Ghandruk, at the foothill of Annapurna: Knockin' on heaven's door

By NEERAMESH

Having bit experience of outside world tour, we always had plans to go for trekking in Nepal to feel and experience the beauty of Nepal. So, here it came. We made it. Our first trekking in Nepal. Where, how and when? Our first plan was to go to Rara lake in Mugu district. But unfortunately, we had to defer it since we could not get the plane tickets. It was bit frustrating that it is hard to get plane tickets for Nepali citizens since the travel agencies have opportunities to charge more with the foreigners. We Nepalese are treated as outsiders in our own Nepal since they get more money from the tourists. It is also similar with some of the hotels in Kathmandu. When we approach for the hotels, they directly ask us whether it is for a Nepali or a foreigner and if we say, it is for a national then the answer is no. And they proudly tell us, "SORRY it's only for the foreigners."


Anyway, we had a wonderful trip to Ghandrup, the first-hand experience of trekking in Nepal.

After spending couple of days in Pokhara, we headed towards Ghandruk at around 6:30 am from zero point Pokhara. We were told that it would take an hour from public vehicle to reach  Naya Pool (the starting point for Ghandruk and Ghodepani). However, we took a cab and it took us about an hour which means, reaching Naya Pool from Lakeside within an hour in a public vehicle, is not possible unless it's express or non stop. On the way, we saw some school-going aged children selling some berries wrapped inside the plant leaves. By the time we reached Naya Pool, we felt bit chilly. It was our first trekking so we did not have much information about the climate on the way to Ghandruk. We saw lot of foreigners coming back from the trekking and few getting ready for the Ghandruk and Ghodepani trekking. However, we hardly met any Nepali trekkers on the way to Ghandruk except Nepali porters. We asked few locals about the way to Ghandruk and they told us the direction happily and said that there was no way that we could get lost on the way to Ghandruk. We continued our journey and after about half an hour, we had to take right from Birethanti since the left way would lead to Ghodepani.

I bought a strong stick to make the trekking easy and she carried an umbrella (long one- which can be used for double purposes: for support while walking and protection from rain). While heading towards Ghandruk, we took so many pictures. Before, we crossed the first suspension bridge, I slipped from the road while trying to get down to the right way (which was few meters high and slippery). She had been suggesting me to buy the real trekking shoes but I did not buy it. At that very time, I felt that I should have bought it as soon as she suggested me. But the incident taught us to be very careful during our whole trekking. Anyway, we started our TREK. We both were feeling relaxed having had an opportunity to explore Nepal. After walking for an hour, we felt uncomfortable and therefore, we had to take our full clothes off and use half shirts and pants.

The way to Ghandruk was smooth till we reached KILU, Ghandruk-1 before Syauli Bazzar. The main difficult and stiff mountain started from this place.

The funny part of the journey was asking the questions to the locals about the time to reach Ghandruk. We received different answers from different people. At first we assumed that it would take around 5 hours to reach there. The cab driver told us that it would take around 2 hours. It might be because the main Ghandruk village on the foothill of Annapurna is quite farther though the Ghandruk village starts after walking about 3 hours from Naya Pool. One of the shopkeepers on the way told us that it would at least take 5 hours to reach Ghandruk (it was after we walked around one and half hour). We felt many times that we were going to reach soon to the main Ghandruk village, but it hardly came. At one point, we were discouraged and had doubt whether we were going to make it to the tip of Ghandruk village. However, we did not lose our motivation. We even saw some children of the foreigners (not more than 5 years old) coming back happily from the Ghandruk trip. If they could, then why not us? Inspired by those kids; eating some salt mixed pistachio and taking sips of REDBULL (thank god somebody suggested us to take it along with us), we felt refreshed. At several places, I washed my face and hair to get relief from the heat of the scorching sun. It took us nearly 6 and half hours to reach the main Ghandruk village. By the time we reached the Gurung Cottage (hotel), we were told by the hotel owner and some other trekkers that we reached before the expected time which means it could also take more than it took us. We were really tired and exhausted by the time we reached hotel. However, the panoramic view of the Ghandruk village and Annapurna (south) shadowed our tiredness. Slowly, it got cloudy and therefore, we felt chilly. The sun kept playing hide and seek. And hence, the weather kept changing every now and then. After we took shower, we were energized and had our lunch. Though the outside weather was bit chilly, we were amazed to see the solar powers in every hotel and therefore, one does not have to worry about hot water for taking shower. You don't get that facility even in the heart of Nepal, the Kathmandu valley. Also, after long time, we felt like we have had heavenly food. I ate few rotis with fried potatoes but it tasted far better than any other food in the world. The second day we came to know the secret of the taste of the food (will be revealed later).

We encountered many donkeys on the way to Ghandruk. The only means of transportation was donkey. Donkeys are loaded with heavy goods, cements, gas cylinders and what not? That was the reason the food prices are higher than the hotel room prices in Ghandruk village. However, the food prices are comparatively similar with the food prices in some good hotels in Pokhara. The difference is, lot of things at Ghandruk need to be carried by the donkeys from Naya Bazar or Pokhara.

The steep and narrow mountain road was really time consuming and exhausting. We also crossed some small brooks, man-made bamboo and wood bridges and falls on the way. Although we had difficulty in walking continuously, and therefore, we had short rests at so many places, we saw a man coming back from Ghandruk along with his bicycle. What a madness? How come? Why? We were so surprised to see the man carrying a bicycle on the risky road. He must be crazy, we thought.

