Mustang Trek

I will be using excerpts from my journal entries again for this one.


From June 18: It was a bit touch-and-go to start. The flight from Pokhara was delayed but finally arrived a bit late. I met my trekking companion, Reiko, who is a 65-year old grandmother from Japan. Her English is limited but she seems like a lovely lady and is happy to have some company on her trek. Given the late start, we decided to have lunch in Jomsom while the guys hired some horses to carry our gear.


The trek to Kagbeni took about three hours plus a 30 minute break. During the break Reiko took off her boots and shoes which certainly tended to draw it out a bit. [I would learn that this was standard practice for her, so there was no such thing as taking a quick breather.] The wind was crazy throughout the walk, which is standard for the Kali Gandaki after 10:00 AM. I don't think I ever walked this stretch in the afternoon before - it was like nothing I'd experienced before. The wind is part of the problem for flights from Pokhara to Jomsom and back. They can't land in Jomsom after about 10:00 AM so all flights go first thing in the morning.


Kagbeni is exactly how I remember it, and I still love it. We are camping in the same spot that I camped in last time I was here. We visited the monastery and walked around town after tea. The monastery hasn't changed a bit. I checked my e-mail before dinner and all seems to be quiet on the home front so am heading into the wilderness feeling good. We had a fabulous dinner and were introduced to all the staff afterwards. They are Tshering the guide, Tashi the sherpa, Nima (Tshering's brother) another sherpa, Ram the cook, Santos and Kumar the kitchen boys and Little Ram the horse handler. Little Ram (our nickname, not his) is only 15 and as cute as anything you've ever seen, with a brilliant white smile. He should be in school instead of out here on the trail with us.


From June 19: I didn't sleep well last night. I was up a couple of times to use the loo and the local dogs woke me up a bit. I think I was just really excited about finally going to Upper Mustang. I have been looking forward to this for five years ever since I first looked across the border during my last stay in Kagbeni. We set out after breakfast and a few minutes later stopped at the border to present our permits. Once cleared we stepped into the "Last Forbidden Kingdom" of Nepal. The walking was fairly easy going - no major hills. The ground is rocky and sandy and required some concentratio as we tended to slip in the scree a bit. We followed the river but seldom walked in the riverbed as the water was too high. The wind was wicked and embedded the sand right into our skin. Reiko, who would easily fit into my pocket, frequently had to grab onto Tshering to keep from blowing off the trail.


The towns we passed were amazing - they look like I would imagine northern Africa to look. You expect to see Bedouins and camels rather than Tibetans and horses. I am totally intrigued by this place. The rock cliffs beside the river seem to go on forever. The cliffs are dotted with man-made caves - former homes or hideouts during times of war. We had a fabulous picnic lunch in an orchard in a small town. We are now camped in a town called Chele which is very small and only seems to have a dozen or so people in it.


This region is truly the land that time forgot. It is easy to imagine that nothing has changed here for centuries - all subsistence farming and nothing else. The first town or two after Kagbeni had hydro poles but no actual wires. Further up there isn't even that. There are a few solar panels on some roofs, but no vehicles, TV or noise other than the wind. It's magical.


From June 20: I had a much better sleep last night and was only up once to pee and admire the stars. Away to the south there was a storm and I could see the sheet lightening on the horizon. We set out early again this morning and had quite a long but fortunately not too steep, uphill climb. There were dark clouds to one side of us which made things a bit cooler. We stopped for lunch in a town called Bhena which consisted of two buildings: a house and a barn (both essentially identical). Two families live here and I find it rather amusing that it has a place name on the map. We have moved away from the Kali Gandaki valley a bit so the wind is a little less strong here. It was nice not to be sandblasted all day.


We crossed a pass after lunch from which the views were spectacular. It's just so big, it's hard to describe. It looks a bit grand canyon-ish and also partly desert. The town where we're staying, Syangboche, is also very small and consists of only a handful of buildings. After tea I was able to wash my hair and a pair of socks in the community fountain. [I'm not sure what to call these watering holes. They are exactly the same in every town in Nepal. There is a square cement basin with drain at ground level with a tap at about waist height above it. As a general rule the water never stops running and I'm not sure if it is actually possible to turn the tap off. The water comes from nearby streams or rivers and is diverted to these taps. This central source of water is used for washing bodies and clothes, brushing teeth, doing dishes and watering the animals.] After I washed, I went and sat just uphill from town and watched life happen. There were people collecting dung for fuel, preparing meals, chasing horses out of houses, returning from the fields, building a stone wall extension on a home etc. It seems to be such a busy, yet peaceful existence.


