Lingtep field visit - Day 1

Day one of our trip to Lingtep village in Taplejung (Dhirendra's birth place and where he spent his childhood until the age of 19) began in the early morning darkness of Kathmandu. In the interest of time and money, we decided to hire a 4WD vehicle and driver who Dhirendra knows through his frequent work field visits. Uttam (our friend and driver) picked the team up just before 6am. Beyond Uttam, an essential team member, it was the two of us and Dipendra Nalbo (Dhirendra's immediate older brother, best man at our wedding, and intimately involved with the Taplejung School Project). We had an extra seat in our vehicle, so we offered the spot to a cousin who was returning to the village after two years working in the Middle East. It's better luck to travel not in a group of three, so we were happy to have an extra family member along for the three day trip to Lingtep.

Our drive out of the Kathmandu Valley was particularly memorable with the sun rising over the Himalayas north of the capital. The skies were crystal clear (as they often are this time of year) and we all agreed that traveling out of Dhulikhel was a great idea.

The day's drive was long - nearly 16 hours!! The new road JICA (the Japanese development agency) is building impressed us all. We later found out that it was US development efforts a few decades ago that actually was the brain child for the highway, but that's a digression. Along the highway, the afternoon was highlighted by a lunch of tasty rice and curry home cooked by a friendly family we happened upon. There was a beautiful mountain stream in the back of the home, where we freshened up.


The day brought us from Kathmandu, through the mid-central hills (most recently Maoist strong-holds), along impressive river beds in deep valleys, dusty desert dry village roads and recently constructed "pitch" highways with Japanese construction vehicles and men in hard hats, to southern Nepal (the eastern Terai), past pockets of Nepal's small Muslim communities and Bhutanese refugee camps, into the area where many lowland (Madeshi) ethnic movements find their strongest roots, and back north into the foothills of eastern Nepal. Phew! Finally, well into the night, we made it to Illam - Nepal's tea capital - for a delightful night's sleep.