There I was with Raju Shrestha, an Art Director, bidding adieu to Dashain with a cup of coffee at VChitra, whilst conceptualising the annual calendar of the company I work for. We decided on a theme — mountainous regions, which our country is widely known for.

This is where my plan for a trip to Rara took shape. I could not wait to start my dream voyage to see the beautiful Rara lake of which I had heard many astonishing tales. The retreat of late King Mahendra, Rara is truly a celebration of unruffled and splendid nature. We started the journey by taking a flight to Nepalgunj. The weather was soothingly perfect to view the gorgeous snow capped hills greeting us every now and then. We stopped in Nepalgunj that night to start off early next day. Gulping down

our breakfast we rushed to catch a flight to Talcha, where we were joined by my sister and her husband.

I must say that the cold November was not too harsh on us, and even the flight turbulence could not leave me deterred! Within 50 minutes we landed at Talcha airport from where we were to trek to Rara. We were accompanied by a Tara Air personnel, who turned out to be a very good travel companion. It was an easy trek compared to the steep walk to Namche, which I had recently taken. Not to mention, even the path that was leading us to Rara was bestowed with an abundance of natural beauty.

This generated more curiosity about what our real destination would look like. I could now see the clean and pristine blue water settled calmly between the woods. That excitement and anticipation of seeing something heavenly, something you have not seen before got hold of me.

I could clearly see the majestic Rara right in front of my eyes. The next thing that I did was capture the beauty of the lake in its entirety and saved the pictures for my fiancé and friends to see who sadly could not be a part of the journey.

I could spend years in the beauty of nature that Rara rightfully boasts of but it was time for us to go to our hotel on the other side of the lake. A two hour walk to the hotel at first seemed tiresome but it turned out to be quite an experience by the end of it. We were greeted with Jadibuti tea, commonly available in the region. It was refreshing. A must try if you ever go to that part of the world. The next day, we left for Murmatop — a three hour walk from the hotel we were staying in. The view of Rara Lake from Murmatop was rare and took my breath away.

I am glad I made it all the way to Murmatop. However, my advice to people who are prone to altitude sickness is to avoid the trek or acclimatise before taking it on. That night we stayed in a local hotel at Murmatop. Our meal at the hotel comprised of scrumptious chicken curry and rum to keep us warm through the night. We headed back early the following day as we had a three hour long trek to Talcha and then on to a flight back to Nepalgunj.

Roshan Regmi is the manager for brand and media at Yeti Airlines.