Beautiful Tansen
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2008
1
37
59
Trip End
Ongoing
Tansen,
Nepal
Friday, December 26, 2008
The Icelandic brothers had recommended Tansen and had told me about a homestay option there with the local tourist office called 'Getup' so I'd emailed them to say I was coming. There were a few other tourists on the bus and it made me laugh to see their faces when I got off at this small place - they asked 'what is here?!' That was just what I was looking for - Tansen is not a tourist place and I was coming for the walks and the people. From the bus drop I caught a jeep up the hillside, like I had done in Bandipur, and arrived in a bustling market street. It was a very steep windy route up to Getup and I was cursing my heavy bags in the warm sun. After asking directions from various people I found the place and had a lovely welcome from Man Mohan in the office there. He was really pleased to have received my email, especially as the homestay scheme had only recently started, and he had even opened the office early to greet me.
One of the views on my walk
After a cup of tea he showed me the room and I settled in. It was a lovely rooftop room with great view and my own bathroom. I dumped my bags, and went off to explore the town. I had a wander around the steep streets and then the parade ground, where there was also a military station. After a few hours however, it started to rain - it was the first rain I'd seen in Nepal and it was strong - with the steep hills it gushed down the streets like a river. I decided to duck into the Internet café to escape for a bit. Later, I went back to the homestay for a nice homemade dhal bart and chatted with my host, Man Mohan, and his daughter while watching a bit of Indian Idol!
The next day Man Mohan had recommended that I get an early start so we set off together at 8am. Man Mohan doesn't usually accompany his visitors but he'd been pleased because I'd been the first person to email 'book' the homestay, which had only been started a couple of months ago. He was great company - extremely knowledgeable about the area in which he grown up and raised his family, and he also had many questions about England so we chatted away as we explored the hillside. I was also glad of him as a guide as we walked around the hilltops through some hidden pathways to the best viewpoints.
The area is known as the 'great white lake' because of the way that the clouds sit in the valley and they surrounded us for a large part of the walk, unfortunately obscuring some of the mountain views but creating a mystical fog around the wooded areas. In some places it looked like waves lapping at the mountain tops. We walked some distance - up to the Shreenagar hill viewpoint with a big Buddha statue, onto Chilandi and its pension camp, Bagnas with an armory house and Devi temple, then Nayar Hatia (a Newari village), Karanga (a Magali village), and finally Arebhaujan where we caught a bus back from the highway to Bastung, then the jeep up the hill to Tansen. It had been a good day of walking and I think we arrived back at around 5pm.
Another good meal and chat and I had to start thinking about my next destination. I could have stayed longer but only had a couple of days left on my already extended visa and wanted to allow myself a bit of time in case of strikes or other hold-ups. The next morning I got another early start and hopped on the bus to my final destination in Nepal.
