Hiking to chisapani (A must do hike)

TL;DR
Chisapani is very expensive but it is even more expensive for foreign tourist. I would highly recommend to take some dry foods from home.
It took us 7hrs to reach chisapani from sundarijal, and 5 hrs to get back to sundarijal from chisapani.
Warm clothes is a must because it gets frigid at night and in morning.
Great view of mountain (Langtang, annapurna range, MT everest, ganesh himal)
Ever wondered how a sky full of stars looks like?  Get out of the lodge or hotel in somewhere between 11pm - 3am and look up at the sky.
Safe for solo hike too.

price list(this does not apply to foreign tourist)
plain tea Rs 20
hard boiled eggs Rs 30
plain pankcakes Rs 60
plain dinner Rs 200
room Rs 800 - 500
marijuana Rs 250
coconut biscuit Rs 25
jumbo wai wai noodles Rs 150
local alcohol Rs 100

Link to all the pics

About 8 months ago, I heard about this place via my colleague, then I did some research but could not find much resources on the internet however the ones I found were enough for me to add this place in my wish list. I was planning to go alone but a friend of mine showed interest in going there too so I formed a group of 6 peeps and we left for sundarijal at 7 am from old bus park.

Selfie from the roof of the bus

To make our ride up to sundarijaal adventurous we traveled on the roof of the bus. Since, I had the responsibility of taking care of expenses I had to pay Rs 250 for the fare.

View from the hotel we had our breakfast at

After reaching sundarijal we took a light breakfast (6 eggs, 6 doughnuts, 2 plate fried chickpea, 1 plate fried aloo, 3 bowl of tarkari ) spending a total of Rs 300 and resumed our hike afterwards.

It felt really great to see these huge metal pipes in reality than read about them in the blogs I found.

Rainbow

Entering Shivapuri National Park

To start our chispani hike, I had to pay Rs 50 just to enter the hiking trail.

We swam in this river

First visual of the mountain

We stopped for chyang in one of the hotel along the way and the owner was very gregarious. He shared how devastating the earthquake was to him as he had loose his house. Up to this point, foods are very cheap compared to chisapani. We paid a total of Rs 135 and they also filled the remaining chyang in their own bottles and did not charged us for it and they also filled our water bottle with drinking water. He then showed us the way to chisapani and we left. We got so excited when we had our first visual of the mountain.

The only river to accompany in the whole hiking trail

First visual of Chisapani

Walking for almost 6 hrs we were so exhausted and hungry. All the way we talked about how tasty the fried chicken in the dinner was yesterday. When we saw hotels at Chisapani, we all got excited.

Mountains as seen from Chisapani

Destruction caused by earthquake

After reaching there, we sat down for tea and 2 packets of biscuits for each of us as there was nothing much to eat at the hotel. A packet of biscuit cost Rs 15 and plain tea cost Rs 25. We then found a cheap lodge. I paid Rs 500 for a room, Rs 60/pancake, Rs 30 for an egg and Rs 200/person for dinner. We had brought 6 cans of tuna with us so dinner was really like a feast.

Sun rise in morning

Again, mountains

It was a very fun hike up to chisapani but there is a lot of pollution along the trail. Well the good thing is we completed this whole hike in just Rs 6000 and staying in budget.

Places I travelled in a year

Has it been a year this quick? oh yes it has. I remember the first time I watched FRIENDS, 2 years ago. Any way, traveling was not always my favorite thing to do until a year ago when I traveled to Pokhara. Since my childhood I have always been afraid of adventures and the jungles and the things that live in the jungle. But my first tour to Pokhara changed everything.

Since that day, I have been traveling awfully a lot, and my parents complain about it. To be fair, I have also trekked solo up to an altitude of 3800m.

