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| Siurung Village |
It was freaking Friday and it’d been months since I’d gone out for a weekend. Despite the heavy rainfall, in the month of January, all over the day, I decided to go out of Kathmandu valley just for a couple of days for a retreat that had been long overdue. At 3’o clock, I punched out from the office and hurried towards Prashant’s place, and I told him all the arrangement had been done by Balu in Abukhaireni so let’s move on. However, it was late and there was only a slim chance of getting a commute to Abukhaireni. But, fortune favors the brave – we found a private vehicle and boarded on it with few other passengers from Kalanki.
At this point, we were thrilled to have boarded the
vehicle; we were watching the rain and the things that come along on the
highway like a curious child observes the diligent ants carrying their food. We
stopped at Malekhu to have tea and snack, and again resumed our journey; the
vehicle was destined for Pokhara, and we requested the driver to drop us at
Abukhaireni. It was 9 pm, and Balu had sent a friend to pick us up. Balu and I
were meeting after a long time, and I was feeling overwhelmed by both the
meeting and successful escaping of city. We had our night – enjoyed the drink
and talk until midnight. Finally, we decided to nod off – however, I told Balu
to wake us up only if the raining stops.
Day 1:
Next morning Balu screamed, “Wake up! Sun’s up,
we’ve got to move now.” Wow, what a wonderful day – it was long since we’d sit
by the river (Daraudi) and sunbathed; after a quick breakfast we moved on
towards Dumre – it’s where the road to Pokhara and Besishahar splits up. It was
a small highway town providing essential for travelers and locals as well. We
were planning to reach Siurung the same day at any cost; hence, the crawling
speed of the bus frustrated us. It was the only bus going towards Besishahar
and it had to serve the locals as well, so it was crowded like a city bus in
Kathmandu. The road was sinuous, and the scenes we were witnessing were raw; I
was actually imagining the image presented in our school’s textbook for a
village because of its vividness.
Our lunch had already been prepared by Balu’s
coworker at Besishahar. After a delicious local food; we headed towards the
town where the vehicle was waiting for us. We bought some oranges as snack for
the road; but we ate it all in Besishahar while the vehicle was in garage for
maintenance. Besishahar was a small valley surrounded by high hills all round
it, was headquarter of the Lamjung district, and also the eastern starting point
of world famous trekking route – Annapurna Circuit. The driver was young, vehicle
was full, road was scary; however, the drive was driving with one hand on the
wheel and other on his mobile phone – he was actually proving the point that
Gorkhali are brave. It was his usual route, but for us, it was new experience.
We were also crazy, after a while we boarded on the
back of the Jeep. It was a scary as hell as well as adventurous experience.
Slight mistake from the driver, we would have been fall off from the cliff down
to the Marsyangdi River thousands of feet below. The road was one way and the
vehicle we had boarded is the only vehicle that goes in and out of the village.
After few hours of bumpy ride on the back of the Jeep, we reached our
destination – The Siurung Village, situated at 1,800 meters high from the sea
level. Personally, I love mountainous region and get goosebumps when I see the
high Himalayas from the living room of any home. And Siurung was exactly the
same; we could see Bahundada in the front, and Manaslu, Himchuli on the
northeast.
The village composed of few hundred houses with
stoned roof; the majority of the habitants were old people – young lads of that
village were in Army (British, Indian, and French). This is not the case of
Siurung only, wherever we go in the remote part of Nepal we would find children
and aged people having majority – and young people off to foreign employment.
The entire village was listed as Home – Stay, and we were welcomed by the owner
of the vehicle. It was my first experience in a Home – Stay; it was not a
hotel, we were to live there like a guest.
The host welcomed us with the local alcohol (it was
tasty, I must say, and potent as well) and the chicken. The dinner was
delicious, and it was a cold night because of the snowfall up on the hill, and
I ate like I’d never eaten before to keep my lean body warm. A room was
allotted for us, four of us slept like a baby.
Day 2:
At 4’o clock the host woke us up. It was a chilling
morning, and we had to trek up to the top of the hill where snow had fallen
yesterday. So, after a formal freshen up, we started to trek. It was still
dark, and we were using the flashlight of our mobile phones to look down the path.