From June 21: I had a decent sleep but with lots of short interruptions: dogs barking, donkeys braying, a guy puking, and lots of people violently ridding themselves of phlegm. We had a fairly easy walk today - crossed a pass and then it was all downhill. Unfortunately at the pass we saw the start of the northern end of the road that runs all the way to the Tibetan border. I was of the impression that it only went as far south as Lo Manthang, but here we were, still three days walk from Lo Manthang and the road is already here. Given that it stops dead in the middle of a hill, at least there are no vehicles on it yet.

We didn't stop for lunch today, but had it in the town where we're camped: Ghami. It is a fairly large centre with a hospital and many houses. I think I love it as much as Kagbeni. I spent a lot of time wandering around and taking photos. There are some old ruins here and we also went into the 500-year old monastery which is currently being renovated. After tea we went up to the roof of the home where we're camping and watched the monks playing their horns on the roof of the gompa nearby. I went off for another wander and came upon a raucous game of volleyball that seemed to involve every male in town. I stayed there until dinner, taking photos of the local kids for them [they love to see their photos on the screen of my camera] and trying to take photos of the more interesting faces among the volleyball players who refused to stay still for me.

We had fresh baked apple pie for dessert tonight - awesome. The food has been fabulous and Ram is proving to be the best cook I've ever had on a trek. The boys even cut the paper napkins into snowflake doilies for the plates when bringing us cookies at tea time. We had a beer tonight to celebrate the summer solstice.

[Ghami and several other of the larger towns north of here have micro hydro plants. The electricity seems only to be used for light. There is still no sign of TV, radio, computers or other modern conveniences. There are some cassette tape players around, mostly with Nepalese or Indian music. I rarely, if ever heard these, but saw some cassettes for sale.]

From June 22: We walked past the longest mani wall in Mustang this morning and had a fairly easy trek to the town of Tsarang where we had our lunch and camped. After lunch, Tshering, Reiko, Tashi and I went to tour the former palace and monastery which are located here. We had a fabulous afternoon full of fun and camaraderie and interesting history and sights. The monastery is 675 years old and contains some books that pre-date it. Tsarang isn't as pretty a town as some of the others, but is still nice. The massive chorten gate, palace and monastery perched on the cliff-side really make the place. The people are very friendly but unfortunately the kids perpetually have their hands out. I am glad that I decided to do this trek in skirts. It was a bit awkward in the really windy places where I had to tie knots in the hems to keep them in place, although it has been a lot more comfortable on the hot days (nothing like a cool breeze up your skirt!). Generally, I find that I am being much more warmly received by the local women than Reiko in her pants. The local women here all wear traditional Tibetan costumes but the men and children are largely in western garb.

From June 23: Woke to a bit of rain today which stopped shortly after we got up. We trekked under overcast skies but didn't get any more rain. The walk to Lo Manthang took about four hours and was quite monotonous. When we arrived at the pass which overlooks town, we stopped for quite a while and took tons of photographs. We had lunch as soon as we got to town and then headed for the local gompa, as this was the last day of a significant festival. Unfortunately we missed all the dancing of the previous couple of days, but were able to witness the ritual slaying of the demons and have photos to prove that they were all summarily driven out of town. It was very interesting to watch. It is such a change to watch religious festivals of other faiths after having been exposed only to Christianity for so much of my life. My past experience is that everything is so formal and solemn and heaven forbid anyone might make a sound. Here there is general mayhem going on while the rituals are being performed: kids are running around playing tag, animals are wandering through the courtyard and there is general merriment everywhere. The monks participating in these rituals actually chase some of the spectators around at times during the ceremonies. It's really fun. We saw our first [and only] westerners of the trek here: a couple of Americans and two people who I think are aid workers teaching in town.

