Myagdi. The hotels and homestays at Singa Tatopani in Beni municipality-4 are full for the past few days. Hotels and homestays have been filled with guests from different parts of the country for bathing in the hot water spring.

Jeevan KC, a hotel entrepreneur of Tatopani, said the hotel and homestay rooms have not been vacant since the Dashain festival. “The rooms of more than 20 big and small hotels have been occupied in the past one week,” he said, adding, “It has become difficult for the guests to cook and eat on their own in homestays.” ’

According to entrepreneurs, around 1,500 guests currently stay at Tatopani on a daily basis. The months of September-October, November, December, January, February, Chaitra and Baisakh are the seasons for bathing in the hot water pond. From May to August, the hot water was deserted. Due to the increasing cold, long holidays in schools and campuses and there is no hurry to bring the crops, the number of people coming for treatment after bathing in hot water has increased.

Secretary of the Tatopani Kunda Management Committee, Ammar Bahadur Khatri, said that six groups of men and women have been formed from 5:30 am to 5:00 pm for bathing in the pond. “Seven hundred women and four to five hundred men have come for hot bathing,” he said÷. ’

Arrangements have been made for bathing in the pond on the bank of Myagdi River where the hot water emanating from the temperature of 50 degrees Celsius has the natural smell of birenun. It is believed that the health problems caused by skin, gastric, rheumatism and injuries can be cured by bathing in the pond where water is collected with the smell of birenun.

Suman Niure, a local of Baglung, said he had come to take bath in hot water to relieve the pain in his leg. Each person has to pay Rs 350 for bathing in a pond where hot water is collected for 10 days. The government pays 13 percent of the entry fee and 25 percent to Beni municipality.

Last year, a total of 20,347 people from 66 districts of Nepal, Korea, Poland, Ukraine, Scotland, Russia, Japan and India came to take bath in the hot water spring. According to Resham Karki, an employee of the committee, 19,403 people had bathed in the fiscal year 2080/81 and 18,000 in 2079/80.