Participants: Amulya, Anjana, Sangeeta, Surendra and Vishnu.
Date: Sunday, 2nd Oct, 2005
Route: Thali to Lamachaur
Duration: Six and half an hour
Distance: 18 kms
Photo: Team
Caption: VishnuK
Report: VishnuK

To seek peace in silence, we gathered on Sunday 2nd of October at morning, placidly to commence our day for the excursion. While we were waiting for others we couldn’t keep ourselves idle, so some of us began to play table tennis. Some generous soul was making tea for us. During tea was prepared rest others arrived and we shared the tea together and thanks to those hand who made tea for us.

We were purposed to hike on route from Nagarkot to Sankhu instead we decided to go onto other route and we reached a place called Thali by a cab and got off from the cab then began our journey. We started off with a sloppy trail heading towards Sundarijal, wandering through fertile field of mixed vegetation for next one and half an hour of walking, we reached at Sundarijal. On our way, it was wonderful experience to see the farmers working in a calm manner in their field. When we reached Sundarijal we had to stroll for half an hour as it was a market area. As soon as we cross the market we reached close to the jungle area from where we began to climb on gentle steep hill. On the summit of steep there was check post where we bought the ticket to enter Sunderijal forest preservation and we had to open the our bags to security guard for security cause. After 20 minutes of walk down the hill there was temple of Sundari Mai Goddess. Surendra suggested us to pay homage to the Goddess and we agreed and followed his advice to pay homage to Goddess.

Then we came back to the track to proceed further. Although we were unaware of the route but lured by the charm of beautiful forest and we were compelled to roam for some time. We came across a water fall formed by Bagamati River where we stayed for a while. Then we moved to climb up, after a short while we reached Hotel called Karma where we tempted to take some refreshment and we did.

After quenching our thirst along with natural view we again kicked off to climb Mulkharkha village on a steep hill trail, on this semi natural stairs we walked for one hour and fifteen minutes, which led us to Lamachaur. In fact Lamchaur is a route to go to Chisapani which is very famous place for hikers to visit. Unfortunately, we did not had a enough time to go ahead and enjoy Chisapani surrounding but with thought of reaching the place some day we climbed down Mulkharkha bottom where the hotel Karma seemed waiting for us and we could not overlook it, so we decided to have the lunch. We asked hotel owner to prepare lunch for us. It was very pleasant to see the owner picking fresh pumpkin from her vegetable garden to cook as our vegetable for our lunch. We all felt that it was a great honor to us. After enjoying the delicacy we moved backing towards Sunderijal. On arrival at the place we boarded a bus to Kathmandu. Finally, we reached office around 5 PM. and again played table tennis for while and then decided to disperse.

In addition, to my team mates:

“Here with a loaf of bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of wine, a book of Verse and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness
And Wilderness is Paradise enow” (Edward Fitzerald on Omar Khayyam)

01 Mustard of the Season	02 Commence from Thali
03 Fertile Sundarijal Valley (Floriculture farm)	04 Looking at the Floriculture farm
05 Surendra walking on Sundarijal paddy fields	06 Keeping pace with surendra
07 The skillful farmer prepares the field for potato	08 Crossing Bagmati river
09 Hardworking women	10 Pondering in the paddy field
11 Sangita glad to be putting on her shoes back	12 Chopper hovers over Sundarijal
13 Surendra waking up Anjana	14 The scoolboy with his bag
15 Buddhist stupa watching keeping the peaceful eye on the valley	16 The only turkey in Sundarijal
17 The camping site – anybody want to stay for the night	18 Bagmati river behind the Sundarijal Valley
19 Happy Campers	20 The Gereniun goes well with dried garlic goe
21 Ascending towards the Sundarijal hill	22 Walking on the rocky trail ( wondering where my life is leading)
23 Silhouette of evergreen Sundarijal tree.	24 Sangeeta feeding brownies to the wild fishes
25 off the rocky trail, on to brick stairs	26 Group pose against the Syalmati falls
27 Thus Syalmati dances away	28 Taking a much needed rest along with Syalmati
29 Have a rest and a smile	30 Worms eye view fo the Syalmati falls
31 Vishnu does not want to leave Syalmati	32 Looking through the hills toward Thali
33 Jungle trail with Buddhist chandlers	34 Where is Vishnu
35 Another look at Sundarijal paddy fields below	36 Just look at how far above we have come
37 A welcome sign	38 An old summer palace from the Rana period
39 On the way to Sundari Mai temple	40 Surendra quietly talking with Sundari Mai
41 It is hard to tell what the Goddess said to Surendra	42 Ladies want to get a taste of Bagmati river
43 Sangeeta don’t do that – D2 will pay you better	44 Boys pose at the camera as the girls ponder
45 Bagmati dances wild	46 Should I push her
47 Surendra glows in the midday sun	48 Where did my body disappear… Surendra peeping out of the hole made by water current
49 Anjana QCing the local Cucumber	50 Vishnu with Bagmati
51 Water doing the lambada	52 Fantasic Four Walking towards Mulkharka
53 Where do we go from here	54 Hotel with a beautiful view
55 I better keep my mouth shut while Sangeeta is talking	56 A story from Sangeeta
57 Dahlia	58 Millet terrace
59 The first boy waiting for everybody else.	60 Looking at the Okharni Village
61 Another view	62 A closer look at the village palace
63 The tranquil evergreen hill	64 Dashain preparation
65 On the way down	66 Woudn’t you just love to live here
67 Easy way down	68 Burning eyes of the squirrel
69 Squirrel on the way down	70 The tempting signboard invites
71 Feast of the hike at Karma Hotel	72 The Natural Reservoir – Sundari Jal
73 Pine forest	74 Beyound Sundari Jal
75 Grand pa paints for Dashain	76 Surendra picking flowers for Sangeeta’s Grand Mother’s Birthday
77 Soothing Green telling us goodbye for the day