Before the ceremony began, we toured the gompa. It is about 700 years old and is really beautiful and full of great vibes. I lit a butter lamp for Bhola's son and had the Abbott bless it. It was quite a moving ritual and it felt good to be doing some small thing for him.

Just before dinner, Tshering announced that it was Reiko's birthday today. There was no time to do anything about it except buy her a sweet at the local shop. (It was either that or a roll of toilet paper - there's not much on offer up here.) The boys made a big deal out of her birthday - Ram baked her a cake and Tshering and Tashi both had gifts for her. I felt like real idiot. After they had their dinner, the boys all came and joined us for singing and dancing. It was a nice evening.

From June 24: Was up early this morning. At about 5:30 AM, the towns up here go through a waking up process which is very noisy but only lasts about 10 minutes. All the animals are making their various noises, dishes are clanging and people are people are bringing up phlegm from the very core of their beings. I decided to get up and do laundry instead of trying to go back to sleep. I washed my clothes in the stream that runs through the street outside our yard, as all the local women do. I'm not sure what's in the water, but my clothes seemed to come out smelling better than they did going in, so I was pleased with the result.

Tshering, Tashi, Reiko and I did a day hike today. We started out by visiting a 13th century monastery school which is nearby to Lo Manthang. We got a tour of the monastery and the school and were then served butter tea and biscuits. Drinking butter tea is a fate worse than death for me (hot yak butter, hot water and lots of salt) and I must have gone through about two dozen biscuits trying to get it down. On top of it, they're so darn hospitable that the minute you take a sip they come with the kettle to refill your cup. It's considered very rude to refuse.

The monastery, and in fact the town of Lo Manthang and its own monastery, are all in a tizzy as their head lama is coming for a visit from India in a couple of days. Archways are being erected, flags and banners are being hung and everything is getting a good scrub. There are 40 very young monks here (22 in kindergarten and the rest in grade 1) who are all very excited about the proceedings. They are absolutely adorable.

After tea at the monastery we climbed a nearby hill just to the north of Lo Manthang and ate our packed lunch at a ruin there. The views were amazing and we were able to see right up to the Tibetan border. There are a lot of ruins in the area, which I learned were largely deliberately ruined. The buildings are made from clay bricks and the older ones were usually built on top of hills or at cliff edges. When they start to deteriorate and are deemed dangerous, they destroy them so they won't be used anymore.

After lunch we "skied" down through the scree on the hillside and walked through a village at the bottom. We arrived at Thyaker, the town where the king's summer palace is located. There wasn't much going on here, and the palace appeared to house nothing but dung, so we wandered though town and up to some other ruins on another hillside. I am totally intrigued by these ruins and could hang out in them for days. We headed back to Lo Manthang and had a bit of a kick-about with the guys who were enjoying a rest day.

At about 4:00 we went off to have tea with the king. Yes, really. Mustang is the last remaining kingdom in Nepal and it is indeed run by a king. He blessed our katas for us and then we sat and had a cup of tea. The room was comfortable but rustic. The palace itself looks to me like it could use a substantial bit of work, but I guess that happens when a wood and mud building gets to be about 700 years old. It's really not very palatial at all. The king was dressed something like Grampa Honegger when he came in from the garden. It was a pretty casual meeting.

All in all a fabulous day. I felt a great sense of companionship all day. Tashi and Tshering were very playful at times along the trail. They like to play games like a form of jacks with stones or other contests that they seem to make up on the fly. They will both spontaneously burst into song while hiking and Tshering has this tendency to start skipping all of a sudden. It's really quite cute.

From June 25: This morning we had a day hike to a town called Chasser which is up the eastern valley north of Lo Manthang towards the Tibetan border. We actually came within 2.5 hours walk of the border. It was a long, rather boring, hot, dusty walk along the road. Tshering had suggested that we rent horses and ride up. I was very excited about this and had actually taken riding lessons a few years ago specifically so that I could ride in Mustang. Unfortunately, Reiko is afraid of any animal bigger than a goat (which can be quite humorous to watch around here with constant herds of all kinds of things walking down the streets) so she vetoed the idea and we went on foot. It was a six-hour return walk.

