Ghale Gaun Lamjung - Post Earthquake Impressions

Lamjung -13th March, 2016 

Travelling is always fun and when you travel in a group of new friends, it’s even more exciting. We (Hike For Nepal) organized a 2 Night/3 Days trip on 7^th,8^th and 9^th March 2016 to Ghale Gaun via Kaule Paani coinciding with 3 public holidays.

On Monday morning, 11 enthusiast hikers gathered at Samakhusi, Kathmandu at 9 am and boarded on the micro bus and headed to Beshisahar, Lamjung. After 6 hours of drive we reached at Rani Kuwa, Lamjung from where our hike was to begin. Despite the tedious drive in micro bus, everyone was excited for the hike and upcoming adventures. After a short break for snack and preparation for the journey, we began our uphill hike. We crossed through the local villages, terraced farmland and dense mixed forest before we reached at the historical Lamjung Palace at Kaulepani ridge by evening. After spending some time exploring an old palace from where Shah King used to rule, we then moved ahead to the home stay village of Kaulepani.

Certain homes in the Kaulepani village were recently turned into home stays to give real feel to visitors how a typical village lifestyle is while showcasing their culture and traditions. We were excited to be part of this award winning home stay village (It was declared as the best home-stay tourism village in Nepal on the occasion of the 35^th World Tourism Day). It was about to get dark as we were approaching the village. The villagers and the members of home stay community were eagerly waiting to welcome us.

On our arrival we were welcomed by the local villagers and served refreshments and drinks. Although we were tired, we were more excited when locals entertained us with the Gurung cultural song and dance (Kauda, Chutka and Ghantu ) showcasing their local culture and traditions. In the evening we stayed with a host family as a family member and indulged ourselves to savour local delicacies.

The next day we woke up early to watch sunrise and breathtaking Mountain View and had breakfast with the host family. We then gathered in a community hall where the representative of the home stay briefed us about their culture, tradition and uniqueness of the village. After saying good bye to the locals we then proceeded towards a long day hike.

On the day we hiked through the sub tropical mixed forest, past the rhododendron forest, Gurung villages and farms observing daily chores of village people. After 2 hours of hike we reached at BakhreJagat where we quickly grabbed chocolates, energy drinks and locally available food to reenergise ourselves for a day long hike. We then started to move uphill through the paved stairs deep into the forest before we found ourselves walking through the ridge of the hills and the scenery we observed was spectacular. We were thirsty and hungry and our pace was getting slow but the surrounding hills and the mountains view at the backdrop continuously inspired us to move ahead. After about 4 hours of hike we then reached to small village of Baglung Pani where we had already ordered for the lunch. We stopped at the village for an hour and had a freshly cooked Nepali style daal, bhat , tarakari, pickle and chicken soup.

It was already 2pm when we finished our lunch. We then hiked ahead towards our destination. As we were crossing through the jungle it started to rain but we keep moving ahead. We were drenched by the rainfall, exhausted but still excited as we were about to see the first glimpse of the traditional Ghale village. Reaching at the top we found ourselves walking past the entrance of Ghale Gaun.

Ghale Gaun is the perfect example of home stay based tourism destination in Nepal and is situated at an altitude of 2070 m from sea level and majority of the people living in the village are from ethnic Gurung tribe. This beautiful village lies in along the round Annapurna circuit route which is well known as worlds as well as Nepal's a popular trekking destination. This majestic village is only 205 km northwest of Kathmandu and 125 km northeast of Pokhara.

The rustic and traditional settlements, the ancestral home of brave Gurungs Ghale gaun lies in the Ghale utterkanya Village development committee. The lanes of roads are stone paved and clean. Ghale women normally wear blue and red attire, called ghalek and lungi and men were kachaad, bakkhu.In the evening we sat around a campfire and entertained ourselves with songs, anecdotes, stories and dance. We then had a dinner over the fire at host house and spent the night. The next morning we woke up bit late as there was Solar eclipse on the day and we avoided direct contact with the sun.

Later in the morning we walked through the villages, stopped at temples and tea gardens to capture the moments. It was a sunny morning and the sky was blue and we were lucky to see the spectacular mountain range in 180 degrees.

If you are lucky enough during your visit you could observe Machhapuchare (6693m) Annapurna (8091m), Annapurna II (7939m) Annapurna IV (7525m), Lamjung Himal, Bouddha Himal (6974m), Himalchuli (6747m) and many more smaller peaks.

