The next day was a free day and that morning Bolle offered us a chance to
do an additional half day hike to get to an even higher elevation, once again
my stomach was aching and I knew that I would be better off trying to get
better for our hike back down rather than going higher. But Jason went with
him. They had a nice hike and got to know each other better. That day Jason got
to 4,000 meters.
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| Kyanjin village from Jasons extra hike. |
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| Our guide Bolle taking in the views. |
We spent the rest of the day walking around the village, taking in the
views and visiting the town bakery. The food on the trek was very basic and
every tea house had identical menus so it can get boring very quickly. We were
quietly surprised to find the bakery up so high and even more surprised to find
that the owner bakes everything himself. We enjoyed some yak cheese pizza and
some cake. I hadn’t been able to eat much over the last couple of days so I
pretty much just stuffed it down my throat, it was such a good feeling!
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| Myself and Jason in Kyanjin Gompa |
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| We got photo-bombed by a local in this photo. |
Day 5: Kyanjin Gompa to A tea house along the river.
Our first day of descent was magical. It was such an uplifting feeling
knowing that I could walk as fast as I wanted to without having to worry about
suffering from altitude sickness. I guess our mistake for this day was walking very
fast. The weather was beautiful and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky making the
descent beautiful. Initially while walking away from the majestic Himalayas I
had to turn my head every couple of minutes to take a look at them, knowing
that I may never see such a beautiful sight again. It was a little sad having
to walk away from them. After about an hour of trekking we stopped at the Tip
Top café. This is a wonderful little café that served real coffee. I ordered a
cup and sat drinking it with the finest views in the world. It was one of those
moments that I realized just how lucky I am to get to do these things.
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| The beautiful Himalayas |
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| Jason on the descent |
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| Such beautiful views! |
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| Myself, Bolle, Jason and Dendee |
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| A coffee with a view! |
Once we arrived at Langtang village I knew that the view of them would be
hidden from me forever and took as many final glances as I could. But now that
we were going back down the way that we had come we were given a chance to see
the views that we had missed because of the mist and rain on the first two
days. The valley itself is incredible, the river flowing down the middle of it
is surrounded by mountains on either side. The lush green just makes it
postcard perfect.
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| One of the local children near Langtang village. |
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| Entering Langtang village. |
That night we stopped at a delightful teahouse that was right on the river.
There was also an older couple from England staying there with their guide so
it made for a nice little group. We sat outside next to the river chatting and
monkey spotting (there were quite a few Lemurs there) and it was definitely an evening that I’ll remember for a long
time. Once it got dark we moved inside where once again the fire was lighting.
I really do feel that these tea houses are what sets trekking in Nepal apart
from other places. The people are locals that have a chance to make some money
and you get to stay in a locals house and learn a bit about how they live.
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| On our way to our tea-house. |
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| The river next to our tea-house |
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Enjoying the views by the river wearing my really comfy jumper that
I bought in Kathmandu. |
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| Bolle and Jason sitting by the river. |
Day 6 Tea House to Thulo Syabru.
Waking up that morning was torture. After doing a full day downhill the day
before we both woke up with aching bodies. I had pains in places that I never
knew existed. Also we both thought that today was another day of downhill but
how wrong we were! This day will definitely go down as the toughest day of the
trek for me.
We continued on downhill for another 3 hours and had lunch at the hot springs.
While having lunch we had chickens running around under our feet. After lunch
we had another 40 minutes downhill backtracking the way that we had previously
come. Then came the turn off to Thulo Syabru.
To get to Thulo Syabru we had to climb straight uphill in the sweltering
heat for about 2 hours and to make matters worse our muscles were
still aching and we had run out of water.
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| The views from the top of the grueling hike. |
That climb was by far the toughest climb I had to do on the entire trek, it
took everything out of me and at one stage Bolle ran up to the top ahead of us
and bought us some drinks at a little shack that was at the top. Once we had
some drinks in us we felt better and made it to the top. We relaxed at the
little shack for a while and drank more and more drinks, the views were
beautiful and we could see Thulo Syabru from there…then came the
most heartwrenching part of the trek.
After resting we walked for a bit and I saw the only way to get to Thulo
Syabru was to cross a bridge. Meaning we had to climb back down to the bottom
of the mountain, cross the bridge and climb back up on the other side. I’m not
proud of what I did next but I may have stomped my feet like a four year old in
frustration.
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| Some of the houses on the way up to Thulo Syabru. |
This next part seemed easier than before as it wasn’t as hot and we had
water and we had an ending point up ahead. We also had the porters from the big
Korean group keeping us company.
Once we finally made it to Thulo Syabru we were pleasantly surprised, it
was a beautiful little village surrounded by rice paddies as far as the eye
could see. It was also full of cobbled old streets and had many children around
playing.
