Hike to Kalinchowk, Day 2

Tired and exhausted, and a little bit of drink, to give my body some sort of relaxation and to give my mind some sort of serenity; I thought that I would fall asleep fairly easily and quickly; but alas! How misled I was! The constant aching in the calf region of both legs was bearable but was just enough to cause distress and prevent my sleep. The constant but sudden awakening of Manish, the loud snoring of Bikram did no good at all. The bed was bit cold and not that comforting at all. A constant trepidation that the whole night would pass awake with pain and ache was all over me. Maybe I slept for a couple of periods of one and half hour, I guess. The sleep early in the morning, from around 4 am to 6 am, must have been the sweetest, and I was in no condition to wake that early, but as soon as I heard that weather outside was so, so beautiful I could not just lie in the bed anymore. I dragged myself away from the relative comfort and warmth of the bed and the room to notice how mesmerizing the scenery was. We had arrived at Kuri at worst possible situation, evening time and all foggy, and we had no idea how beautiful the place was.

The scenery right outside the room was that of a hill, more precisely it was a forming of a valley, I guess, two parts of the same hill descending towards a common lowland, greenery with grasses and few bushes, some shrubs of Laligunras, and just slight sunlight on the ground; it was an absolutely spellbinding landscape. After that I directly looked towards the hill where the shrine of Kalinchwok stood. A hill with a steep ascend, and its top lighted by the first rays of the morning sun. On the side of the hill we could see distant mountain peaks shining with morning sunlight; it was absolutely enthralling to view it. Such a picturesque sight it was, I mean I was so used to see the building and co. and there was this hill almost pristine and in nearly absolute tranquility; I hurried to the room insisted all my friends to wake up right then, and insisted we go up to Kalinchwok right then instead of later in the day as decided the previous day. At first some of the friends were hesitant but with constant pressure from me as well as from Paritran all of us were ready for the hike up to Kalinchwok right then. We all had a cup of tea, packed some snacks and juice boxes and we were off to Kalinchwok shrine.

The path from Kuri village to Kalinchwok is the ascent of a single hill, it is almost uphill. It does not take much time but is challenging especially because of the nature of the ascent; youths and locals can easily scale it but it is bit difficult for others. Anyway we were up for it. Photographs along the way, talks and jokes, one major shortcut and we were near the top in about 45 minutes. There were some benches there so we sat there for a while, caught a breath, glanced down at the Kuri village. The vista of Kuri village from there was not ordinary. It was as if we were looking to a very small place. The slope of the hill looked bit dangerous from above, well obviously. We all had fluid, replenished ourselves and we were off to the top of the hill where the shrine of Kalinchwok stood.

Near the top we bought some worshipping materials for worshipping obviously, and some churpis and stuffs as a memento. The path was really interesting near the Kalinchwok temple; there is a crevasse and we have to go beyond it. There is a ladder, which is in itself bit dangerous, to get to beyond the crevasse. The temple of Kalinchwok is also not ordinary. There are tridents all over, and obviously other worshipping items. There is also a structure of lion on a pillar which is holding a post, I guess. The legend of this temple is also compelling. Legend has it that one of sheep of a farmer went missing and was found offering milk at this exact place. Upon excursion a pond was found, and this pond is still the major attraction of this temple. The origin of this pond at this height is quite mysterious. With just a frame and a vessel we can easily fetch water from the pond. Not much study has been done to understand the origin and nature of this pond and this temple as a whole. Anyway, we took offerings from the main priest, took information about the legend of the temple. Took photos of course. We also met some locals there and we learned about the places surrounding the temple. We were particularly interested when one of the locals said that red pandas can be found in the jungle just beyond the hill. He was also coordinating projects and researches in the same forest. The panorama was breathtaking. Good thing I had taken a pair of binoculars there. However the mountain panorama could not be viewed, fog had completely obstructed the view!

We had breakfast a little down from the temple and headed back to Kuri. The descent was particularly easier than the ascent! The real beauty of the hill and the panorama was truly appreciated then as we were not in agony. Talks and jokes along the way as always. We were in Kuri in no time. After resting a while, we had our lunch and were headed to Charikot soon after. We did not take the route we had taken the previous day, instead took a short-cut. On the way, not far from Kuri village, we met some teens who were going to Kuri. They were thirsty and hungry, I remembered our conditions the previous day, and offered them water and noodles. We slowly started to descent towards Charikot. Not much interesting until Gairi. A little down from Gairi we decided to frighten Manish. Me, Sajan and Bikram hid in a bush and as soon as Manish walked past us we made a sudden loud noise hoping that Manish would be scared; but Manish was wearing headphones and heard nothing but a small voice; not scared at all, plan completely failed. An hour later we came to realize that Bikram’s goggles dropped when trying to scare Manish. We could not help but laugh; Bikram’s goggles was an addition to the offerings made to the Kalinchok temple. We also introduced a proposition to mock Manish. The scheme was that if we reached Deurali by 1:30 pm Manish would have to sponsor snacks for all of us. The scheme turned out to be nothing but utter worthless as Manish did not sponsor snacks although we completed the proposition; or did we! Well, we did adjusted our watches, and cell phone time for about 10 minutes; but the fun was worth it. The proposition also enabled us to walk more quickly. Only downside to the plan was it kind of brought some disorder in my digestive system. Well, the disorder was probably due to the semi-roasted chicken from the previous day but I do like to think that the speed of the descent had at least something to do with it. Due to the disorder I relatively could not enjoy the latter stages of the descent to Deurali. After Deurali we rested at the ground near the Pokhari; totally blissful and serene place it was. I, for this time, could not admire the beauty of Pokhari due to my alimentary canal disorders! We listened to music, took photos, took a nap (maybe) then headed towards Charikot.

We reached Charikot at around 4 pm. We met Paritran’s brother there, discussed about his living, family, experiences etc. and also potential places to stay. We decided to stay at one of the hotels he recommended. The hotel was good. We unpacked, freshened up, and just relaxed for some time. Manish was again at limelight here once again. We sent him to get a bathing soap and he was nowhere to be seen for almost half an hour. Oh! I just could not wait for the soap and just took a bath without it, I just had to be fresh. At around 6 pm we headed off for a walk just uphill from there and returned an hour and half later, had lunch and slept.