We had a typical Gurung breakfast and that consist of unique millet sel roti, eggs and gundruk (fermented curry). The host family then bid us a farewell by putting us tikas and garlands.

It was a final day for us, and after saying good bye to the locals we slowly started to hike downhill leaving the village behind and cherishing the beautiful moments we had shared with the host family.

Finally we reached at Khudi at the bank of the river after three hours of downhill hike and took a local bus to BesiSahar. At BeshiSahar we had lunch at local restaurant. We then boarded on the micro bus and headed back to Kathmandu laughing, smiling and sharing each other’s experiences and moments we spent together in the last three days. We came back to Kathmandu Bus Park at about 11pm and took taxi to the home. 

Hike for Nepal

Hike for Nepal is a campaign which brings people from all walks of life to explore and connect with nature through activities such as hiking, nature walking and jungle walking etc. 

We organize hiking events on every Saturday in different hiking locations in and around Kathmandu Valley. 

Please follow our Facebook page to get more details about our upcoming events

https://www.facebook.com/HikeforNepal?fref=ts&ref=br_tf

The Forgotten Place: Jiri, Dolakha

(Jiri holds enormous possibilities to revive it as a next tourism destination in Nepal)

It was in 1960, when the Swiss Government Aid decided to set up an agricultural development centre in Jiri.  Nepal was a forbidden country to outsiders before 1950 but two years later the Swiss geologist Dr.Toni Hagen was given go-ahead signal by the Nepalese government to carry out geological survey in the country. Dr Hagen had envisioned this Jiri as a land of agricultural and development possibilities after he travelled in the region.Since then the Swiss government has spent millions of dollars worth of development schemes to develop this region.

The Swiss aid has helped to established Jiri Hospital, Jiri Technical School, Jiri Livestock Development Farm, Jiri Yak Cheese Production Centre and the road that linked Lamosangu on the Kathmandu-Tibet highway to Jiri (the road was completed in 1982)

Now, it takes just 7-8 hours to reach Jiri Bazar from the capital, Kathmandu. Everyday buses and micro bus carry passengers from Old Bus Park Terminal at Ratna Park. Jiri is connected with capital city by 190 km of narrow and winding road. When you geared uphill from Bhotekoshi River you will feel the cool breezing and see the landscape changes along with changing altitude. The narrow road passes through hills, rivers, valley, villages, small towns and terraced farmlands before you reach Jiri Bazar.

Jiri is a small farming and tourist village located at the altitude of 1905m. Jiri Valley is surrounded by Cherdung in the East, Khawa Valley in the West, Hanumante in the North and Tame Dande in the South. The name Jiri is derived from local indigenous group called Jirels. Although Jirels are the dominant caste in the region various others castes such as Sherpas, Sunuwars, Tamangs and Chhetris are residing alongside. People in Jiri are primarily engaged in the agricultural and livestock rearing sector. Rice, wheat, maize and potatoes are the major crops that grow in the region. Cows and yaks are the sources of dairy product in the region.

Today, Jiri becomes a favorite place to hang out for short duration to Kathmanduties and other travel enthusiast. The unique landscape, flora and fauna diversity, weather conditions, rich culture and traditions of this area attracts thousands of internal and external tourists annually. Hundreds of school and college students come here in an educational field trips and the flow is very high during the time of New Year. Farmers from different part of the region come here to observe and learn modern farming techniques and livestock rearing practices while youngsters and families come here to enjoy the climate, landscapes and to undertake short hiking in the area.

Most of the youngsters love to come Jiri by riding on a motorbikes and they want to spend the nights in a cooling environment, hanging around in a local pub, drinking locally made alcohol called Padaamchal (alcohol made by mixing herbal spices) and Tongba (a vessel which holds the fermented millet based alcohol, and hot water is poured on the brim of vessel and is left for 5 minutes undisturbed and then the tongba is ready to drink)

There are few good hotels and lodges to accommodate travelers in the area. Most of the restaurants in the area serve local foods and few of them serves exotic foods. The Jiri Bazar is extended in a strip of main road of about 600-700 meters long. The hotels, restaurants, fancy clothes shop, cooperatives, and the only bank in the area ‘Prime Commercial Bank’, all are found on the either sides of the main road. Travelers have to carry enough of cash to spend in the region as there are no any ATM machines to withdraw cash. The best time to travel in the region is between March and May as you could see the national flower ‘Rhododendron’ blossoming in a full spectrum along the way and it will be amazing to see the hills turning into red. If you are lucky you could easily spot deer, jackals, and different colorful birds while hiking in the region. There was a couple of Himalayan Black Bear attack incidence reported by the locals in the upper densely forested area. There is a chance of rare encounter with the wild beast when you go deep into the forest without consulting locals. Travelers don’t have to scare as the incident happens on the off track trail but not in the common trekking trail.

