Around the hills

Leo District Council   325 B1 Nepal one of the governing body of Leo clubs of Nepal announced that they are going to conduct youth camp for their members which are to be held in Pokhara-Karkineta-Panchase a three-place with distinct features and importance. As, being a board member of the governing as wells as an adventure lover, I too liked too join the event since the announcement was made. 

   In the early morning of 20th February 2020 A.D, our bus moved from the Gongabu bus park at 6.00 am. The weather was fair to us and to the people in the vehicle, quiet and humble. As per our schedule, we planned to reach Pokhara at 3 pm but due to some technical problems in the vehicle, we reached at 4 pm. An hour delay than our planned schedule. The bus having other fellow participants, as well as technical manpower for our health camp, were waiting for us in Chorepatan, Pokhara. We moved from Pokhara to Karkineta around 4.30 pm with excitement. After a hustle and bustle journey from Kathmandu to Pokhara, we were too tired but the journey from Pokhara to Karkineta was enjoyable with lots of gossip among the participants.

  We were overwhelmingly welcomed by the villagers as well as Mayor of Phalebas Municipality Mr. Padam Pani Sharma along with traditional Panche Baja and flowers and greeted as were newly married bride. Within 30 minutes of reaching the Karkineta, we were departed to different houses of local people where we were allocated to have dinner and night stay. The place where no hotels or restaurant, they were the home of our Nepalese values, custom, tradition, lifestyle, etc. Houses were old designed which were two stories. Walls painted with mud, the kitchen was firewood was used to cook food, a staircase made up woods and the doors which were too low and we should bow-head down before entering it. Foodstuff was totally organic grown up in the local area. The taste includes the best ingredients to us people who usually live in the city area.

  The specialty of this camp was that we were made belonging to our own values and tradition rather than spending in big hotels or regencies. After dinner, we have a holy rhyme called “Bhajan” next day was Shivaratri. Almost all the participants sang and enjoyed the holy rituals. The religious part of our society, we gathered to devote ourselves to God. Our Hindu culture where our belongings towards God. We got to know the importance of all the people around the village gathered for singing Bhajans. On one hand, it being up to socialization society whereas, on the other hand, it makes our mind peaceful. During this event as part of rituals “Haluwa” was distributed as Prasad to us.

   The very next day we woke up early in order to conduct “Mega Health Camp” in the village. The location was nearby high school. Early in the morning after having a cup of tea and glance at the view from the top Karkineta we were lucky to see the Kusma, headquarter of Parbat district from there. All of us had a photoshoot and we went for the preparation of health camp. Health Camp ended within 3 hours by serving almost 300 needy patients and distributing medicine to them. Shortly after we had an opening ceremony which was postponed due to our yesterday's delay in arrival. It lasted about 1 hour and within a short span of time, the weather changes from sunny to a rainy day. The place was totally wet and muddy. Our plan of that particular day was to have trek from a place called Adherneta to Bhanjyang which was our last destination. Confusion around us as we gonna have a trek or we will travel through the bus.

   Skipping all the if and but we moved as planned to have trekked from Adherineta. This time the weather was not fair to us. There was heavy rainfall we didn’t have an umbrella or raincoat but it couldn’t break our determination to move forward. The trek was so excited as we have to walk along hills to hills getting fresh air of our natural environment. A road paved with stones was only and only our guide to our destiny. All of us were about the excitement to come, all the upstairs hills around and resting in the Chautaras looking around the hills. We traveled sharing our experience and gossiping with each other, looking around that beautiful scenario of our mates made our journey so memorable. Certainly after walking around 2 hours we got to know that we had traveled the wrong way. This thing bothered us as it was about 6.30 pm and about to sunset. Hopefully, we were able to contact other participants and we moved on. After walking we reached up the hills for 4 hours and we finally reached our destiny “Bhanjyang”.

   The night was too fascinating as we have a campfire and those beautiful folk songs which lasted the whole night. As we have to move Panchase the next morning we dispersed to sleep. The next morning we moved towards Panchase a place which was located at peak bordering around three district Kaski, Syangja and Parbat. It was holy religious places in that region. We even see different ponds in such a hilly region. There were so many small ponds around theirs. Finally, after 1 hour we reached Panchase and clicked some pictures with the background having snow-capped mountains. Roaming around for 30 minutes we had ac up of tea and a short session by our keynote speaker who shared his experience in the insurgency a few years back.

   We return to the Bhanjyang and got to know that the transportation wasn’t available due to yesterday’s heavy rainfall. So, again we decide to trek from Bhanjang to Ghatichhina after concluding our closing session. Then we travel downwards from hills towards our final destination Pokhara. The house in the village was typically styled found in of western region of Nepal where the house was made up of beautiful carving stones and woods. We saw many people belonging to the Gurung community and got to see Gurung Museum as well. With all fatigue and hardship, we walk for 4 hours and felt a thirst for water. We used to hear that in a village strangers can easily go to homes to ask for water to drink and we did the same. Happily, they provide us water to drink, we felt amused by their hospitality.

   Finally, the bus arrived at Ghatichhina and we traveled by bus to Pokhara and lucky to get the night view of lakeside which eventually made us refreshed. We had an award ceremony in Pokhara followed by dinner. Enjoying each moment of the journey around the hills we returned the same night to Kathmandu. I hope everyone like me stores memorable moments in this journey around the hills which attached us to our cultural, religious values, etc along with our village lifestyle.