Dhankuta and Hile: Hill Towns on the Road to the Eastern Mountains

Most travellers in eastern Nepal stay on the flat highway that runs along the plains. Turn north at the town of Dharan instead, and within an hour the road has climbed more than a thousand metres into pine forest and tea-shop country. This is the old route towards the Arun valley and the mountains beyond, and three small places along it make a rewarding two-day escape from the heat below.

Bhedetar: the first breath of cool air

About sixteen kilometres above Dharan, the road crests a ridge at Bhedetar, at roughly 1,400 metres. On a clear day you look south over the plains as far as the haze allows, and north towards the snow peaks. Mist rolls through at almost any hour, and families from the lowland towns drive up simply to feel cold.

A viewing tower stands on the hilltop, at a spot named after a British royal visitor of the 1980s. A short drive or walk away, a waterfall drops into a pool where people queue to stand under the spray. Roadside stalls sell grilled meat, boiled corn and tea.

Dhankuta: the orange town

Another hour north, Dhankuta spreads along a spur at a little over 1,100 metres. It served for decades as the administrative centre of the eastern region, which gave it schools, offices and a tidy, settled air that it has kept.

In recent years the municipality encouraged residents to paint their houses orange and white, a nod to the citrus the district is known for. The result is a main street of surprising cheerfulness, lined with old whitewashed and now tangerine-coloured townhouses with wooden balconies.

Things to do:

• Walk the length of the bazaar from the lower gate to the upper end, where the lane narrows between older houses.

• Visit on the weekly market day, when farmers come in with vegetables, chillies and the avocados that grow unusually well here.

• Follow the ridge path above town through pine woods to viewpoints over the Tamur valley.

• Sit in a tea shop. This is a town for watching ordinary life at an unhurried pace.

Hile: the ridge market

Thirteen kilometres further and several hundred metres higher, Hile strings itself along a narrow ridge at about 1,900 metres. It is a trading post where people of the middle hills meet those from higher valleys, and a community of Tibetan origin has long run lodges and shops here.

Hile has two claims on a visitor's attention. The first is the view: from the northern end of the bazaar on a clear morning, the Makalu range stands across the horizon. The second is tongba, the hot millet beer sipped through a straw from a tall wooden pot. The town is regarded as one of the best places in the country to drink it, and the evening chill makes the case persuasively.

The weekly market, held on the ridge, is lively and colourful.

Beyond Hile

The road continues to Basantapur, the starting point for walks along a high forested ridge famous for rhododendrons, which flower in March and April in more varieties than almost anywhere else in Nepal. Trekkers bound for Makalu and the upper Arun also pass this way.

Getting there

• By air and road: fly from Kathmandu to Biratnagar, about forty minutes, then drive via Dharan. Dhankuta is around three hours from the airport, Hile a further forty-five minutes.

• By bus: direct services run from Kathmandu to Dharan and Dhankuta, taking twelve hours or more. Local buses and shared jeeps connect the hill towns.

The road from Dharan is one of the better-built mountain roads in the country, with long, even loops.

Where to stay

Accommodation is modest: small hotels in Dhankuta, simple lodges in Hile and a few resorts with views around Bhedetar. Expect clean rooms, hot water by bucket or geyser, and plain, good food. English is limited but people are helpful.

When to go

October to December brings clear skies and crisp air. March and April are warm and flowery. The monsoon is misty, green and wet, with leeches on forest paths. Winter nights in Hile are properly cold.

Who it suits

This is not a place of famous sights. It suits travellers already in the east for the tea gardens or the wetlands who want a night or two of hill air, and anyone curious about a part of Nepal where foreign visitors are still a novelty. The reward is simple: orange houses, a pot of warm millet beer and, if the morning is kind, the fifth-highest mountain in the world on the skyline.