Another Personal Blog

Last Saturday morning out of blue we decided to cycle upto a hill nearlyby kathmandu. It is the Chandragiri hill near kalanki Kathmandu.

It is not a long ride. We planed to reach the top which is 20km or so uphill and then 40 km or so downhill and plane road. I packed small bag with bike tool kit and a sleeping bag lyner just in case if we got to sleep somewhere.

Started at around 9:15 from lalitur. Used some shortcut to reach balkhu, kalanki and to Thankot. Thankot is the point from where we got to catch way uphill. The way was full of dust and the rubble. So it was hard to to uphill. But I decided to paddle all the way up. I shifted my gear to lowest and the started paddling. We had 2 lit of water and few packets of ORS and glucose. Glucose drink while paddling gave us lot of energy to continue. And frequent rest was essential. Took some shortcut on which we got to carry our bike :).
Finding a gang of hiker was fun but the occasional vehicles passing through was disturbing as all they do is make lots of dust.
It was around 13:00 when reached the top. We were not allowed to cycle up to pick they were doing the construction there. They were building cable car and hotel/resort up there. We climbed 200meter(approx) to reach to the summit. There was a tample which is being renovated. The day was not clear that day so it was blurry down there. Kathmandu valley was all blurry 🙁 . Anyway we felt the accomplishment as we had claimed this high. Meeting other cyclist on the way was fun too.
We decide to have some food before heading down  towards chitlang. Chitlang is a popular recreational destination. Lots of hotel and resorts can be found there on this beautiful village. Oh I forgot to mention we were are Makawanpur district here after. Downhill on the dusty road with sharp bends was dangerous and the fun at once. My friend even catched a little accident. But it was not large and we continued. We meet 2 other cyclist upto chitlang from the Chandragiri.
It was 15:00 when we took short break at a local school. We still had 4 hours at max and way of unknown length as my cellphone battery already died. 🙁 Hence we decided to keep on paddling and asking locals instead of map. Reached Maurkhu on the way. It is a city ot side of Indrasarobar(water dam of kulekhani hidropower). There after we got to go up to Kulekhani. I decide to got some food and out destination was unknown. While buying snacks, the shopkeeper said that the local bus took 3 hours to reach kathmandu. Ohoh and we had 3 hours left but on cycle. Haha

But soon after my friend got a flat. I did my second patch. And it was successful. Hahaha.
Reached Kulekhani at 17:00 and we kept in pushing ourselves. We started to face uphill and rough road who’s slowed we found down more. At 18:30 we arrived at a tiny village with some shop. We decided to spend night there. We started to ask the locals for the place to sleep. There was no hotels to stay and the shops there were not ready to give us shelter. After third attempt a man on a pub become ready to give a place to sleep. As that was first offer, I was glad. After being there for a while the aunty there (owner of the pub) called us and offered to sleep on her he instead. As that is more secure we accepted it immediately. She was saying that her son was out to ktm and she think us as her son’s figure. 🙂 Thank You aunty. Thank you so much. We asked for noodles with eggs. Hot noodles shoup and a warm bed. Wow.

It was 21:00 when we slept. We were told that cycle would be secure outside. We locked each others bike but I was kindda afread as that was a road and a pub. So I decide to become alert whole night. Soon after the pub received two guest. They started to drink and talk loudly. One of them was heard to be young and the other one was old. They continued taking till 23:00 or so. Later on I guess I fall sleep.

Morning at 5:00 we wakeup and waited for the others to wakeup. Soon they started doing their job. And we got out of the bed, packing stuffs getting ready for paddling again. Had tea and while trying to pay for the food and bed, she refused the payment for bed. I requested for a while and then gave up. Expressed my thanks to them for all the help and we started again.
It was 6:00 when we had started and around 9:00 we finished our all uphill journey and reached at a point named Deurali. As name says it is junction of Champadevi n Chandragiri. The view of the mountain range was just amazing from there. The sky was clear and the sun was shining. It was most wonderful moment of our trip while looking at the surrounding, while getting ship of coffee. :). I thought like it would be wonderful to spend a night there under a tent. Let’s hope one day. 🙂

At that point we visited the old roap way tower. It was the roap way from Hatuda to Kritipur, made to transport the cement to Kathmandu. But it was abandoned and years ago. We talked about the money wasted by the abandon.
Soon we started the wonderful downhill on the road in the middle of the green jungle. In some places the jungle was dense enough to scare lone traveller. 🙂 The another thing was the pain on the hand due to the jerk created by the bike on the rough surface.

After an hour of cycling we reached Matatirtha. From where we took tribhuvan haighway to reach Kalanki.

Summary: Full of thrill, nice uphill upto the Chandragiri, beautiful village at Chitlang-Markhu and NICE views from Deurali and the downhill there after.