A Dangerous Suspension Bridge Near Keyul

20 October (Timbu): A few minutes after we left the village of Keyul and Maya the girl behind, we came across a suspension bridge over Melamchi khola that we didn’t have to cross. But we wanted go over it. The first sight of the bridge reminded me of Wanda Vivequin and the amazing bridge over a stream in Nar village of Manang district. During last years Nar Phu trek, we crossed a bridge or Chamjong to go to Nar region from Phu region. I was terrified to walk from over that bridge. Wanda encouraged me by saying this: “You must do at least one thing daily that scares you.”

I remembered that line as I crossed this bridge near Keyul though this bridge wasn’t as dangerous as the Nar one, and it wasn’t as scary either. We didn’t want to miss the photo-op as well. These types of bridges are now being replaced by others (the one that you see along side the old Nar Bridge actually) throughout the country that are easy to walk over.

I do remember crossing this kind of bridge in my childhood in my village in Duragaun, Ramechhap. We had to go to the bensi (or plains where we had and still have rice fields and house) from gaun (or village in hills where we used to stay most of the year) during summer (two months) and winter (a month). In the summer, the stream between gaun and bensi would swell and there was this terrible bridge which was difficult to walk over. But I was too small to remember anything significant about that experience but the remnants of the unused bridge were still there even as we grew up.