At Chasser we visited a gompa built into a cliff side as well as the Jhong cave. The latter is five stories high, 44 rooms and is over 2500 years old. It was used primarily for defense and hiding out when enemies came to town. We went all through it - it was very cool.

After we got back to Lo Manthang we had lunch and washed our hair. I spent the rest of the day wandering around town, mostly inside the walled part of the city. I really love it here and wish I could stay longer.

From June 26: We got up, packed, had breakfast and prepared to leave. We managed to convince Tshering to let us stay for the arrival of the big lama at 7:30. We lined up with all the villagers, who were all scrubbed up and in their Sunday best. It was nice to see some of the men in their traditional gear. Most people were holding incense or katas. At 7:30 on the nose, the chopper appeared over the hill and landed in a nearby field. (I think the chopper created as much excitement as his holiness did.) The procession wound its way through town. There were reams of local monks in all manner of costume and carrying various things: instruments, flags, and other holy symbols. The lama and his contingent, including the king, rode horses and the rest were on foot. It was spectacular. I haven't felt such an energy since I was in Lhasa - it brought tears to my eyes and goosebumps to my arms.

After the procession, we left Lo Manthang. When we reached the pass above town, we sat for quite some time looking back on the city and all saying our silent goodbyes. Tashi is walking with us now, as we are in territory that Tshering has never visited before. Tashi, it seems, has walked every inch of this country at least five times and really knows his way around. The four of us walk well together, and it is a really comfortable group.

The terrain was quite steep and dusty towards the end of the hike. The descent into Dhi felt like going down the wall of the grand canyon. After our arrival, we had lunch and then Reiko and I went down to the river to wash off some of the day's dust. We only there for a minute before Little Ram came down to find his horses and then Tashi and Tshering showed up to bathe. No privacy here.

After tea, Tshering and I climbed a nearby hill to see another ruin. Reiko had a nap and Nima declined to join us on the grounds that he didn't need to see any more mud and stones. He really cracks me up. He comes from the country but is very much a city boy at heart. He just moved to Kathmandu where I think he will be happy, but he really needs a new line of work. My favourite line of the trek was when he grumbled "walking up and down hills all day...that is not life". I reminded him that Reiko and I were paying a lot of money to walk up and down hills all day.

Dhi is a small town with no lodges or stores and is far away from the new road. There are a dozen or so houses and a couple of camping spots. I watched a woman weaving on a loom in a barn, and the man in our yard is building a door. He is amazingly accurate with very primitive tools.

From June 27: The start of today's trek was along the Kali Gandaki riverbed and the views were spectacular. We had to cross the river four times without benefit of bridges. I changed into my sandals, hiked up my skirt with one hand, grabbed my hiking stick in the other and plunged in. I had all of the staff insisting on helping me across but I managed to thwart their efforts (read: beat them off with my stick). The water was up to about mid-thigh and very fast, but I made it across with great panache. It was a pant-load of fun. Needless to say, Reiko needed some weightier people on either side of her or she would have been swept away.

We then had a very long climb out of the river. I didn't fare to well on this portion and Reiko left me in her dust. I finally caught up to her close to the top when she was starting to wear out. We had a brief downhill walk then stopped for lunch at 11:45 - felt like about 3:00 to me. The rest of the day was fairly easy: a Moses-like desert crossing then a sharp downhill in Tengge. This is a cool town - much more rustic than what we've seen up to now. Shortly after we arrived we got a bit or rain which was nice as it forced a bit of a rest in my tent. After tea I went exploring and then sat on a ruin wall above town and listened to my iPod for a while. Early to bed tonight as tomorrow is our hardest day of the trek.

From June 28: We left Tengge very early and after about 40 minutes had our single wet river crossing. Then the fun began. We had about 2 and a half hours of fairly difficult uphill climb. It was a tough slog but for some reason I had a much easier time of it than yesterday. We only had one break on the way up - I could have used more and Reiko was really struggling today. We finally reached the pass and had views of Dhaulagiri, which was really beautiful. After that, the terrain evened out and we had a flat trek for the next four and a half hours or so. We spread out during this part and it was my only opportunity to be pretty much alone on the trail. It really felt good to have all that space and freedom. We passed some amazing rock formations, like you would expect to see in Utah or Nevada. Despite its length, it was a really enjoyable walk.

