Created 31-Oct-23
242 photos, 18 videos
It has always been my dream to go and see the highest mountains on earth - The Himalayas. With a love of hiking and getting up high to scenic places, visiting these mountains is the crown jewel on my "places to hike" list.
We started our journey by taking a nine hour flight to Frankfurt, followed by an eight hour flight to Dubai, followed by a four hour flight to Kathmandu - whew! We left Calgary on October 7th and finally got to our hotel in Kathmandu on Octber 9th.
We were greeted at the airport by our hiking guide, Raj, from Himalayan Masters. He welcomed us with the customary marigold garland. The first taste of Kathmandu was quite a shock with the chaos of trucks, motorcycles and rickshaw all vying for space. There are 1.5 million people in Kathmandu, and not one traffic light! Nor are any lanes painted out on the roads. They drive on the left and use the horn to let each other know where they are.
On our first full day in Kathmandu, we visited Swayambhunath Temple (The Monkey Temple). Prayer flags and prayer wheels adorned this beautiful hilltop site.
The next day, it was time to drive the 122 km to Syabrubesi, where the trailhead to Langtang Valley is located. Raj, Megan, Myself and our porter Nabaraj (Nabu) loaded into a Mahindra Scorpio with our driver. The twisting turning road led its way through rural Nepal, and took seven hours. The road was at times rough. Small rivers flowed across the road surface on steep, mountainous hillsides. Once past the village of Kalikasthan, the road degrades further and sections are muddy. With a precipitous drop on one side, no guardrail and a driver who didn't speak english (although we did find out his name was Rambo), this section was quite worrying for us both. We knew we just had to close our eyes and get through it. It was comforting when we passed Rambo's house and his family came out to greet him - and size up his passengers. Knowing he was a local who was used to these roads and that he had a family to live for comfoted us immeasurably! We just aren't used to this sort of thing in Canada. The final descent to Syabrubesi was still harrowing, although I distracted myself by taking pictures of cows on the road and the close tolerances of huge trucks and buses passing on this narrow road. We arrived to Syabrubesi just as it was getting dark and starting to rain - not a minute too soon. We slept like logs in New Yala Peak guesthouse.
It was time for the Langtang Trek to start - over the next eight days, we would hike 88 km and gain 4700 metres of elevation. The first three days were spent hiking up the Langtang Valley Trail. We gained 2400 metres of elevation as we ascended through jungle, then temperate forest. Once at Thyangsyap, the vegetation changed to low shrub and we got our first views of the high Himalaya. What a feeling!
We arrived in the highest village of Langtang, called Kyanjin (3850 m) on the third day of trekking. We did a small acclimatization hike to prepare for our attemp of Tsergo Ri (5033 m) the next day.
We woke at 4:15 a.m. to clear skies outside, and started hiking at 5:00 a.m. in the dark. Aided by headlamps we hiked along the frosty trail and left the village behind us.
Pacing one's steps to manage breathing above 4000 metres and some good luck with the weather came together to see Megan and I summit this 5033 metre peak.
All of our physical training, the extensive planning and the cost were worth experiencing this remote summit with each other. We walked together, hand-in-hand for the final few steps to the summit, emotions overwhelming us as we reached the top.
Spectacular views of the surrounding Himalayas will be a memory we cherish forever. We had lunch with Raj and Nabu, spending over two hours at the glorious summit.
We returned to Kyanjin by mid-afternoon. We spent the next couple of hours exploring this beautiful village. The buildings are painted so brightly, the people are so friendly, the life here so pure. I'm sure crime here is zero. Wandering the walkways, one notices prolific yak dung drying on the rocks in the sun. Firewood has to be carried up from lower elevations manually, so the dung is burned in fireplaces to reduce the demand for wood. Next, it was on to the Yak Cheese Factory - a highlight for locals and tourists alike. The cheese is delicious! We finished the evening with a peaceful meal and game of chess at our guesthouse.
The next morning, the weather was sunny again. After a successful summit on Tsergo Ri the day before, I was riding a high and wanted another Himalayan summit before heading down valley over the next few days. Kyanjin Ri was a perfect choice. Raj and I ascended the steep slopes right behind our guesthouse to the lookout point on Kyanjin Ri. From there, the grade eased and we made our way to the true summit at 4774 metres, which was bathed in sunlight and adorned with prayer flags.
We took a different route for the descent, heading down a steep gully on the south side, thus completing a really enjoyable and scenic loop. We returned to the village around noon.
Megan had enjoyed a quiet morning around town, and was now on a hike with Nabu to the scenic lakes on a bench below the village. I waited for their return on the roof of our guesthouse, soaking in the view of Gangchempo and the host of Himalayan peaks surrounding the village. This was pure bliss.