Prashant and another teammate had thrown up, because of altitude and early
morning trek. However, Balu and I were marching towards the top. The frost was
all over the place, and at first, guys got confused the frost with snow. The
reason our host had planned to trek up early in the morning is that, if we
can’t see how high we are going, we wouldn’t get scared to move ahead – it was
an excellent psychological trick; because, by the time the sun was up, we were
almost at the top.
We savored the moment of sunrise; for we wouldn’t be
able to see such a beautiful sunrise after returning from Siurung back to
Kathmandu. After two and half hours of climb, we reached at the top, the
altitude was 2,900 meters, and fully covered with snow. Some of us had never
seen snow, and directly jumped into the child mode throwing off the snowball to
each other. The place was secluded, we were the only intruder. There was also a
temple of Shiva at the middle of the mountain top.
The thing that swayed me was the 270 degree view of
Himalayas – we could see Manaslu up close, Himchuli beside it, and the
Annapurna, as well as Machhapuchhre, all around us. On the south we could see
the small town of Besishahar below the cloud (which made me realize up how high
we were). The sun was playing hide and seek with the cloud; it was warm when
the sun was up, and as soon as the cloud came before it, we would feel frozen;
amazing it was.
We were naïve – our hand got burnt by the snow,
still we were determined to build a snowman, our guide and host helped us. It
was he, who first got undressed to encourage us and to show how to enjoy such a
blessed morning covered in snow. After a couple of hours of play, we had our
breakfast (which the guide and host had carried in his backpack), it was simple
tea and biscuit. But, it was one of those best breakfasts I’ve ever had; we
were looking around us over the Himalayas, the jungle below the Himalayas were
also covered in snow, and few tears had rolled down over my cheek – tears of
joy and overwhelmedness over the beauty of nature.
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| Manaslu |
But, there are few downside of snow as well; we
couldn’t tell what’s underneath it. Our guide was a veteran and was leading
slowly showing us the pitfalls to avoid while roaming in such places. He showed
us the jungle of rhododendron, of course there were no rhododendron, but we
could imagine the place during the summer going all red. He also showed us
their farm, where they had planted vegetables; farm was one and half hours away
from the village. Finally, after one and half hour we reached the village, had
our lunch, and started to plan for returning back.
We got a farewell from the host like we’re their
family member – they put traditional Gurung Tika on our forehead and prayed for
our safe journey. And talking about cost – it was nothing as compared to the
experience we had in those 24 hours.
After a couple of hours of ride on the same Jeep, we
reached Besishahar, and got on the bus towards Dumre. We had expended all of
our cash, and ATM was not working, anyhow Balu managed some cash from the local
branch of his company, and we reimbursed him after reaching Dumre. Prashant and
I parted ways to Kathmandu from Abukhaireni, and reached home around midnight.
Travel Tips to
Siurung:
C Reach Dumre from Kathmandu by vehicle going towards
Pokhara, the fare is very reasonable.
C Take local commute from Dumre to Besishahar.
C Contact the Home Stay operators beforehand, they
will arrange for the vehicle from Besishahar to Siurung.
C If you have time constraints and no cap on budget,
it would be easier using private vehicle instead of public.
C You can go up to Dudh Pokhari trekking, if you plan
ahead, and ask for the host to be your guide.
Things to do in
Siurung:
C Home – stay, drinking local beverage and enjoying
local food.
C If you plan the trip on some festival time, you can
watch the traditional cultural dance, and other local arts.
C If you got time, ask your host to organize a picnic
up in the hill, where we’d played snow.
C If it’s summer, please visit jungle full of flowers,
and if it’s winter, it would be best to enjoy snowfall.
Things to Remember:
C Do not tip the host.
C Respect their boundary – you’re paying doesn’t mean
you behave like in hotel; you can even participate in chores if they let you.
C Carry some medicine for altitude sickness, and some
for general cold and fever.
C Buy local products, if you have extra cash in your pocket as a souvenir as well as to help them.