After visiting extensively throughout Nepal’s during his survey period, Dr Toni Hagen published book comparing Nepal with Switzerland in the field of tourism, hydropower and infrastructure, then the Nepalese started materializing this region (specifically Jiri, Dolakha) as second Switzerland in the world. After Hagen had made comparison in his book ‘Decentralization and Development: The Role of Democratic Principles’ whenever any Nepalese travelers who haven’t been to Switzerland before, reached this place, their general expression is ‘Is really Switzerland look like this?’  Whatever the geographical realities between two countries is, one thing is for sure Dr Hagen had envisioned this Jiri as a land of agricultural and development possibilities and as a result the Swiss government had put lots of effort to develop the region. The blocks of houses of Jiri Technical School, and Jiri Hospital are all built in a Swiss Fashion and this is an eye-catching structure one will first experience when riding downhill from Haatdanda.

Jiri is also considered as a classical route to Mount Everest and it takes 8-10 days to reach into the Mount Everest region. But the construction of the airport in Mount Everest region has drastically reduced the tourist in the region as they prefer to fly rather than to spend 8-10 days trekking into the region. Also in later years the impact of globalization and the pressure of population have been seen in this place. Lately houses are built in a haphazard manner by blurring the originality of the region and much effort has not been taken by the Village Development Committee to maintain the originality and uniqueness of housing style of this place. The charm of this place started to deteriorate after the Swiss packed their bags and left the area handing all the facilities to Nepalese government. I still remember what Dharma Sankar Ghimire said when returning back to Kathmandu: “The Swiss has transformed this place by introducing all the modern development techniques and their expertise but what sadden me is, people in this region never learn to be independent by hardworking, the culture of aid dependent always prevails here”.

Besides these few drawbacks of the region Jiri could offer so many things to excite and amaze travelers. Travelers could do around 3-4 hours of short hiking in an around the valley. The hiking to only Yak Cheese Production factory in the region takes around 3 hours. The uphill hiking crossing through scattered settlements, suspension bridge, terraced farming, range land and rhododendron forest could be a spectacular experience. Similarly, short walk to Jireshwor Mahadav Temple (a holy place of lord shiva, situated in the middle of the forest under the cave like structure) could be reached by 1 and ½ hour and the trail passes through the pine forest. And to those who are not very fond of hiking can spend time visiting local shops and tasting local food. Visitors could engage themselves taking photographs of the landscapes, streams, Swiss fashioned buildings and the cows lazily grazing on the pasture land. Visitors could pop into the Jiri Technical School and Jiri Livestock Development Farm which can be reached within a walking distance of 10-15 minutes from Jiri Bazar. Staffs at those centers are very cooperative and you could learn about the achievements of those centres and know how the local are getting benefit by the services provided by those centers. All in all, this uniqueness of the Jiri holds enormous possibilities to revive it as a next tourism destination in Nepal………………..

Mahesh Sharma & Bejoy Ghimire

"A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step"

Namaste from the land of Himalayas

Thank you for visiting the Splendid Nepal blog. This blog will be covering contemporary issues on Social, Environmental and Economic aspect of Nepal.

Every day we are being bombarded with news and stories of political instabilities, weak institutions, fragile governance, and corrupt leaders of Nepal. The mainstream media has been over occupied by the news of corruption, scandals, murders, ethnic based discriminations, and conflicts in the society. But what about the news and stories of those people who are making positive changes in the society, not matter big or small?

Nepalese youth are dynamic and they just don’t want to stay ideal and watch all those negativism happening around them. Their energy, dedication and conviction are helping to transfer the society in positive directions and our entire efforts will be dedicated to encourage and promote their positive energy, innovative ideas, and entrepreneurial skills in different sectors of Nepal.You can make a difference. We can make a difference. 

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& yes, it’s POSSIBLE….!
                                                                                                                                                        
Bejoy Ghimire & Mahesh Sharma.