The next morning, the weather had changed and the village was now cloaked in a couple cm of snow. It was beautiful. We found a baby yak (and named him "Zack") wandering along the pathways. Megan and I then hiked on our own to a glacial lake perched above the village. We had a snack of fruit, walnuts and yak cheese above the lake while I scanned the rocky hillsides for a snow leopard with my binoculars. We did not see a leopard, but you never know unless you try and look. We were the only ones up here and the leopards are known to prey on the local yak sometimes, so there was a one in a million chance to see one - just not today.
Back at the village, we decided to hike down to Langtang today and return for a night at Flavour Guest House - our favorite accomodation of them all.
The following day, we hiked down to Riverside, where I made a water wheel and placed it in the stream with the help of Sidar, a local teenager whose parents ran the rustic guesthouse we stayed at that night.
One more day of downhill trekking brought us back to Syabrubesi, and the noisy diesel trucks that lumber their way into town on that crazy mountain road. Actually, the drive back to Kathmandu was less scary than before, because we knew what to expect and also, we were on the inside lane this time!
The next leg of our trip had us take a 25 minute flight to the city of Pokhara. Flying at only 10,000 feet, it gave prime views of the Himalayas.
We spent the next four days at a yoga retreat called Yog Connection. There were meditation sessions, yoga classes and singing bowl sound therapy classes. I had never done anything like this before. Our classes were interspersed with free time, and we used this to explore Pokhara. It is a lush, green city and much less dusty than Kathmandu. I took Megan out for momos on her birthday at a nice lakeside restaurant. Our time in Pokhara concluded with a spiritual dance at Yog Connection.
We returned to Kathmandu for the last leg of our journey. We checked into Mulberry Hotel for a few nights of luxury. The difference between accomodation and bathroom setup between Riverside and Mulberry was truly astonishing. We had seen it all on this trip - a well-balanced experince.
The final two days were spent doing an informative cooking class on Nepali cuisine, and experiencing Dashain Festival. This is the most important holiday in the country, and all shops were closed down. Noisy parades with music blaring from loudspeakers tied to pickup trucks were commonplace. We fell in with one such mob of Hindus, got blessed with tikka, and danced in the streets of Kathmandu - what an experince to finish off our Nepal adventure.
On the way home to Canada, we had a seven hour layover in Dubai, so we decided to leave the airport and explore this glitzy city for a few hours. I cannot imagine a more polar opposite place to Kathmandu. It was interesting to see and the worlds tallest building, the Burg Khalifa, is indeed impressive. At 828 metres, it dwarfs the CN Tower's 553 metres. And the heat (30 Celcius at 11 p.m.) is something else. We returned to the elaborate airport in Dubai and boarded our fourteen hour flight to Toronto. Memories of our trip swirling around in our head, we drifted off to sleep.
We started our journey by taking a nine hour flight to Frankfurt, followed by an eight hour flight to Dubai, followed by a four hour flight to Kathmandu - whew! We left Calgary on October 7th and finally got to our hotel in Kathmandu on Octber 9th.
We were greeted at the airport by our hiking guide, Raj, from Himalayan Masters. He welcomed us with the customary marigold garland. The first taste of Kathmandu was quite a shock with the chaos of trucks, motorcycles and rickshaw all vying for space. There are 1.5 million people in Kathmandu, and not one traffic light! Nor are any lanes painted out on the roads. They drive on the left and use the horn to let each other know where they are.
On our first full day in Kathmandu, we visited Swayambhunath Temple (The Monkey Temple). Prayer flags and prayer wheels adorned this beautiful hilltop site.
The next day, it was time to drive the 122 km to Syabrubesi, where the trailhead to Langtang Valley is located. Raj, Megan, Myself and our porter Nabaraj (Nabu) loaded into a Mahindra Scorpio with our driver. The twisting turning road led its way through rural Nepal, and took seven hours. The road was at times rough. Small rivers flowed across the road surface on steep, mountainous hillsides. Once past the village of Kalikasthan, the road degrades further and sections are muddy. With a precipitous drop on one side, no guardrail and a driver who didn't speak english (although we did find out his name was Rambo), this section was quite worrying for us both. We knew we just had to close our eyes and get through it. It was comforting when we passed Rambo's house and his family came out to greet him - and size up his passengers. Knowing he was a local who was used to these roads and that he had a family to live for comfoted us immeasurably! We just aren't used to this sort of thing in Canada. The final descent to Syabrubesi was still harrowing, although I distracted myself by taking pictures of cows on the road and the close tolerances of huge trucks and buses passing on this narrow road. We arrived to Syabrubesi just as it was getting dark and starting to rain - not a minute too soon. We slept like logs in New Yala Peak guesthouse.
It was time for the Langtang Trek to start - over the next eight days, we would hike 88 km and gain 4700 metres of elevation. The first three days were spent hiking up the Langtang Valley Trail. We gained 2400 metres of elevation as we ascended through jungle, then temperate forest. Once at Thyangsyap, the vegetation changed to low shrub and we got our first views of the high Himalaya. What a feeling!
