EASTWARD AHOY!

BY AMAR SHRESTHA

Mr. Amar Shrestha is a prolific writer and a poet. A native of Darjeeling, he is presently based in Florida, USA

I am sitting in a quaint restaurant at five in the morning trying to put to paper my varied impressions on a little hamlet called Hile in eastern Nepal, thirteen kilometres from Dhankuta and a four hour drive from Dharan.

I watch with surprise as outside along the one single street of Hile, shops begin to pull up their shutters and display their wares. On enquiry I discover that this, the opening of shops at five, is a traditional affair. On more enquiry I find that actually people come from far off regions such as Khandbari, Madi, Bhojpur, Diktel, Taplejung, Tehrathum, and so on to purchase goods in Dhankuta and Hile, and travel back on foot to their villages. Since it is always a good idea to start long treks early in the morning, shops in Hile also do themselves a favour by opening early so that whatever goods need to be purchased can be done so before starting off.

The shops are neat and well stocked, most of the goods are Chinese-made items for daily use. There is a sizeable community of Tibetan people who seem to have a monopoly over the half a dozen or so hotels and restaurants. They also have a few shops selling carpets, Chinese goods and ‘Churpi’-hardened nuts made from Yak’s milk. The clean hotels are famous for their “Momos” and the “Tongbas” hot water poured over barley and served in antique looking wooden vessels. As one sips from the bamboo pipes, the fermentation of barley continues so that you get to drink freshly brewed beer.

The houses of Hile are small but well maintained and seem to always have on a fresh coat of paint. This I believe is due to the moist and clean air of the town. Even in June, it was quite cool, and I noticed at least a couple of locals wearing woolen pullovers. Hile reminds one of a miniature Darjeeling before Darjeeling became dirty and crowded. Hile has an invigorating atmosphere around it, the road from Dharan itself is very good, British made, no less. In fact, Hile has all the ingredients necessary to become a hillstation in the proper sense of the word. Maybe an experiment in the development of a hill station could be conducted taking Hile as an example.

An hour and a half away by bus is a place called Basantpur which I did not get to visit, but which I heard was rapidly developing into a better town than Hile. In fact somebody told me that there are more lodges in Basantpur than there are houses. But the road from Hile to Basantpur is only a gravel one.

After spending a night in a quaint hotel in Hile, I was sufficiently relaxed, in fact I was exhilarated enough by the invigorating air to take a forty-five minute trek to the well-known Pakhribas Agricultural Center which is run by the British. The trek downwards was fine but I had a persistent uneasy feeling wondering how on earth I would trek back uphill on the narrow rock strewn paths climbing steeply towards Hile for God alone knows how many kilometers.

In Pahkribas Agricultural Centre I was handed a visitor’s guide book which had a map of the Eastern Hills encompassing Solukhumbu, Sankhuasabha, Taplejung, Okhaldhunga, Khotang, Udaypur, Bhojpur, Taplejung, Tehrathum, Panchthar, Ilam and Dhankuta districts. The title of the map read, “PAC’s Research Command area”.

One has to learn the art of commanding and the ways of discipline from the British. In an Information Office within the centre I noticed a big board saying, ‘Staff Movement’ and below it, the location of various staff on the given day.

Somehow I felt I was in an army area. At the main gate there is an office that issues ‘visas’ for the tour of the center; furthermore, one has to have a guide in order to visit the center. There are a lot of red-roofed cottage-like quarters with television antennas, and I gathered that these were meant for members of the three hundred odd staff and their families. However, I was surprised to find that many Nepali staff members were made to fend for themselves in finding rented accommodation in the adjoining village.

Anyhow, leaving such disconcerting matters aside, I was thrilled to find a lot of plums, pears and apples growing abundantly near the helipad next to the meteorological area which contained weather-forecasting equipment.

This center encompasses a ninety-two hectare area and the visitors’ book highlights that the practical benefits are available to three lakh farm households. It is funded by the Overseas Development Administration of the British government with specialist sections including Agronomy, Forestry, Horticulture and Livestock. The British had started the funding work in 1975.

As I started my trek back after a long rest at Pakhribas, primarily to rest my tired legs and also to see the farm, the hills slowly became enveloped by a slight fog and halfway up the trail, it started to drizzle. Somehow or the other, I managed to make it to Hile within two hours, and couldn’t help congratulating myself on my effort.

Soon afterwards, I started off towards Dhankuta and reached the town in about a half hour. Dhankuta, sad to say, is in the throes of a midlife crisis. Or maybe it has become old and ill before its time. The name of the place is so well known that extra efforts are needed for the place to be to live up to it.

Traveling down from Dhankuta to Dharan, one has to cross a steel bridge over the big and rich Tamar River. Rich in the sense that the water seems to be always full and frothing throughout the year. The drive is very interesting since the landscape is rich in a variety of fauna. One hopes that in the future when Hile has been deemed a hill station, again hopefully, there will be many luxury minibuses on the roads. Right now one has to do with the big buses, not all are luxurious.

On reaching Dharan the air gets pretty hot and humid which is intensified by the crowded bazaar. Dharan has started to get back its bustle after the opening of the medical college. Although there are bound to be birth pains, let us hope this medical college does not get bogged down in controversies like the others in Nepalgunj and Bharatpur.

It is good to see that the roads in Dharan are being given a thorough face-lift and being widened again, an effort by the British. It takes hardly forty minutes from Dharan to Itahari. Itahari is impressive enough to deserve a second look. It has become a proper new town and I gather, it is taking much of Biratnagar’s importance away. However, Biratnagar remains an important town and this is reinforced by the fabulous road linking it to Itahari. But I have a feeling that Biratnagar is more a residential town than a commercial town. Life seems leisurely enough and the town is all right for those wanting a peaceful environment. It should be peaceful what with the police being strict about restaurants closing after nine in the night.

But no matter how peaceful Biratnagar might be, and no matter how bustling Dharan might seem, and no matter how rapidly developing Itahari might look, I can’t turn my thoughts away from that little hamlet called Hile, which I sincerely hope will be developed into a nice hill station in the future.

Needless to say, the Tongbas and Momos of the quaint restaurants taste much better after the grueling walk up from Pakhribas.