Nepal 2025 - Day 11: Bhimtang to Besisahar

 Bhimtang to Besisahar

Today was the final trekking day for us and I was already feeling nostalgic about the whole trip. We were getting close to getting back to our mundane lives. The whole group was in high spirits and just wanted to have a good time till we reached Kathmandu.

After our breakfast, we started around 7,30 descending from the village into the Dudh Khola. The morning was a little cloudy but it didn't bother anyone anymore. We were all used to worse weather by that time. We followed the Dudh Khola for 30 mins before stepping into the Annapurna Conservation Area.

It was remarkable to see the change in scenery from alpine to stunning dense rhododendron forest within 10 mins of crossing a wooden bridge. The forest was absolutely stunning with the rhododendrons in full bloom in a variety of colours, giant oak trees with thick moss like carpet led us through this trail. It was a very long walk through this forest but very pleasurable. 

After descending further down this forest, we came across a landslide area that we had to negotiate before getting to our first break point of Surki Khola. We stopped here for 10 mins before moving ahead on this never ending downhill section. We finally reached the village of Gowa with rain accompanying us for the last 15 mins. 

We had our lunch at Gowa which was the standard Dal Bhat as we knew that we had to take a taxi for a few hours and didn't want to experiment. Post the lunch, it was a 15 min walk on a dirt road to Tilche and then we crossed our final suspension bridge on foot before we boarded a cab to Besisahar. The fun was just about to begin!

We were told by our driver that we would reach Besisahar in 3 hours by about 5pm. We were joined by two more ladies whom we saw on the pass and we shared the cab with them. They were nurses working in Samdo and just thought of doing Larkye Pass on a whim and now were headed to Kathmandu. That's Nepali women for you!

We crossed Dharapani and presented our permits one final time to confirm our exit from the Manaslu region.

We drove for the next 30 mins on the actual Annapurna circuit which was a full fledged road. On enquiry, the driver informed us that the road goes all the way to Manang and would reach Thorong La in the next 12 months so one could do the Annapurna circuit completely via road. That's the extent of construction that was happening in Nepal. I was glad that Manaslu circuit was left alone, so far. We saw multiple tourists on bikes and jeeps heading north on that road.

We stopped at a cafe near a very picturesque waterfall and had some tea and snacks. We needed that break to just stretch our bodies from that jeep ride.

From hereon, the roads were pretty much non-existent and whatever little roads were present were getting excavated to make them wider for a future project. This made for a very awful journey with the cab just bouncing, shaking and moving at a snail's pace. Our driver, however, was so relaxed that I didn't even see him use two hands on the wheel even once! We were literally on the edge of the roads which dropped into deep valleys. Any blemish would have resulted in certain death. We saw fallen excavators and trucks in the valley either struck by rockfall or just slipped into those valleys. 

It didn't help that it started to rain and made the road even more difficult to drive on. The cab was just sliding across the mud. Then it had to happen. With all the construction on the road, the rains, the loose soil, we had to have a vehicle stuck in it and create a traffic jam. We were anyway going at a snail's pace and this would set us back by a long time.

Apparently, the vehicle had been stuck for 30 mins and it's tyres were half submerged in the mud. There were a lot of people trying all sorts of ideas to get it out to no joy. People were pushing the jeep back and front, side to side but nothing helped.

Our group also jumped in to help with Sohom leading the way. We started to dig further around the tyres as they were stuck between some rocks. A lady got a shovel from one of the construction workers which made the digging easier. Then we levelled that ditch with some stones and just hoped it worked. After a lot of trials and failures, it finally did work and this vehicle was out of the ditch. We headed back into our jeep and moved ahead on this slippery road. I just marvelled at how our driver was able to navigate these sections with the utmost nonchalant attitude. 

After another hour or more of bouncing around, we finally reached a Chinese hydropower plant which had excellent roads around it for a few kilometres. It made sense as the Chinese working there would not be very keen on traveling on those dirt roads daily. We reached Besisahar at around 7.30pm  and checked into a hotel where we saw a lot of our fellow trekkers that we had met over the last week. The hotel was basic, offered a free hot shower and other amenities. 

We weren't really interested in eating any of the standard food or the touristy continental food. We were really looking to eat what the local Nepali in Besisahar would eat. And we were definitely looking for some protein.

We started to explore the town, most places were either shut or were just fancy coffee shops. After going south on the road, we stumbled upon a small unassuming, dingy place with shady lighting, 3 small tables, a Sekuwa (grilled meat) grill and a husband and wife running the joint. This was a place that someone like Anthony Bourdain would have made an episode on. Two tables were already taken so we took the one in corner and kinda adjusted with our seating arrangement. 

On checking for the menu, there was none. This was exactly the place I wanted to be at. The lady just had chicken and pork skewers to offer. Beer, whiskey, rum and local liquor like Rakshi and Tongba was also available. That is all we needed to know.

What followed was copious amounts of alcohol and meat was consumed to a point that the folks had to call their children to help with the kitchen. We weren't even keeping a tab of what we ordered. We just remembered eating a lot pork and chicken skewers, Pangra (chicken gizzards), Sukuti (fried meat) which we washed down with few litres of beer. Every thing we tasted had a distinct flavour and cooked to perfection.

The lady eventually informed us that she wouldn't be able to take any more orders as they had to shut down at 9pm. We had thoroughly enjoyed our meal and thanked her for catering to us that late in the night. 

Jangbu then proceeded to inform us that we had to order dinner at the hotel as well as that was the part of the booking. We were in no mood to eat anything but a dessert. So, after stumbling back to the hotel, we ordered some apple pies. It was the worst thing we had tasted on the whole trip and totally put a dampener on the night. We ordered a few more beers to just cheer up and take some time out to thank Jangbu for his help on this trip. We kinda crashed after the beers as we had the bus to Kathmandu at 8am.