We arrived in the highest village of Langtang, called Kyanjin (3850 m) on the third day of trekking. We did a small acclimatization hike to prepare for our attemp of Tsergo Ri (5033 m) the next day.
We woke at 4:15 a.m. to clear skies outside, and started hiking at 5:00 a.m. in the dark. Aided by headlamps we hiked along the frosty trail and left the village behind us.
Pacing one's steps to manage breathing above 4000 metres and some good luck with the weather came together to see Megan and I summit this 5033 metre peak.
All of our physical training, the extensive planning and the cost were worth experiencing this remote summit with each other. We walked together, hand-in-hand for the final few steps to the summit, emotions overwhelming us as we reached the top.
Spectacular views of the surrounding Himalayas will be a memory we cherish forever. We had lunch with Raj and Nabu, spending over two hours at the glorious summit.
We returned to Kyanjin by mid-afternoon. We spent the next couple of hours exploring this beautiful village. The buildings are painted so brightly, the people are so friendly, the life here so pure. I'm sure crime here is zero. Wandering the walkways, one notices prolific yak dung drying on the rocks in the sun. Firewood has to be carried up from lower elevations manually, so the dung is burned in fireplaces to reduce the demand for wood. Next, it was on to the Yak Cheese Factory - a highlight for locals and tourists alike. The cheese is delicious! We finished the evening with a peaceful meal and game of chess at our guesthouse.
The next morning, the weather was sunny again. After a successful summit on Tsergo Ri the day before, I was riding a high and wanted another Himalayan summit before heading down valley over the next few days. Kyanjin Ri was a perfect choice. Raj and I ascended the steep slopes right behind our guesthouse to the lookout point on Kyanjin Ri. From there, the grade eased and we made our way to the true summit at 4774 metres, which was bathed in sunlight and adorned with prayer flags.
We took a different route for the descent, heading down a steep gully on the south side, thus completing a really enjoyable and scenic loop. We returned to the village around noon.
Megan had enjoyed a quiet morning around town, and was now on a hike with Nabu to the scenic lakes on a bench below the village. I waited for their return on the roof of our guesthouse, soaking in the view of Gangchempo and the host of Himalayan peaks surrounding the village. This was pure bliss.
The next morning, the weather had changed and the village was now cloaked in a couple cm of snow. It was beautiful. We found a baby yak (and named him "Zack") wandering along the pathways. Megan and I then hiked on our own to a glacial lake perched above the village. We had a snack of fruit, walnuts and yak cheese above the lake while I scanned the rocky hillsides for a snow leopard with my binoculars. We did not see a leopard, but you never know unless you try and look. We were the only ones up here and the leopards are known to prey on the local yak sometimes, so there was a one in a million chance to see one - just not today.
Back at the village, we decided to hike down to Langtang today and return for a night at Flavour Guest House - our favorite accomodation of them all.
The following day, we hiked down to Riverside, where I made a water wheel and placed it in the stream with the help of Sidar, a local teenager whose parents ran the rustic guesthouse we stayed at that night.
One more day of downhill trekking brought us back to Syabrubesi, and the noisy diesel trucks that lumber their way into town on that crazy mountain road. Actually, the drive back to Kathmandu was less scary than before, because we knew what to expect and also, we were on the inside lane this time!
The next leg of our trip had us take a 25 minute flight to the city of Pokhara. Flying at only 10,000 feet, it gave prime views of the Himalayas.
We spent the next four days at a yoga retreat called Yog Connection. There were meditation sessions, yoga classes and singing bowl sound therapy classes. I had never done anything like this before. Our classes were interspersed with free time, and we used this to explore Pokhara. It is a lush, green city and much less dusty than Kathmandu. I took Megan out for momos on her birthday at a nice lakeside restaurant. Our time in Pokhara concluded with a spiritual dance at Yog Connection.
We returned to Kathmandu for the last leg of our journey. We checked into Mulberry Hotel for a few nights of luxury. The difference between accomodation and bathroom setup between Riverside and Mulberry was truly astonishing. We had seen it all on this trip - a well-balanced experince.
The final two days were spent doing an informative cooking class on Nepali cuisine, and experiencing Dashain Festival. This is the most important holiday in the country, and all shops were closed down. Noisy parades with music blaring from loudspeakers tied to pickup trucks were commonplace. We fell in with one such mob of Hindus, got blessed with tikka, and danced in the streets of Kathmandu - what an experince to finish off our Nepal adventure.
On the way home to Canada, we had a seven hour layover in Dubai, so we decided to leave the airport and explore this glitzy city for a few hours. I cannot imagine a more polar opposite place to Kathmandu. It was interesting to see and the worlds tallest building, the Burg Khalifa, is indeed impressive. At 828 metres, it dwarfs the CN Tower's 553 metres. And the heat (30 Celcius at 11 p.m.) is something else. We returned to the elaborate airport in Dubai and boarded our fourteen hour flight to Toronto. Memories of our trip swirling around in our head, we drifted off to sleep.
© Peter Hudak