A wonderful trip to Bhadratar, Nuwakot, Nepal

Posted on Mar 30, 2013 by ER Saurav Shrestha under Tour

Tags: Bhadratar, Nuwakot, Nepal, Dhido, Amla

I was stressed with my official work, so I was on Annual leave for 15 days. On Monday 25th of March, 2013 I asked my friend Sanjay to take me to his “Mama Ghar” (Mother’s brother’s home) Mahakali 1 VDC, Bhadratar, Nuwakot, which is approximately 35 KM from Kathmandu. We packed our necessary daily stuffs and others as Koseli (Gifts) to his relatives and took off at around 2:00 P.M. from my home. We travelled on my bike from ‘Samakhusi, Kathmandu through Tokha, Kathmandu then Jhor, Kathmandu. Finally we reached the Army Check Point, Shivapuri, where we had to pay the road tax. There is a Shivapuri National Park located in this area.

After crossing the Check Point, we went up hill and all of a sudden my friend lost the control of the bike and we were heading towards the downside of the road. But luckily he controlled the acceleration. The accelerator of my bike was jammed. We tried to fix it by was in vain. So we returned back searching for the workshop. After reaching Jhor, we found one workshop and the mechanic found out that the accelerator wire was about to get snapped. Thank god we were saved from a nasty incident. But unfortunately there was no spare wire, so we had to call our friends to bring the wire. After fixing the problem, we continued our journey at around 4:00 P.M.

Travelling about 5 KMs from the Check point, we took a shortcut through a narrow dirt road which was so sloppy. We passed many fields all green as it was cultivating time. People were plowing their fields by traditional “Hallo” using Oxen. The place is known as Sunkhane. On the way we took rest and captured some beautiful pictures of that awesome place. Then we crossed two suspension bridges over Lekhu Khola and reached Bhadratar. Moving up we reached Sanjay’s brother’s place, parked my bike and rested there. We were greeted with cold and sweet home made curd. It was really delicious. It was almost 6:00 P.M. then up hill and got to our destination, Sanjay’s Mama Ghar. The VDC is populated by only 200 – 300 houses. Also it has been only 1 year that the facility of electricity was made available. We changed our clothes, got fresh and had hot buffalo’s milk. We meet his relatives and handed over the stuffs that we brought for them. They were very happy. There was a newly born baby of Sanjay’s brother. He was so cute. We were placed in separate room (Guest Room). After getting fresh me, my friend and his brother went for a walk. We stopped by to have some fine local alcohol. It was so smooth made up of Kodo (Millet). After that we went to attend the pre Holi carnival. There people were drinking alcohol and were singing songs and dancing playing “Madal”. We danced a bit and as we were tired we returned back, had local meal with meat of local hen. It was so delicious having with local hen’s meat and local ghee made from buffalo’s milk. Finally we slept a good sleep.

On the next day, after waking up early in the morning we had local tea and rice fried with cereal soup. Delicious they were. It was “Holi Purnima” that day. Sanjay’s nephews were all full of colors but there was not a huge celebration than in Kathmandu. We went downhill towards the local tap, where we washed our clothes and had a cool bath. The water was so clean and warm. Then we returned back and watched Hindi movies after that we had lunch with dried meat cooked with soup. Yummy, I really enjoyed the food and the hospitality over there. Then afterwards we visited Sanjay’s Tholo Mum’s (mother’s elder sister) place. We walked downhill about 15 minutes to reach that vary place. We met her Thulo Mom and she gave us blessings. We also met all the rest of the family. One of Sanjay’s sisters-in-law made snacks for us and we have few glasses of local alcohol. Again his Thulo Mom insisted us to have fried beaten rice and fried potato. God they were so tasty. So after such a wonderful time at Thulo Mom’s place we returned back. On the way, Sanjay’s nephews hunted crabs in the rice fields and water streams. After searching for about an hour those kids were able to 3 crabs. Then we cleaned those crabs and took home, fried them and eat with tomato pickle. They tasted really awesome. It was my first time with crabs. That day we had local hen’s meat and Dhido (Dhido defines the food that is made by boiling hot water and continuously mixing flours of maize and other grains like buckwheat) along with local alcohol. After dinner we went to bed.

The final day, after lunch, Sanjay’s Maiju (Mother’s brother’s wife) packed Ghee, Alcohol, Gundruk (fermented leafy green vegetable and is a popular food in Nepal and claimed to be one of the national dishes) and some vegetable for my and Sanjay’s family. Sanjay’s brother Seshman climbed the Amla tree and dropped Amlas on the ground. Then we collected them and packed them for taking home. Sanjay’s Thulo Mom had also packed some stuff for us. So after packing those stuffs, we got on my bike and headed back home at around 12:00 P.M. This time we took another route. It was rough and muddy and was really hard for Sanjay to drive through. I had to get off the bike many times at various places. After crossing the Lekhu Khola via concrete bridge, we took the road uphill, steep and rocky. The road leaded us to a huge jungle. We drove through the jungle and reached the pitched road after travelling about 5 KMs. Finally, we reached Shivapuri and were so relaxed. We got home by 2:00 and had a well deserved rest.

I insist all of you who wants travel to remote places, visit Bhadratar, Nuwakot once.