TRAVEL DIARY TOWARDS THE EASTERN SIDE

Utilizing my summer vacation of a week, I wanted to escape to a cool destination through domestic tourism. After much brainstorming, the placed happened to be towards the farthest possible side—Ilam. As I had never been there before, I was excited to travel. Bought a hiace ticket for Rs. 1600/one way and booked a room in a hotel on 5^th June.

In the very next morning, I got up at 3 a.m. and reached Koteshwor at 5:15 am. The bus was supposed to leave at 5:30 a.m.; however, it left at 6:15 a.m. It travelled through Sanga and Dhulikhel. I was enjoying my travel through the banks of Sunkoshi River along with the soothing evergreen hit Hindi songs in the bus. Along with 9 other passengers in a 15-seated bus, I reached Dumja of Sindhuli district at 8:30 a.m. I had roti-tarkari in a hotel on the way.

After breakfast, the terai heat slowly began to reach us. The bus again stopped in Bardibas at Lalgadh at 11:45 a.m. for lunch (rice) for Rs. 150/plate, Rs. 100/half plate).

After boarding, I enjoyed the terai landscapes from the window seat—the houses, fertile land without hills, wide lands with vegetation, grazing cattle, ripe mango and jackfruit in the trees. As we reached Jhapa, no green trees could be seen and the way was straight.

On reaching Morang, I could see many gravestones nearby the roadside. The East Highway, i.e. Mahendra Highway ran through the middle of the terai districts. I was happy to see and reach Damak, Jhumka, Birtamod, and Itahari as they brought back some fond memories related to my closed ones.

As the bus took a north turn on reaching Ilam district, a sudden change in weather could be felt. It was evening and Ilam hills were welcoming us with the fog through their serpentine roads. After about three hours, I finally reached Ilam bazaar.

It was 7:15 p.m. and was completely dark. It took about 15 minutes to locate and get into the hotel. I had a shower. Also had to change the booked room because of the musty smell and seemed like an unused one since ages. However, the adjoined room for a price of Rs. 700/night was comfortable and without complaints. Hungry as I was, I had roti, curry and dahi which had a unique taste.

On the second day, after I finished with my usual routine, I had a heavy parautha and chutney at the hotel lounge at around 8 a.m. There were some tourists in the lounge area. I could see this hotel as one of the best ones in the bazaar. From there, I headed towards the Ilam bazaar.

The market was similar to the markets anywhere in Nepal. But the houses and the shops had the trend of growing flowers and keeping flower pots even within a small space. Even outside their stone-walled compounds, they would plant some vegetable plants or flowers.

The morning was sunny. I went to the Ilam tea estate. Although I had been excited in the beginning, the Ilam tea estate was not as per my expectation. Later, I came to know that Kanyam tea estate was the best place to visit if we wanted to look at a tea estate in Nepal. However, the Ilam tea estate was just above the bus stop and that excited me. The range of the tea garden was huge. It expanded to several nearby hills and the way towards tower view had been constructed through the tea garden. On reaching the tower top in the scorching heat at around 11 o’clock, I forgot all the hardships I had taken during the climb. The cool breeze of the tower was unexplainable.

From the bazaar shops, I bought lollipop packets, chhurpi, pustakari, tea packets as gifts for my friends and relatives. It was 11:30 a.m. by then. I went to my hotel, had shower and ate a packet of raw Rara noodles. There was a problem with wi-fi connection in my room. So I went to the main hotel. Tired as I was from the previous day’s travel and as I had nothing much to do in Ilam bazaar and as there were not much places to visit, I had no options other than to remain in the bazaar on that day. It was raining heavily outside the hotel and my umbrella was in my room.

So I chatted with my relatives sitting in the comfy lounge enjoying tea of Ilam twice (milk and black). Planned for the next day, i.e., decided to go to Mirik and other Indian areas as they were quite nearby. It had already been three hours’ stay in the lounge.    

After the raining stopped, I went to the shops and bought some more gifts for my closed ones—bambaisan, peda, tea packets, and chhurpi. Kept those items in my room and went for an evening walk around Chiyabari. By 5:30 p.m., I was back in the room. Rested and had dinner of local chicken at around 9 p.m. As the wi-fi connection had been working, I slept at around 11:30 p.m. after surfing the net for a few hours.

On 8^th June, I got up and went to the hotel after my daily routine. Checked out and had a farewell tea. I left the hotel at 7 a.m. and reached Fikkal bazaar in a microbus for Rs. 150 in about one and a half hours. I could see the haat bazaar of this place from the window of the bus. They were selling varieties of vegetables. Then I took a microbus to Pashupatinagar.