When we approached Thasang, the fun began in ernest. We descended at a quicker rate than we had ascended that morning. It was really trecherous going: lots of opportunity to slide in the scree and end up at the bottom of a cliff. I was not impressed with Tshering's guiding style here. He pretty much left us to our own devices and didn't even help Reiko up when she fell right at his feet. We were tired and it was a very difficult and somewhat dangerous path. We finally made it to town after nine and a half hours of trekking and Tashi hadn't stopped talking the whole way. I really would have enjoyed a little silence along the way.

Upon arrival I immediately asked our host for a beer, which I think shocked the others but I managed to persuade them to join me (four of them shared one beer). I just couldn't face a hot cup of tea at this point. After our drink, Reiko and I washed our hair (we had a routine down pat at this point and could do both our heads with less than one bucket of water) after which I developed a sore throat.

We were in the coolest town that we had yet visited, but by the time we got there and got all our stuff done, the sun was down and there was no opportunity to explore. I was quite disappointed but not sure if I could have found the energy anyway. [The last two days of the trek were so long because we are on a fairly uninhabited route and we had to travel these long distances just to get to the next town. There is nothing in between them and nowhere to camp.]

From June 29: I had a very sore throat and fever through the night. I couldn't sleep in my bag as I was just too hot. I was a bit worried at breakfast as I was out of breath just climbing the stairs to the dining room and the smoke in the house was choking me. The house where we're camping is a traditional Nepalese home - we have to walk through the barn to get to the stairs to climb to the living quarters above the animals. Reiko is not happy having to pass a couple of cows to get fed.

We had a very small wet river crossing at the very beginning of our day. After that we were supposed to have three and a half hours of uphill, but really the uphills were interspersed with some flatter terrain. It felt like it would never end. We had lunch just below the pass and all kind of fell into a doze in the sun after we ate. We finally summited our last pass which Reiko and I celebrated with a bit hug and lots of photos. We then began our descent into Muktinath and crossed the border out of the restricted area of Upper Mustang. It was a longer descent, and in fact a longer day, than expected but we were in town by about 3:00.

Muktinath has certainly changed since my last visit. It hasn't so much grown but has really modernized. There are a few new buildings that are very westernized, including a couple of new gompas. I really don't like it much and wouldn't hurry back here. I visited the Hindu temple to light a candle for Bhola's son, as they are Hindu and this is a very holy place for them. The last time I was here it was a quaint shrine. Now there is a huge compound surrounded by a white wall and enclosing the fully renovated Hindu temple as well as several Buddhist gompas. I don't see it as much of an improvement although I know that people come from all over Nepal and India to worship here.

My cold is starting to set in although it wasn't too bad over the course of the day. I was hoping I might have sweated it out.

From June 30: Took an Actifed last night and am feeling somewhat better today. We left Muktinath and stopped in at the next village, Jarkot, to visit the gompa. This is a fabulous town and I would have given my eye teeth to have spent a few minutes exploring, but the others didn't see the benefit so we moved on. We had lunch in a small village on the Kali Gandaki riverbed where the paths to Kagbeni and Muktinath merge. I was pretty much ready to stop at this point but there were still two hours to go. They turned out to be two very windy hours and this time with the wind directly into our faces. We finally made it to Jomsom and the trek was over. Reiko and I went to the bakery for apple crumble and an ice-cold Sprite instead of having our usual tea. There was nothing going on in Jomsom so I had a nap before dinner.

After dinner the boys joined us for cake and singing and dancing. We all had some beers, although I was quite surprised at how tame the party turned out to be. I managed to get enough beers into me to be convinced to dance for a few minutes, but the Sherpa steps don't come easily to me. I think you need a few less left feet to make it work right.

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So that's pretty much the logistics of the whole thing. My next post will be the fun one where I discuss all juicy stuff, like my impressions and observations. It will take a bit longer to write as I have very few notes and will have to be much more creative. Be sure to stay tuned - it will likely be much more entertaining than the last two posts.