Places I have traveled to

Pokhara on Oct 2014
MT flight on Jan 2014
Jhor on May 2015
Dolalghat on June 2015
Kulekhani - Chitlang on Jul 2015
Kalinchowk on Sep 2015

On my wishlist

ABC trek  (2016 april 9 -14) trek completed
Langtang trek (covering Gosainkunda)
Chisapani  (this hike is completed)
Chamadevi (this hike is completed)
Rara (far cry)

Pokhara

MT Flight

Jhor

Dolalghat

Kulekhani

Chitlang

Kalinchowk

Alone at an altitude of 3800 m

 [Link to all the pictures that I took]

Trip cost break down

I paid Rs 426 for my ticket to Charikot.
I bought 2 kilo`s of guava at Rs 100.
I ate aloo and puri at Rs 50.
I bought Rs 600 worth of Churpee.
I paid Rs 250 for a room.
I paid Rs 50 for a bowl of hot noodle.
I paid Rs 130 for Daal-Bhaat-Aloo
I paid Rs 325 for my bus fare from Charikot to Kathmandu.

Tips and tricks for solo trekking

If anyone asks you whether you are traveling alone , tell them that your friends are coming behind you. That way if s/he is a potential threat, they will back off.

Put all your chargers in one polythene bag.






The sun had not yet peeped through its curtain of clouds when I boarded the so called super express bus from the old bus park and I was all set to go to Charikot. I had already bought my ticket a day before my solo trip. After 5 hours of bus ride, covering 150km from Kathmandu, I reached Charikot. The recent earthquake had its toll up to there too. 5 hrs of bus ride was not exhausting as there were a lot of waterfalls on the way. They were sort of eye candy for me.

Upon reaching Charikot, as unknown a tourist can be, I asked some locals for direction to Kuri. Carrying my 3kilo bag pack, I followed the direction. I had never traveled alone before and never had I carried anything while traveling. I would take just a few steps and before I know I would be resting. Since I had no plans of getting lost, I frequently asked the locals for direction. Little did I know, one of the fellow local was heading towards his village near Deurali.

Deurali

Deurali, is also the point in the route to get to Kuri. We talked about the shortes way to Kuri and shared guava that I had bought at Dolalghat. After an hour we reached Kuri and exchanged goodbyes.

Road to Kuri

From Deurali, I started to trek alone. I had read in some blogs that bears and leopards were common there. That information really motivated me to keep pacing until I reached to Kuri. Reaching Kuri was a far cry as the 3 kilo bag and the uphill ascend was holding me back, slowing me down.

My solo trip started to get really scary as the fog started to set in and the visibility was poor. Whenever the fog moved , the trees would make rustling noise and it would drizzle too. To make the scene even more scarier there were the roaring noise of waterfalls, scary bird`s call and the branches of the tress covered with mosses hanging down like in any ghost or thriller movies. I wanted to quit so bad but I had no idea how far Kuri was. I told myself ,"This whole solo trek is what I have been whining about from a year. Now I am doing it, why quit? Look, if I survive this, then I have one hell of a story to tell. SOLO , of all of the things I could do , I choose solo. How stupid have I become?". After 3 hours of walk I saw an old man appearing out of dense fog from the opposite direction. I was so happy to finally meet someone and again I asked him about the direction and time to reach Kuri.

After another hour of hiking, I heard someone chopping trees. I again asked him for direction and he told me that the nearest settlement was just 5 mins away.

 I reached there and talked with the locals.

There I bought 6 pieces of churpee. Since I had to reach Kuri the very same day, I had to bid them goodbye. After walking for another hour I finally met two young guys riding down on a motorcycle. I asked them about the direction and they told me it is just 10 mins away.

Visual of Kuri

Because the visibility was very poor I did not see Kuri until I reached near Kuri. I had to book the lodge as soon as possible as it was really cold up there. To satisfy my hunger I ate hot noodles. Since it was off-season there was not much options to choose from for dinner. So I settled for Daal-Bhaat-Aloo.

Kalinchowk hill

The morning of the very next day, I started my journey up to Kalinchowk. At an altitude of nearly 4000 m I was all alone. After I had finished worshiping to the goddess Kali, I started my descend which only took me about 30 mins.

Good bye Kalinchowk and Kuri

I had to leave for Charikot as soon as possible because if the fog would again set it , it would be another suicide mission. On the way I met a local who was traveling to Charikot to sell his Churpee and he took me to Charikot.