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Exploring Farwest : A trek to Khaptad

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Exploring Farwest : A trek to Khaptad Ajay Pandey Nepal

Farwest has been always close to my heart. The reason for that it was unknown to me. Maybe listening to the stories of how beautiful is Farwest and its people have lured me towards it. It was one day when one of my dear brother called me saying if I am interested to go on a trek for Khaptad. The motive was to promote internal tourism. After getting that call from Manoram brother, I was not sure if I can go or not.

We started with a group chat of almost 45 people which I knew all of them are not going. At last I was true, Only 8 of us were there who decided to go. Four of us headed towards Attariya from where 3 other friends were supposed to join. After almost 18 hours of journey reached to to Khutiya-Syaule and it was early so we thought of taking rest. We were welcomed by delicious food cooked by Manoram brother. We packed our bags with food materials and headed towards Dipayal.

As the altitude was increasing, the view of hills was doing some kind of magic on me. I, who could never stop talking was not talking at all. 7 of us were welcomed by Suraj Dai along with a dozen brothers from Doti whom we never knew before. Enjoying on the bank of Seti river till mid night singing and dancing. I was experiencing such a feeling for the first time in my life.

Next day, we got to wake up call from Seti river with a melodious song . From there we headed towards Jhingrana from where our trek was about to start. We stopped in between to get blessings of Shaileshwori Temple and finally reached Jhingrana.

After about one hour of trek, it was being challenging for me. It was even hard to take a single step for me . It was majorly because of the backpack which I was carrying. Krishna dai was so generous to exchange that with his. We kept walking for another 8 hours to reach Bichapani which was our next stop. After every 15 min I was taking a break to enjoy the nature and recharging myself I used to start walking again. The route was about 60-75°inclined. We reached to Bichapani . On the way, we saw chocolate wrappers, covers and other plastic thrown although there were pits for disposal there.

We woke up the next day and started heading towards Khaptad. As we started walking towards Khaptad the bed of yellow autumn leaves were guiding us towards the right direction. The moment entered the Plateau I fell in love at the moment. Every Plateau was attracting and I did not wanted to move on. After passing Sitapaila we reached Khaptad Triveni. Being a holy place before worshiping to Lord Shiva we took bath in the river, which was freezing cold. After reaching to our guesthouse in Khaptad we had a tea break,  took rest for a few minutes and went to see see Khaptad Daha. It was dark while returning, only few of us had torch walking in the night without a torch in moon light had a magic of its own.

Next day, we woke up and saw the whole Plateau turned into white with little snow which disappeared after sunlight. We went to Khaptad Baba Ashram & had a bit of rest there and planned to go to Chhanna and reach Chainpur (Bajhang district headquarters) by night. After crossing beautiful Plateaus the downhill started. It was as challenging as uphill. After 2 hours of walk we reached Lokhada and after 2 more hours of walk, we reached Daru Gaun from where we got a vehicle for Tamel Bazar. We stayed Chainpur at night . Next morning gave us the surprise with the beauty of chainpur and we headed back to Attariya. In between, we stopped at Dadeldhura to visit Ugratara Temple. Next day I came to Kathmandu with the travel of almost 22 hours on Bus.

The trek journey was a lifetime experience . The best thing was to be with 7 amazing brothers whom I hardly met 1-2 times. Those 7 days I gave it to myself for physical, mental and spiritual development. I felt more close to myself. I tried to speak less for better thought processing . Every minute was a unique type of meditation for me. The only problem we faced was lack of a proper place to stay in freezing cold weather. Since Nepal Tourism Board is planning for Visit Nepal 2020 those things should be worked out there.

#incrediblefarwest #visitnepal2020 #promoteinternaltourism

-Ajay Pandey