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Published: July 17th 2018
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Chandragiri hill “When you reach the top, one side is a paradise in green whereas the other is a concrete prison in a bowl.” Chitlang is a small village that lies to the south of Chandragiri hill in the district of Makwanpur. Especially famous for Organic Village resort and goat farms, Chitlang is an emerging destination for hiking and overnight stays. However, people love to spend their night at Markhu village. Located in the southwestern side of Indrasarowar lake, Markhu offers a beautiful scenic picture of the lake and nearby hills. Away from the babel and rush of Kathmandu valley, this adventure can be a truly amazing experience to embrace in a short time.
Although there are some other possible routes and itineraries, I am suggesting what I found best to do here to wrap the most of it. The route takes you starting from Thankot to Chandragiri, Chitlang, Markhu and ending in Kulekhani. It might also be the other way around; however, it is better to take the above-mentioned route. This hike can be an amazing experience for weekends, or particularly when you have got no more than 1 or 2 days to spend around Kathmandu valley.
As a
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Trail leading to Bhanjyang weekend trip, we set off for the hike at around 3 pm from Thankot. Public bus for Thankot is available any time at Ratnapark. It is recommended to take the bus from Ratnapark 2 hours prior to the time you are planning to start your walk from Thankot because this particular bus route offers a lot of traffic jams and the bus are often more than what you call crowded. These 2 hours can be hectic and may plunge you into repugnance. You get off the bus at a place called Tribhuwan Park and start your walk on the road that goes to the left side of the highway; this very road leads you to the base station of Chandragiri cable car.
After 20 minutes of nonstop, decent paced walk, we reached the base of Chandragiri hill. For this hike, you can have another option as well: Reach the Chandragiri by cable car and descend on the other side of the hill to Chitlang. We later came to know the trail descending down from Chandragiri meets the trail going up from Thankot at the Bhanjyang. There is a motorable road going up to Chitlang from Thankot, but if you
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Top of Bhanjyang are on a hike, you don’t need to follow the motorable road. Once you reach the base of the hill, you can follow a trail that takes you deep into the forest and up to the Bhanjyang. The starting point of this trail is very difficult to notice. You may take help from any local people about the way. It took us almost 2 hours to reach the Bhanjyang. The trail up to the Bhanjyang was an amazing part of our journey. The trail was almost flat and easy walk at the beginning taking us deep into bushes and green forest. Eventually, it got steeper and slippery (it was the monsoon, and sunlight barely touched the ground). It is recommended to wear full sleeves, full pants, and decent shoes as leeches are eager to suck your blood whenever it gets damp. They are present in abundance at those times. We heard some weird sounds for about 10 minutes, which the locals reported to be of deer being chased by some wild animal. So, better not walk alone in those thick forests.
It was a thrilling yet easy climb up to the Bhanjyang. The trail meets the motorable road before
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Descend to Chitlang Village you reach the top. You follow the wide road up to the top from where you can see the suburban area of Thankot and some areas of Kathmandu on one side and beautiful and tranquil greens of Chitlang on the other side. The trail coming from Chandragiri meets at this point. We decided not to hike up to Chandragiri although it was not that far, because it seemed as if it was about to rain. We took some rest and started our descend. Again, you don’t have to follow the motorable road to Chitlang. There is a beautiful trail that goes straight down from the Bhanjyang. It again takes you deep into the forest and on your way, the beautiful village of Chitlang comes to your sight. As you are descending down, it is an easy walk and this trail truly lets you relax even while you are walking without stops. After about 1 hour of relaxing descend, we reached the main village of Chitlang. It was almost getting dark, however, we visited the Organic Village Resort, which was the main attraction the of village. Trees are planted an in amazingly organized manner as if they form grid of straight
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Chitlang Organic Farm lines. This resort is the main tourist destination. You can stay there in tents. But, we decided not to stay there as it was so crowded that day. So, we decided to stay on a homestay. Homestays can be an amazing experience in Chitlang. You get to enjoy typical Nepali culture, food, local home made alcohols, and above all immense gratitude. We even got to enjoy the barbeque. The next morning, they bid farewell with flowers, tika and much love.
The next day, before starting our walk, we visited the goat farm. We got to enjoy the goat cheese. It is a “Must DO” thing when you are in Chitlang. It was pretty expensive and demanded tickets entry as well. We then headed south for the village of Markhu. One our way, we visited the Bhairav temple. The hike upto Markhu was a bit boring until we reached a point where we took a trail diverting from the motorable road. After walking for about 1 hour in the tedious motorable road, you can take a narrow trail that offers you the best part of your entire hike. You walk for around 40 minutes through the pine forest.
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Beautiful Village of Chitlang The trail passes through dense pine forest and then runs on a steep hill, where on one side you can hear the sound of stream. During the final leg of this trail, the Indrasarowar lake comes to sight. The view from this trail is the best you can experience throughout your journey. Walking further, you will reach the village of Markhu festooned by the beauty the of lake, colorful boats, landscape and the houses themselves.
Our first impression of Markhu was embellished by the smell of fish coming from the hotels of the region. We couldn’t help ourselves, so before anything, we went to taste the very speciality of Markhu: Fish. The experience did not let down our expectations. After enjoying the amazing taste of fish, we went straight down to the lake for boating. You can pay on the basis of the number your team members and the amount of time you want to spend on the lake boating. Usually, you can enjoy boating for about 30 minutes in the northern side of the lake. You can enjoy the amazing landscape around the lake and can even steer the boat by yourself for some time. After spending more
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Northen edge of Indrasarowar lake than 2 hours at Markhu, we set off for the final leg of our hike upto a village called Kulekhani. In this part of your hike, you have no other option except for following the motorable road up to Kulekhani, however, you can find few shortcuts that may abbreviate your time. This road runs along the lake, so you can enjoy the changing angle of viewing the beautiful lake. You can also see the Kulekhani dam when you reach the southern end of the lake. After more than 1 hour of walk, you reach a small village called Kalanki, where you finally conclude your hike.
To reach Kathmandu, you can wait for the jeep at Kalanki village. The jeep leaves for Kathmandu from that village at frequent hourly intervals. But, the better option is, you walk for 5 minutes to meet the road that comes from Hetauda (known as byroad). Jeep passes in every 2-3 minutes, but are often packed. After waiting for almost half an hour, we got a vacant jeep that took us to Kathmandu. The road is pretty narrow with sharp turns but offers an amazing view of the surroundings. The road takes you to Balkhu,
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Village of Markhu and Indrasarowar lake Kathmandu via Sisneri, Pharping, Dakshinkali, and Chobar.
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nashir
Sheikh Swapon
Chitlang village is my hope to travel.