FINALLY we reached GHANDRUK.

INFRONT OF the GURUNG COTTAGE

 

ANNAPURNA VIEW FROM THE GURUNG COTTAGE

The next day, we visited some places in the Ghandruk village near by the Gurung Cottage. The first place we went, was a place where one can wear traditional Gurung costumes. For sure, we were not going to miss that opportunity. We took several pictures at the place.



HUMANITY STILL EXISTS

After having so many photo shots, we went further down the village where there was a school. On the way, we saw an old woman, cutting grasses from her field where she had pea plants. We wanted to buy some peas right from her field since they were ripe and ready for eating. She gave us handful of green pea plants but to our surprise, she denied taking money from us, saying that she was giving us for free.

We also experienced another similar case. We were stepping up towards the Ghandruk village and on the way we saw many ripe Tamarilos (Rukh Tamator). We did walk up to the Ghandruk village twice that afternoon. And here comes the secret: why the food in Ghandruk tastes so good? We had our lunch that day at around 1 pm. We took the normal amount of daal, bhat and tarkari. But to our surprise, we could not digest it since it contained high protein. We were so full for long period of time. It was because the food produced in Ghandruk is totally organic (chemical free). They cook the vegetables right from their kitchen garden. No pollution, no chemical. That was the reason, we had hard time digesting the food that we had at the Gurung Cottage. Now the secrecy is disclosed. 

Let's come back to the same story.....We wanted to buy some RUKH TAMATAR for dinner. We asked some from Trekkers' ink (hotel) but they did not want to sell since they needed those for pickle for their own guests in the hotel. So we approached at another place. At first, the owner did not want to sell us since they only had few left. "Since you are our guests, I can not deny," said the owner after few minutes. After he picked five of them from the plant, he hesitated taking money from us when we offereded him some. These two incidences touched us so much.

Shree Mesharm Baraha Secondary School, Ghandruk-5, Kaski

KNOCK KNOCK Knockin' on heaven's Door

At the highest point of Ghandruk above Gurung Cottage, we were enthralled to hear the melodious music. The youngsters were playing musical instruments from the prefect place as if it was in the heaven from where Annapurna Himalaya can be seen clearly. The local band with well equipped modern sound system, gadgets and musical instruments was playing 'KNOCK KNOCK KNOCIN' on Heaven's DOOR by the time we were there. It was beyond our imagination and expectation. It was a perfect gift for us during our visit to Ghandruk.We also saw two volleyball courts, one at the highest point and the other one was few hundred meters down from the first.

Kisam Gurung: The Man with Strong Determination

Kisam Gurung is the owner of Gurung Cottage in Ghandruk. His is the only hotel which resembles Gurung culture in Ghandruk village. He started his Cottage from the year 2000. He completed his SLC from Gandaki Boarding School in the year 2040 B.S. Traveling through some of the Asian and European countries, he finally decided to come back to his own community to do something. With the motivation that WE CAN DO IT and WE DON'T have to depend on government for everything, he came with hotel entreprenuership idea at Ghandruk village. Kisam dai shares that he must be a single person who came back to his village among his school mates. Kisam Gurung shares that Ghandruk has been inhabited by Gurungs since long. Many of the villagers are ex-Gorkha warriors and ex-pensioners. His wife and five children live in Pokhara. He runs his Gurung Cottage along with two other assistants. Ghandruk village does not have to go through long load shedding though it's a far away village from Kathmandu. The village has its own hydro power which was started 17 years ago. Another typical uniqueness about this village is that there's a fair competition among the hoteliers. Every hotel has the same menu and the prices of the rooms are same. So, nobody needs to bargain and even if somebody wants to bargain, it will be a worthless try since, the hoteliers have the community feeling and they are united. Kisam Gurung views that there's no alternate to community based system for the sustainability. "If there's no community feeling then we can not exist here," says Gurung. While talking about the political situation in Nepal and the growing frustrations among the youngsters in Nepal (which is the main push factor for many young Nepalese people heading towards Gulf countries for foreign employment), Kisam dai expresses his touching idea using an analogy of the pond. When a stone is thrown into the pond, it suddenly creates waves in the pond and eventually those waves come back to the initial place. 'They have to,' he says. Similarly, where ever we go, at the end we have to come back to our own land.

Kisam Gurung, busy with his phone and two of the rest are the crew members from the Avenues Television

(During our two nights stay, we had great time with the conversation with Kisam dai and two avenues television friends. They were there to shoot the documentary for their weekly program called 'Yatra.' After coming back to Pokhara, we had an opportunity to watch one of the episodes of Yatra from Dhampus to Landruk, which we really enjoyed. Thanks to Kisam dai, Robin and Majhi bhai)

Kisam Gurung, with the request of the Avenues crew, managed a cultural program from the Mothers Group. The cultural show started in the evening. The members of the mothers group had to come from various places completing their household works. But still, they managed to show up with full enthusiasm. Their Dohari songs pushed everyone at the Gurung Cottage courtyard to dance. At the end, they managed to raise around Rs. 7,000 from the guests which they are going to utilize for the welfare of the village.

Members of the Mothers' Group

Kisam Gurung (Dyabir Gurung) Can be Contacted through:

gurungcottage@yahoo.com

Tel no.9856025222 and 9746009682

Gurung Cottage,

Ghandruk-3 Koat Gaon

P.S.- The Gurung Cottage also has a facility of Wifi. It is the contribution of Maha Bir Pun. However, it was out of service during our stay there.