Upper Mustang, Nepal
- Amy
- May 23, 2020
- 5 min read
UPPER MUSTANG, NEPAL
12th - 29th June 2019
The last but not least travelling blog post from my 6 month adventure across New Zealand and South East Asia. After nearly 5 1/2 months since I left home, three out of the 5 of the Donaldson family were together.
The 12th June was a very exciting day, partucarly for me as it would be the first time I saw my Dad in 5 1/2 months. Luke and I attended a cooking class in our favourite family restaurant, Newa Mo Mo, where our Nepalese Mum (as we called her as we had been in the restaurant so many times) taught us to make a number of traditional Nepelese dishes, Momos being one that we requested. It was crazy actually going into their little kitchen and seeing how they prepared the food that we had eaten so many times. Note to anyone eating local Nepelese food, sometimes the hygiene conditions in the kitchen are rather questionable, so better not to see! However, I never once got a stomach bug so clearly they weren't that bad at all.
Curtisy of our Upper Mustang Trek that we were about to do with Outfitters Nepal, we were able to check into a very fancy hotel, living the life of luxury before the mountain teahouses would be our only source of shelter. Basking in the air conditioning and peace and quiet, we were able to relax for a few hours until we went to the airport to surprise Dad who had just landed in Kathmandu to join us. Let the adventure begin! The night of the 12th June was the first night all year that I had the luxury of sleeping in a room by myself.
The following day Luke, Dad and myself explored Kathandu. Venturing off to the see the highlights of the city that Luke and I had been saving to see for when Dad arrived. We first visited Monkey Temple, of course, known for the monkeys that guard the sacred ground.
We also went to Durbar Square in central Nepal that was hit by the earthquake along with the second largest stupa in the world, Baudhanath Stupa. Both were really stunning areas.
The final part of our sightseeing trip was Pasnupatinath Temple where they cremate all of the bodies. This strongly reminded e of Varanasi in India where they did similar cremations on the riverfront. On the site, there are 184 Sivalinga shrines (jam packed).
Our trek began with a 6 hour bus journey from Kathmandu to Pokhara.
Then the following day a brutal 10 1/2 hour jeep journey all the way from Pokhara (800m) to Kagbeni (2,810m) due to construction on the runway in Jonsom meaning we were unable to fly.
Day 1 of actually trekking finally arrived. Kagbeni to Chhuksang (2,980m). I started off my morning as I would every morning to come with a milk tea... turns out milk tea in Nepal is very very sweet, but they put sugar in everything so I should have expected it. We only walked a short distance today which was a great way to ease us back into trekking. However, we were able to get a feel of the vast landscape which is the polar opposite to that we experienced earlier in the month in the Kumbu region. It vaguely reminded me of Morocco with the red tinted rock, created completely buy nature (although it seems hard to believe). The beauty of the unique landscape had me in awe. Although completely different fro the snowy capped mountains around Everest, the Upper Mustang allowed mw to experience the vastly different landscapes which are right next to each other. The Upper Mustang region is situated in the Annapurna Conservation Area near the boarder of Tibet (China).
It took Luke, Dad and I, as well as our guide and two porters, 6 days to reach Lo Manthang which is our main destination of our trip. We trekked from Chhuksang and worked our way up North through Samar (3,660m), Ghiling (3,570m), Ghami (3,520m)and finally Chrang (3,560m) before we reached Lo Manthang. Along the way of this week long journey, we experienced some of the most remote and vast dry areas of Nepal which is a far cry fro the lush green areas of the Annapurna range situated very close. It was beautiful to see the continuous dry desert terrain and then the Annapurna snow capped mountain range off to the side.
Reaching Lo Manthanf was a big achievement. Especially after the entire week of trekking we had no signal or wifi, it was like being back in the Stone Age and everything felt so far away. However, it was an amazing feeling to be completely disconnected fro the outside world and just rely on each other for entertainment and companionship. It was lovely to spend such an amazing trip with two of my lovely family members as we can now all share the experience together and reflect back on it.
Lo Manthang, the 'walled city' was the capital of the Kingdom of Lo. The area was a restricted demilitarized area until 1992 which makes it one of the most preserved regions in the world, with a majority of the population still speaking a traditional Tibetan language. The Tibetan culture has been strongly preserved and we were able to experience this, paritucarly on a day trip to Chhoser. The village of Chhoser is only 8 miles from the Tibetan border and completely surrounded by the mountains that separate Nepal and China. The locals speak Tibetan and it is evident that the damage created by the Chinese is still apparent in the local area. In Chhoser we were able to visit Sija Jong Cave where Tibetans and Monks would hide when Tibet was being taken over by China, as well as Lo Nifu Gumba, a monastery over 80 years old. It was beautiful with a lot of the original work and paintings still preserved.
The joinery back from Lo Manthang was a lot quicker, however, still very much uphill (I swear both ways are uphill haha). It took 4 days to reach Jonsom where we would fly out of to Pokhara and luckily skip the jeep that we had taken on the way. The views were stunning on the way back down. We were able to see the Annapurna range ugh clearer and also an incredible gorge that we climbed down (thank goodness we went a different way on the way there). Ghami to Samar on our 9th day of trekking was particularly a struggle but by the time we reached our destination I had never felt more proud of myself. Who would of thought that Amy, who does very minimal walking with zero trekking experience, was able to reach not only Everest Base Camp but also trek from Jomsom to Lo Manthang. In total, a full 20 days of trekking and I was able to do it. It just shows that anyone who puts their mind to something like this can achieve it.
Some of the delicious food we had throughout the trip...
Upon arriving in Pokhara after a quick 2 minute flight from Jomsom on a little whizzy plane, we decided to make the most of our time there and did some sightseeing. We visited a temple on a hill and a sacred cave that had a waterfall inside it. It strangely reminded me of the setting of a log flume ride at a theme park.
What an incredible journey that I was able to share with both Dad and Luke.
And that was my final adventure of the trip!
Until next time!
- A
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