HM’s Food & Wine Magazine

Some trip leaves profound memories in your mind tearing you apart when you have to leave a magnificent place rich with natural beauty, culture and welcoming hospitality. On my way back from Sabha Khola I rushed out of bed reluctantly at 5 am to catch a four wheeler and my mind was playing a song, “Kaise mujhe tum milgayi, kismat pe aaye naa yaakeen”. Like in visual of the song, the lead actor Aamir Khan was leaving with heavy heart for his business trip with the money given by the actress selling her dream Ambassador Car. This trip gave me so much to me that I could not believe myself leaving such a magnificent place behind with my heart torn apart.

My trip started when I received an invitation from the Hinwa Winery to visit their factory at Basantapur of Sankhuwasabha adjoined to Tehrathum and Tapalejung districts. I was relieved to get a Night Couch but my luck was not strong enough to get a seat in this journey. Finally I decided to get up to the hood of the Night Couch from Muglin. The bumpy ride with little adventure was fun striking even though my hair was getting sticky and turning into a single mould. We halted at Rampur in front of a highway eatery, Rice Palace. The food was awful and service was not worth mentioning. After we had a worst highway meal it was still a long journey to reach Itahari.

Itahari was ready with morning glow in the east to welcome us and every moments of viewing sunrise from the top of the couch was golden moment in itself. Looking at the green pasture along with farmers busy converting jute into thread was the typical image of eastern roadside villages. Literally Itahari was making me swim in my own sweat.

My friend had arranged a stay at National Hotel, a simple lodge. After getting fresh, I took a rest sipping chilled beer. To roam around in the midday was unimaginable for me. The couple of bottles of beer were working positively inside me. And National Hotel’s specialty, Mutton Momo served with mutton soup was so tempting that I could not stop myself for a second order. It reminded me of traditional café in New Road few years back where they used to serve momo with soup. If you get a chance to be in Itahari, you should not forget to visit National Hotel to try this Mutton Momo with soup.

My friend suggested me to visit the Peculate Handsome Men Parlor, a celebrity in itself. Fully air conditioned and crowded saloon away from Kathmandu was a surprise to me. The air condition was a great relief and after having my moustache and beard trimmed, I took a traditional massage that was so relaxing that I forget I traveled in the hood whole night.

The sun was setting and my friend asked me to get my luggage and move to fully air conditioned hotel Tirupati. I guess it is one of the finest hotels in Itahari with nice restaurant serving good Indian delicacies and rooms with television, telephone and air condition. The night went well after the tiresome trip. The next day I woke up early and my friend helped me to catch a microbus to Hile, Dhankuta, the transit point from where I was supposed to move to Tumligtar. The journey started well moving through multiple chowks of Dharan towards Bhedetar. The microbus stopped at Bhedetar to answer nature’s call. I ended up having a big fat leech sucking my blood while answering nature’s call behind the bushes. It was the first experience in my life to interact with a leech. Every moment my adventure was collecting new experiences and my fingers were suffocating to write the journey’s each and every details. We passed through Dhankuta Bus Park, then began a beautiful uphill ride to Hile.

The second phase was to catch a Land Cruiser which works as a Taxi in hilly dirt roads. There was no system or any pure method to book the seat. The simple rule was, once it is packed then it moves. I was able to catch one of the congested seats at the back paying NRS 600 for five hours trip. Imagine yourself having a bumpiest ride of the life on such a narrow road listening to Nepali movie songs and heat was so terrible that you feel like baking alive.

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