the heart of Khasa – a weird purgatorial place frozen in time where beer, water and tea cost the same, and “instant access” is as red as the color.

Around early evening, it started to snow. Within hours, the whole place was as white as … well … snow. The group ate, drank, danced and had little experiences and adventures of their own. The next day, shopping was the agenda and dirt cheap cellphones and blankets were on the list. On the way down, the strange spectacle of a vehicle (the same old six-seater which was now seating ten people) hit a huge rock and sadly passed on. The hike downwards then began. After about half an hour, we reached the market. In a little more than an hour, we ended up with cellphones, blankets, rice cookers, mattresses and wine to name a few.

On the way back, the road was so jam-packed with vehicles that we had to slide under a truck and do a bit of “pole-dancing” to get to our van. The road trip back home was even more fun as we now had quite a bit of talk-meat from our adventures the night before.

01 Late Comers

02 Waiting Anxiously for the Van

03 Not yet dawn

04 Anxiety shows in their faces

05 Inviting road…to Khasa

06 Stopping by for a group photo

07 The trail invites Rajan…but wait…this is not the right one

08 Hungry!!! We want some breakfast

09 Lost in thoughts…

10 Pit stop

11 Binesh can’t wait to get off the van

12 Khasa – 10Km away but still not in sight

13 Vish

14 Ram

15 Tatopani isn’t far away, but let me wash my hands with chiso pani first

16 Finally at Tato Pani

17 10-in-1 in a mini-van, crammed up…

18 Finally at Khasa

19 Criss Cross – not much different fromwhat we see here

20 In Khasa, they can fix anything…

21 Wandering streets of Khasa

22 And stopping for Lhasa beer in Khasa

23 Lhasa Restaurant in Khasa

24

25 Beautiful Da Bar

26

27 stopping by for some Chinese Candy

28 Candy Store and little kids..

29 And the camera shy shop keeper

30 Chinese Batman

31 Chinese Chopper…well, not really

32 ADK – Resting

33 Clouds start to gather- nobody anticipated a snowfall

34 And the snow fall starts…

35 Nepal is somewhere on the other side

36 Binesh, Vishnu and Rajan go for the white shower

37 Cheers to Khasa and to tomorrow’s hike back to Nepal

38 I have some tricks up my sleeve as well

39 Woah!!! More snow

40 The host (in red) joins in for a group photo

41 Nobody expected a heavy snowfall.

42 They’re not eskimos

43 Whiteout

44 Blue sky and white mountain

45 Outside of the ‘Pema Hotel’ we stayedin

46 Bigfoot!!!

47 Bhote Koshi River

48 First glimpse of the sun

49 Achoooo!!! Chiso chaaaaaa… (It’s cold)

50 Binesh, Rejan and Ritesh

51 China Post (10X zoom away)

52 View from the hotel roof

53 Cold morning, hot jasmin tea

54 Rajan – Nepalese Eskimo

55 Lemon Tree and Vishnu

56 Aashish and Binesh

57 Covered in white

58 Backtracking to Nepal – Chiranjeeb leads

59 Chinese decoration

60 Stopping by for a light meal

61

62

63 Hiking trail (Khasa to Liping)

64 – We could rode back, we chose to walk instead

65 – Distant view of Khasa

66 – Cameraman should be up front

67 – Waiting for the man with the camera

68 – There, he’s up front now

69 – And back to being the last again

70 Khasa’s out of sight

71 And Tatopani Bazaar in sight

72 Pickup lorries lined up at Tatopani border

73 Vishnu waves goodbye to Khasa

74 What’s cooking

75

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77

78

79 They’ve had enough of plain road

80 Downwards towards Liping

81

82 Black topped road (in three months time)

83 The last descent

84 We earn in Bishalnagar, we spend it in Khasa

85 See what we got from Khasa – Nokla N95

86 Happy News!!! (Whiskey)

87 The News Reader…