Hiking started as usual, late. Two days hiking as a coordinator, 10 boys heading towards Jiri with an uncharged camera, everything was going wrong until KD started sharing jokes.
There are some regular stops in D2 Hike when we travel Araniko Highway: 1. Breakfast at Surya Vinayak, 2. Lunch at Sharmila's, Zero Kilo. I had kept these things in mind because my squad knew breakfast at Surya Vinayak is served in dirty plates with unhygienic spoons and Sharmila is just name and nothing more. Well, we stopped at Surya Vinayak for breakfast but in different hotel, it was no different. It was only when we reached Khadichaur that we realized that loads of "swaari tarkari" on breakfast is not good on long drive hike as most of us couldn't resist the sharp turnings after Dhulikhel. However, nobody chucked up.
As we headed towards Jiri, the sublime beauty of nature kept our mouth open. The curvy roads, sloppy viridian hills, a picturesque village were all demanding to take photo. We got only one camera, damn!!!
On the way, we helped two ladies(Hema and Nima Lama) from Jugu who missed their last bus to Jiri. This was what catalyzed BSB, sorry to reveal your secret BSB.
Beer and Boys really go together along with Cards. "But after getting high, you should take a bottle of water beside your bed to sleep" - Lesson learned on the trip. Ravi was looking up for water around 2 am and luckily found a bottle, god knows what it contained. 3P was waking up other guys, "Guys I am thirsty, guys I am thirsty" and thirsty SRK joined the hunt for water. BSB thought 3P talks in his dreams - god help Bahadur.
With the evanescence of the morning mist, we started hiking towards the renowned cheese factory. Our hiking group had diminished due to the hangover effect of previous night. KD, Asim & Deepak kept sleeping while Ram Dai and Raunak forfeited the hiking after a man there said "kina dukha garnu huncha, dherai mathi po cha ta cheese factory".
Although Newton's second law of gravity came into play, serene sky & bright green field illuminated with resonating light mesmerized us to reach the destination. As we stared over the edge of the mountain with a feeling of awe, our hearts were jocund. The place had an aura of .. ammm "photo session", soon everyone started giving pose. It was the hunger that pushed us more towards the Cheese factory literally, since we forgot to have breakfast at Jiri, we needed to have Mahi. Later we had to satisfy with cheese as November is not the season for Mahi.
On our way back, children from school ran after D2 van shouting, "Copy Khai!! Copy Khai!!". We were like "What!! They still remember us and our D2 Van :D". I wonder why D2 left the culture of distributing copies/pencil to school kids.
We were in no hurry to return back to Kathmandu since we were informed that there was banda in Dhulikhel so we decided to visit Dolkha Bhimsen. It was 9-10 when I got back home. Day after the hike, I found that BSB, SRK and KD changed their status on facebook immediately after they reached home but I crashed into my bed as soon as I unlaced my shoe.
Well I am grateful to all the hikers who made it to the trip and also to "Harka Bd. Jirel who guided us to Cheese Factory" and "Expensive smiling waiter, who made the fire, served us and later asked KD to bring him an iPhone during his next visit to Jiri", and to all those people who made this hike a moment to remember.
Appendix:
3P = Pawan Pokhrel
BSB = Bahadur Singh Baniya
KD = Kapil Raj Pandey
SRK = Sudip Raj Koirala
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