It’s summertime. The mornings are warm, the days sunny, and the evenings, unpredictable. How do you beat the heat? We visit the Sisneri natural swimming pool.
What feels good on a hot sunny day? Cool, clear spring water running through every nook and cranny of your anatomy. It's the dip in the water.
Imagine, after an hour of a ride on the tarmacked road to Dakshinkali and another hour of a ride through a dirt off-road, you get to reach a pool known as Sisneri natural swimming pool barely touched by the hustle of city life.
Facts about Sisneri natural swimming pool
Where is the Sisneri natural swimming pool?
The natural swimming pool lies in Sisneri VDC of Makwanpur district of Nepal. It’s approximately 33 Km southwest of Kathmandu valley.
How do I reach the Sisneri natural swimming pool?
Since public vehicles that take you all the way to sisneri are rare, you’d have to opt for a private ride. Cars or bikes are the best viable options. Assuming Balkhu is our starting point, the road takes you straight to Pharping, then branches off. One path leads to a place called Kalanki of Makwanpur district, the other one straight to Sisneri Bazar through Dakshinkali. You could reach Sisneri both ways but the road through Dakshinkali being the short one seems the better option.
What are the best attractions at Sisneri?
Sisneri is at an elevation of around 1400 meters which is similar to that of Kathmandu valley. It has identical hilly terrain as that of other hilly areas of Nepal. What people mostly visit Sisneri for is the natural swimming pool. The river banks of Sisneri Khola that flow through Sisneri Bazar till the natural swimming pool have huge potential to be overnight campsites too as the surrounding hills give the best views in the morning.
Is the pool safe for ladies or a couple?
The number of girls visiting the natural pool is fewer compared to that of guys. Nonetheless, we’ve not heard of any misbehaviors done against women. If you’re a woman who’s soaked in water, you’ll definitely get some prying eyes. Apart from that, I find this place safe. It even has a changing and shower booth beside the first pool.
Is there a place to eat at the Sisneri natural swimming pool?
Considering that Sisneri is a sparsely populated area in Makwanpur, this place doesn’t have any major town. Sisneri Bazar which has a few khajaghars, where you can get lunch or snacks, is around 15 minutes ride ahead of the natural swimming pool. Although there are two shops beside the pool where you can buy snacks but the price is usually quite high. When coming to or returning from, eating at Sisneri Bazar is the better option. Or you could just pack your food, carry it, and eat it by the pool; which is the best. Just don’t litter the area.
Is there a lodging facility?
As already said above, being a thinly populated area, this place has very few options for lodging. Hotels that let you sleep are non-existent at Sisneri Bazar. If you intend on staying near Sisneri, there’s a resort called Chaimale resort which is in between Sisneri and Dakshinkali, or you could visit Markhu Kulekhani where hotels are abundant. The next option would be to camp by the Sisneri river.
How do we spend our days at the Sisneri natural swimming pool?
Since Sisneri has been a go-to place for warm weekends, it’s a place we’ve been to, countless times. Traveling to the Sisneri natural swimming pool usually starts with me reaching Bj’s house before 7 in the morning. I leave my bike there and hop on his bike followed by a stop at Bhatbhatini for our grocery shopping for the day. We generally fill out bags with uncooked sausages, bacon, and some beer.
Upon reaching Dakshinkali, we buy some food which includes boiled eggs, some chickpeas, a few selrotis, some fried potatoes, and some sweets. Just above Dakshinkali, there’s a hill where we each have a beer and what we bought for breakfast. Half an hour of strolling on the hill and we ride for Sisneri.
Around an hour of the downhill ride, off-road, a small Bazar comes in sight which is known as the Sisneri Bazar. The road splits into two ends, one taking you to the Hetauda highway through Kulekhani and the other one to the Sisneri natural swimming pool.
The pool comes in sight after another 15 minutes of ride from the Sisneri Bazar. Typically they make you pay 50 rupees each as an entrance fee and if you require a life jacket like us you’d need to pay another 50 rupees for an hour of use.
There are three ponds. The biggest and deepest one at the bottom, and others on top of each another, where you’d need to hike a few minutes to reach. Only when we’ve arrived early or if there’re fewer people around, we get into the first pool else we move up. Being people who’re not very fond of crowded spaces, we always move to the top one where people are few in number or there’re no people at all.
First, we prepare the food we’d brought. We fry the sausages and bacon and heat all those that we’d bought at Dakshinkali. There we have our lunch for the day with occasional sips of beer.
Imagine having a summer sun over your head, a recently filled belly, a beer in your hand, and a huge running stream just around your feet. The water calls and its touch on the skin make us feel marvelous and give us some thrill.
Having had enough dips in the water, we head back towards Sisneri Bazar where we had some snacks. As I’ve said earlier there are two paths that take you back to Kathmandu and we opt for each one as per what amount of daylight we have on our clock and how much fuel we have in our tank.
Whichever path we take, we stop midway for a coffee. While returning, 6 in the evening is the usual time we arrive in Kathmandu. I pick up my bike from Bj’s place and head home afterward.