The tea house that we stayed in that night was by far the best that we had
had for the entire trek…why? Because I was FINALLY able to have a nice hot
shower! I must have showered for about 40 minutes but it was so good. While at
our highest point of the trek I had to have a cold water shower in an icy cold
bathroom and then get dressed in our icy cold room, it was torture, so this was
the best present that I could wish for.
Day 7: Thulo Syabru to Dhunche
The last day of our trek was finally upon us. We woke up to an incredible
view of the Himalays in the distance from our bedroom window. It felt strange
knowing that this was going to be our last day, it almost felt like a way of
life now. But we had made plans to meet up with some people that we had met on
the trek and eat a big steak dinner when we got back to Kathmandu so we were
getting excited about that.
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| Our view from the bedroom the next morning. |
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| Beginning our final day of hiking. |
Thulo Syabru was beautiful except for one thing…the flies. There were flies
EVERYWHERE. I would see old ladies sitting on the ground in the street with
hundreds of flies on them, the same with the dogs. I don’t know why there were
so many but it made eating nearly impossible, especially eating a pancake with
jam on it, you’d look down and see about 10 flies on the pancake and another 30
or 40 on you!
This last day of hiking was enchanting. This route isn’t taken very often
so there was only one other small group of trekkers on the route. It was very
peaceful walking through the forests and seeing cows, sheep and goats on the
path. We also came across many farms and farm houses. There were so many
monkeys on this route also. While in the forest all of a sudden you look up and
there could be 12 lemurs on the branches above you. After about 2 hours of
going through the forest and farms we came to the road. We would walk on the
road for the last 2 hours ever of our hike. While on the road we came across
buffalos, children swimming naked in the river, old men resting on the side of
the road while hearding their goats/buffalos. People from the surrounding
villages walking to and from. We even came across a man and his young son
chasing their 2 pigs that had somehow escaped.
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| Jason and Bolle looking out at the many rice paddies that layer the mountains. |
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| A random cow on the trail. |
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| Amazing views! |
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| A woman tending to her crops. |
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| A mother and son at one of the final tea-houses that we stopped at. |
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| The mountains nearby were so beautiful. |
It was a lovely day. Unfortunately for poor Dundee (our porter) our bags
were heavier that day and he was feeling sick so the trek was hard for him that
day, luckily he flagged down a passing truck and got a lift to our final
destination. Once we arrived in Dhunche it was such a strange feeling, we were
ecstatic that we had completed the trek, sad that it was over and nervous about
the next days bone knuckling ride to Kathmandu. That evening we bought both
Bolle and Dendee a big Everest beer and spent the evening playing card games.
We also had Dhal Bhaat for dinner and Bolle and Dendee taught us how to eat it
Nepali style…with our fingers. Jason was a pro at it (I think the child in him
was delighted to be able to eat his curry with his fingers) Me; not so good. It
was great fun all the same though.
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| Jason eating some Dhal Bhaat. |
That evening we also had to say goodbye to our wood sticks that had gotten
us through the 7 days of trekking, it was strange to know that they wouldn’t be
glued to our hands anymore.
Day 8 Dhunche to Kathmandu.
The day to return back to Kathmandu was upon us and we were both excited to
get back to a comfy bed and a steak dinner but I was also apprehensive about
the bus journey back since the one to there was quite scary. Luckily the
weather was good for us which meant that we had no near death experiences and
arrived in Kathmandu 2 hours before we expected to.
Overall our trek was an amazing experience. The Langtang trek offers a
quieter trekking experience with fewer trekkers compared to the EBC and
Annapurna treks. It also offers a diverse landscape, starting with the
beautiful lush green forests and then to the more sparse higher elevated areas.
There are tea houses everywhere so you are guaranteed a comfortable nights
sleep throughout the trek. Also if it’s yaks that you are interested in seeing
then Langtang is the place for you; we saw quite a few of them and apparently
there are no yaks on the Annapurna trails.
But saying that, whatever trek you choose I have no doubt that it’ll be
just as beautiful and awe-inspiring as ours was.
Exotic Mt.Treks: They were very honest and really seemed to want to help us in the best way possible. I'd definitely recommend any travelers to use their services.
Bolle Magar: bollemagar@yahoo.com
He was a highly qualified guide who always had our best interests at heart, he always had a smile on his face and became a good friend during our trek. His English is also great.
Hint: if you book with him directly you will be able to cut out the agent fees and save some money.
A couple of weeks ago myself Jason and Willy decided to go for a hike. Jason teaches right out in the countryside and sees a beautiful mountain everyday from his school. He's wanted to hike it for a while now so that Saturday was the perfect time.
