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| Deerwalk Plan Analytics Team| Bandipur| April 2015 |
25th April 2015 was the unforgettable date for our travel and Bandipur was the place. Travelling
is fun and that fun doubles when you have amazing people to travel with. Me and my office team were
all set and excited for our 2 days hike. The sky was cloudy and it had started to
drizzle in the morning, but it hardly mattered to us as we were busy making plans to make the
trip memorable. We left office right on time and picked everyone on the route
and reached Kalanki at 8am. We packed some food & water and left the valley.
Our journey had begun with all of us sharing our excitements of the hike and
how amazing it felt to catch a break from our daily routines. After travelling few kms along the curves of
Naubise we stopped for breakfast at a roadside hotel. We had breakfast, clicked few photos and
got back on the road. We were driving
alongside the Trisuli River, playing games in our very own Deerwalk van and
listening to the songs.
It wasn't my normal Saturday where I slept
till late, had more than one bed teas. It was an exciting Saturday on road and
none of us had any idea about what nature had to offer us. Suddenly, we felt the bus hit the bumps on the highway. At
first, we ignored the jerks assuming it was the speed and made a few jokes
about it. Soon it turned scary when we
could see all the locals outside, panicking and grumbling about the earthquake.
When we reached Bimalnagar our slated hike start point, we got out of our
vehicle and stood by the roadside as a precaution. We were all worried as we
were not with our family in such a time and we had no idea whether to go ahead
and complete the journey or return back. Then
suddenly right there we felt the tremors and the road beneath us started shaking. We were holding each other. We were not able to stand straight as the road was shaking. All of us tried to contact our families and
check their safety status as soon as we heard the news about our valley.
We decided to travel
ahead towards Bandipur as reaching a safe place was the only agenda we had
then. We reached Bandipur, checked in our hotel. The excitement of the hike was
all gone and the hike was the last thing we had in our mind. The only thing we did
have in our minds was to contact our families, relatives, and friends and be
assured of their safety. We roamed around to see the earthquake’s effect on the
city. The beautiful city was totally shut; people were scared to stay inside
their houses. Luckily the hotel we were staying served us lunch at around 3pm.
We were unable to decide what to do and what was actually happening. Nature’s wrath
was upon us and each other's support and confidence was the only thing that
kept us going at that situation. We traveled around the city for some time
with earthquake being the only topic of our talks.
It was a silent morning with nothing much to talk about along the way. We couldn't even imagine what was waiting for us back in the valley. We reached Kathmandu
around 11am to a city which didn’t look like the one we had left the
previous day. The city was broken, people were broken, rescue was ongoing, and
it was all chaotic. It showed us how vulnerable we are to Mother Nature. Indeed,
we wanted to make the trip memorable, but we were unaware of the fact that we had something else waiting for us. While we all were there merely playing our parts.
