JHULE TREK

Jhule

It was late noon and after having walked uphill constantly for 2 hours, I was very exhausted. 

Kids walking up the hills

I placed my last step on top of the hill, thanking God and feeling like I had conquered the Everest , only to realize that I had only reached the base camp. Just to clarify…. in Nepal most elevations are called hills unless they are covered with snow. And I guess this is not an understatement in the land of the Himalayas. After all, Jhule stands only at ~1900m above the sea level as against the 8848m scaled by  Mt. Everest. 

Fun time

The day was turning out to be more adventurous than expected. When we reached Sankhu, a small sleepy town, on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley we were told the hike to Jhule Resort was about an hour and it was an easy hike. Our American guests took the word “easy” at face value. But, what the organizer actually meant was that it was easy for a Nepali.

One hour had turned into three hours uphill trek. When I thought I had reached the top, I finally looked up only to see the children running effortlessly on top of the next hill.  I took a deep breath and started walking again …. I had a long way to go before reaching the promised land. We finally saw a small resort looming on the horizon of the adjoining hill. The surrounding view from the resort was breath taking. Every step taken to reach the destination was worth the effort.

The event was organized by Hriday Group in association with the Padyatris for the children of Koseli.  So in addition to 30 children we had 30 more people who were at the resort on that beautiful, clear and sunny day. For the kids it was just a cakewalk, they breezed through the hike effortlessly. They picked berries on the way, ran back and forth the hills to catch up with their friends and sometimes even came back to get us when we trailed far behind.

Sumptuous Lunch

It was heart warming to see the children enjoying the outing and their lunch too. There were no traces of the sumptuous breakfast left in their tummies which they had at Timur in the morning. 


The children enjoyed the games. They sang and danced. After all singing and dancing runs in their blood. The surprise package of the day was Upendra, a shy 12 year old boy from Terai (plains), now living in the slums of Kathmandu. After being coaxed for a while he broke into a Bhojpuri song in a loud and clear voice, the meaning of which he was only too shy to explain.

All of us

We would like to thank the Hriday Group, Timur Restaurant and Padyatris from the bottom of our hearts for gifting the Koseli kids with such a beautiful day. It surely was a day filled with adventure and excitement. For most of the kids it was a day to be happy and enjoy the countryside and breathe a sigh of fresh air atop the picturesque Jhule Resort from the daily runt and grunt of the city slums. As for me it was an opportunity to enjoy the moment and be with my kids and be happy in their happiness.