Sandwiching myself among three people, I reached Pashupatinagar. I went to Monica Tamu Hotel in order to exchange Nepali rupees for Indian currency. The couple travelling with me in the bus, who had been heading towards Darjeeling for a medical checkup, had gone to that hotel for INR and I had followed them. After exchanging the currency, I had a plate of vegetable momo with a bowl of soup for Rs. 50. It is the cheapest momo I have ever had. In the same shop, I came to know about the taxi services for people wanting to tour in India. After a bargain, it was fixed that I would be visiting Mirik and Darjeeling in a private taxi for NRs. 5000.

As I had not carried any of my IDs with me, there was no chance of lodging in India. So it was decided that after 4-5 hours of sightseeing, I would be brought back by the driver in the same hotel. My bus ticket towards Kathmandu also was booked then and I was glad to know that the bus would come to pick me up from right in front of the hotel. So, I kept my luggage in the hotel and set towards India with a carrying bag, purse and umbrella. Mirik looked extremely beautiful amidst the green tea estates. The lake had many visitors. I did not miss the chance to click myself in the Mirik tea estate and bridge. Few places of Mirik such as gumba, Swiss cottage were visited.

As I was eager to see Darjeeling, I did not want to waste any minute. Unfortunately, the weather had changed and had turned chilly as we were heading towards Darjeeling. However, we kept on moving ahead amidst the tall green pine forests separated by the main road. The driver stopped the taxi in a place called Simana from where a panoramic view of mountains could be seen. A mini-mela had been set up there. The driver also was a guide to me who told me that the mela place had been a cemetery before. That seemed true as I could see the bulged cemented portions on the ground. From there, we went towards Jorepokhari which was a pond and a park. Nice place to be but the horrible condition of the toilets there is something worth mentioning. I have never ever seen such a sorry state of toilets in my life. This area could either be cleaned or blocked for visitors.

A Shiva temple was also the part of the pokhari. The entrance charge was INR 10. By this time, the drizzle had already begun. The idea of sightseeing seemed to be a bad idea. However, we kept on travelling. Also, I came to know only then that Darjeeling bazaar remained closed on Thursdays, like Saturdays in Nepal. So the desire of shopping in Darjeeling had to be kept aside. We were heading towards Batase Dada. On the way, we saw many vehicles that had gone towards Darjeeling returning back. The saddest part of this day was to know that a strike had been called upon due to political reasons. We had no options but to return back from half the way.

So we returned back to the hotel with a heavy heart. I paid the discounted amount for the taxi which came to be NRs. 3800. I had chowmein and rested a while. There was no hot water service in the hotel. I wanted to see Pashupatinagar. So I took about one and half hour’s time to walk around the market at 5 p.m. The chilly weather in this part in the month of July was something new to me. The shops selling warm clothes and people wrapping themselves in warm clothes seemed interesting. I could see tongba vessels in most of the shops. The road was graveled but it seemed like an uphill. Shops were similar to Kathmandu shops and mostly had Chinese goods. I had planned to go to a cheese factory nearby but as it was getting dark, I returned back from half the way. Through the net surfing, I had come to know that this place was a meeting point for businessmen from India and Nepal. However, I could not see any foreigners the way I had seen in Ilam bazaar.

Returned back to the hotel in the evening, turned the wi-fi on and talked to the dear ones. Delicious warm food was served in charesh ko thaal (plate) which I relished and slept looking forward to the next day.

On the fourth day, I got up early and finished my daily routine. After clicking this place from my camera and breathing in the fresh morning air of Pashupatinagar, I boarded the hiace microbus and bade farewell to the hotel owners.

While leaving Ilam, I remembered a Nepali song “Badaluko ghumtole…” by Yam Baral and realized how he had popularized his place through one song. I then wished I could do something similar to make my birthplace popular.

The hilly and cool areas of Ilam could not be seen once we reached Jhapa. The fertile lands and heat was slowly showing up. The terai looked similar to how it looked a few days ago. After having lunch in Lalgadh, we headed towards Sindhuli in the midday heat. Dead stinking cocks inside the bus and road dust outside the bus accompanied the heat. However, the greenery of Sindhuli would relieve us at times. A hotel seems to be opening in the area soon. There was a jam due to the dry landslide in Khurkot and the road had been diverted. Another jam hit us in Sanga. We reached Koteshwor late i.e., at around 7:30 p.m. However, I was happy to see my hair remain silky for 4 days as a result of travelling to the dust-free zone.