RIEPE Village
LOCATION
In Time:
Just a generation ago the village of Riepe would have been even more isolated - today this old settlement is just a few hours from a lowland town that didn't exist back then. Even today there has been little to challenge the villagers' tried and tested norms of self-reliance and self-sufficiency. What is more, the vintage values that prevail here in Riepe help to foster in every visitor that exhilarating sense of finally, finally, being 'away from it all'.
In Space:
We are talking of a 600 metre climb to Riepe from the Marsyangdi valley using a winding six kms of dirt track. This begins at Kalimati 21 kms from Dumre on the Kathmandu-Pokara highway (it is the road that continues to Besishar, beyond which lie Manang and the Annapurna Circuit). At Kalimati the track turns off, (left), via the village of Chowk Chisopani and up to Riepe.
The total travelling time to Reipe is approximately 6 hours from Kathmandu, or 3 hours 30 minutes from Pokhara. The alternative from Kalimati up to the village is the foot-trail worn into the hill-side by centuries. It’s quite a steep hike that will take at least one and a half hours.
(Coming down is easier!)
Advice On Getting To Riepe:
Riepe is not all that easy to reach - nor would one want it to be. However only in the monsoon is it particularly tiresome. At other times reaching Riepe from Dumre is straight forward. PUBLIC TRANSPORT: a bus departs Dumre at approx 3:00 pm (though probably earlier in Dec/Jan) via Kalimati and up the hill to Riepe, arriving around 4:30 pm. There are plenty of other busses to Kalimati which would then require sourcing a local 4x4 vehicle up to Riepe. PRIVATE TRANSPORT: Until the Kalimati-Riepe dirt road is improved, 4x4 is recommended. We can help arrange this from Kalimati or Dumre, or from Kathmandu, Pokhara, Chitwan or Bandipur.