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.