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Theme: Misty Mountain Hike Hiking Route: Palung to Daman to Simbhanjyang Date: June 15, 2008, Sunday Participants: BabinsS, BahadurB, HiteshK, KamalK, LunaG, MaheshS, ManojR, ParasT, PawanP, PrajwalS, PujaKC, RajK, SanjeetB, SitaP and, ShankarS Caption by: Shankar Sharma, Luna Gurung, Sanjeet Baidya, Sita Pun Photos: Shankar Sharma, Manoj Rokka, Luna Gurung, Kamal Karki Report By: Kamal Karki and Prajwal Shrestha , Pawan Pokhrel Creative Support: Dhilung/Pallavi [Kamal Karki and Prajwal Shrestha] Everyone was excited for another theme based hiking from Palung To Daman. Palung, which lies on the way to Daman, is famous for its vegetable cultivation. Daman, which is a popular tourist destination, is famous for the splendid view of Himalayan region. After picking up everyone on the way, we were altogether fifteen ready for a challenging hike to Daman. The morning was clear unlike the evening shower we had the previous day. We had a quick breakfast at Naubise, a place where the Tribhuvan Highway and Prithivi Highway separate. After a two hours ride, we reached Palung at 10:30am, our starting point for the hike. The place welcomed us with aroma of fresh vegetables in the fields. We could see farmers in the fields busy at their work. This reminded all of us the dependency of the Nepali population on agriculture. The journey started from a simple walk on a highway until we met an old lady who showed us another difficult route to our destination. Since we were there for a hiking experience, we followed the lady’s direction. We climbed up to reach a place from where we could see the beauty of the valley. The fields stretched wide and green, ready for another harvest. On the way, we shared experiences with a World War II veteran who had fought in Japan. The man was in his late-eighties but still strong to walk the ups and downs of the terrain. Slowly the clouds began to shower, and the hike became more interesting. The rainfall was mild but we enjoyed walking in the rain, occasionally taking the snapshots on the way. Nobody missed the chance of storing their experiences in their camera. We reached Daman, altitude 2322m at around 2:00 pm. The rain and mist completely blocked the scenic view of the Himalayas. Nonetheless, it added a different experience to our hiking and we decided to extend our hike to Simbhanjyang, altitude 2488m. We ended our hike by distributing notebooks and pencils to the students of Risheshwor Primary School at Daman. Lack of physical infrastructure, untimely delivery of books and insufficient number of teachers were evident in the school environment. On the way back, we played antakashari which made us forget all tiredness and sweat of the hike. Overall, the hike was adventurous, exciting, natural and memorable. We would all like to extend sincere thanks to the coordinator and to the team for making this hike a successful one. [Pawan Pokhrel] Gathering at D2, a short table tennis session, and a breakfast at Naubise are the regular pre-hiking tasks with which we started our day. We covered a two hour microbus ride and reached Palung at around 10 am. Fifteen exuberant hikers started the hike with a thirst to indulge in the essence of nature and capture every bit of beauty on the way to Daman. “Tapai haru le mero yo halat ma kina photo linu bhako?” a women’s disagreement when ManojR took her snap – made us laugh for a while. At Citiny, we met Ramjee Adhikari who had lots to tell about his service as an army personnel in Japan during World War II but we had no choice than to bid him goodbye and head towards our destination Daman at an altitude of 2322 meters. The pattering rain made our journey more than blissful. The rain continued till we reached Simbhanjyang. On the way I proposed for a ‘rainy-race’ and PrajwalS and RajK supported me. I was elated for being third in the first ever ‘D2 Rainy Race’. The journey continued with a lot of “guff”, laughter, and photo sessions. The blood donation to leech became an integral part of our hiking. Though, our destination was Daman we couldn’t stop our joyful moment there and further continued our hike to Simbhanjyang. The surrounding was amazing as a thick haze of cloud was hanging above us. Mahesh was overwhelmed and lost in the cloud for a while at a height of 2488 meters. After spending some time in Simbhanjyang we returned back to Daman. Poonam Pariyar, a student of Risheshwor Primary School at Daman, ushered us to his school. We distributed notebooks and pencils to the school children. They were very excited to have copies and pencils with ‘D2Hawkeye’ printed on it. I asked the boy why he did not attend his school on Sunday and his answer was “I washed my school dress”. “No Dress No Education System!”That was a reality check for all of us. Finally, we had our lunch at Gauri Shankar Guest House and then started our journey back. The hangama continued on the way back home till we reached Thankot with guys playing continuous Antakshari. Frequent jokes from Hitesh, Sanjit and ShankarS, SitaP and her high pitch laughter along with the majestic scenario made our hike memorable and exciting. The sublime beauty of nature made us completely forget our tiredness. I ended the day in complete peace and with a feeling as if I have returned from different world. Please click on the image to see its large version.

01 Thankot Temple	02 Road Block
03 Cloudy Mountain	04 Highway Down the Lane
05 Monsoon Clouds	06 Winding Road
07 Hard work	08 Pine tree cluster
09 Hiking begins	10 Getting started with photography
11 sowing paddy plants	12 vegitable plantation
13 farmers preparing field for plantation	14 ploughing
15 A local church at Palung	16 harvesting potatoes
17 Vegetation	18 Palung to Daman
19 Assending	20 A local residence
21 Hiking Trail	22 Cauliflower
23 Faleko Nashpati	24 Chitchat with World War II vetran
25 makai bari (maize plants)	26 A future Engineer (Self made lorry)
27 A glimpse of palung	28 Cityni village
29 Atop the Rock	30 Ready for rock climbing
31 Moving on	32 Self proclaimed hero
33 twist and turn	34 Centipede
35 Sanjeet-s favourite pet	36 Sita collecting mushrooms for dinner
37 I am taller	38 The panorama
39 misty forest	40 In the rain, on the road
41 lonely road	42 by road ko bato ma gadi gudaudai...
43 Daman - Proposed Destination	44 parkhi basen
45 The terminator	46 CCTV
47 duo drenched in rain	48 mission accomplished
49 Love at first site	50 self proclaimed heros part II
51 Yahoo we did it	52 haunted mountain
53 and the ghost	54 serching for lost friend
55 more ghosts	56 Open source everywhere
57 warming up with tea	58 mist gets denser
59 standing tall	60 posey
61 Lake	62 source of water
63 kal kal sal sal	64 Daman at it-s best
65 Beauties and the Geek	66 Verdure
67 Blood sucking leach	68 Heading for a cause
69 just 70 kilo	70 life is not easy for some
71 Hariyo ban Nepal ko dhan - Kalile samma	72 Walnut
73 On the way to school	74 School premises
75 Shri Hrishishewor Primary School	76 View from school
77 Class 5 blackboard	78 World behind the window
79 peeping through the window	80 A 25 year old nursery student
81 Save Nepal's national flower	82 a discussion with the principal
83 decending	84 pea pods
85 eating to be eaten (a local turkey)	86 bee
87 Nepali thali	88 A-Shiv statue
89 B-chicks	90 It-s Home made lorry again
91 Caution - Men at work	92 on the way back home
93 cotton clouds	94 New Nepal
95 Way back to home	96 hills
97 Sunset	98 sunset at naubise

Please click on the image to see its large version.