Summer 2018 – in August, we went to Nepal for short trekking in Mustang district. Summer time is not an ideal time to visit Nepal, it was in the middle of monsoon season with rainy days and frequent landslides. Despite, we had a really good time, Mustang has an amazing landscapes, rich in culture and spirituality.
Mustang is part of Gandaki Province in northern Nepal, which straddles between Himalayas and extends northward onto the Tibetan Plateau. It is one of the remotest areas in Nepal and is second in terms of the sparsity of population. It is a popular area for trekking which can be visiting year round regardless the season – main reason we visited Mustang in August.
Wikipedia
We had a lot of good memories from our Mustang’s journey and one of the best memory was during our journey from Kagbeni to Muktinath – 1 hour journey in our mini kancil car, the taxi.
It was our 5th day walking the Lower Mustang and we just back from half day trekking to Tiri, a small village opposite Kagbeni. After Tiri, we were planning to visit Muktinath, a home for the world’s highest temples which located at the foot of the Thorong La mountain pass, Annapurna Region. The temples complex is unique, it is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhist. Within Hinduism, it is known as Mukti Kshetra, which means the place of liberation. While Buddhists call it Chumig Gyatsa which in Tibetan means hundred waters.
The distance between two villages, Kagbeni to Muktinath is only 10 km, but we would ascend to 3800 m from 2810 m, or at least 4-5 hours walk due to 1000 m altitude difference. Three of us were so tired and the weather that day was not really good. After lunch in our tea house, we decided to rent a taxi instead of walking to Muktinath.
The tea house owner helped us to find the taxi which costed us 2000 NRP (~ 200 k IDR) for 1 hour journey to the shangri-La, Muktinath.
Karsang-Cici’s new friend, a 15th yo girl who worked in the tea house, walked us to the village entrance. Our taxi was waiting there. Suddenly, a woman and a little boy, approaching us and talked to our driver in Hindi. Apparently the boy – his son, needs to go to Muktinath and the mother asked if his son can joined our taxi.
Quickly, our driver asked our permission, and just like that the boy came with us – with strangers, alone. Cici was quickly became friends despite both of them can’t understand each other languages. They were sharing the Tibetan bread for snack – Cici’s favourite food.
Few kilometers from Kagbeni, suddenly we heard someone calling from distance. The driver stopped the car in the middle of the road. There was someone wearing monk robe was running from the hill. The monk talked to our driver in Nepali, apparently the monk needs a lift also . Once again, the driver asked our permission in English and once more we had a new friend in our kancil.
Turned out, our new friend is a monk from Tibet. He is very friendly, talkative and he speaks English fluently. He told us that he just finished his solo trekking of Annapurna Circuit, alone, with no support, no bag, no food, only wearing his fake TNF fleece jacket, balaclava, sandal and his iPad ! My first reaction was : he is crazy. Our family went to Annapurna in November 2016 and I should admit it was not an easy journey.
The Annapurna Circuit trek graded as a moderate to difficult level trek around Annapurna mountain ranges. The total distance covers about 160 to 230 km or about 15 to 20 days long. The highest point in this trek is Thorung La pass at 5416 m asl, and crossing the pas is considered difficult and dangerous. Also, monsoon season with heavy rainfall made the paths are muddy and slippery, Annapurna circuit would be double challenging during the monsoon.
How come this monk can survive from all of those ?
The monk eagerly showed us the pictures of his Annapurna adventure on his iPad. He told us the story of his Annapurna and our taxi was full of laughter, hearing his near death experience in Thorongla pass. He made the Annapurna Circuit trek looks very easy and fun journey.
He told us about his next plan to stay for a few days in Muktinath temple before going back to Tibet. Again, he made it looks very easy even though we suspect he doesn’t have any money or even any papers – passport and visa.
Sadly we arrived Muktinath and the boy and the monk walked us to our hotel before we part our ways and say goodbye.
It’s always fun when you get to go somewhere new and you get to meet new people and hear their stories. Everyone has a story to tell.
Wow teh. Aku agak penasaran juga dengan daerah Nepal. Dan kenapa penduduknya pipinya suka kemerahan, bajunya juga tebal2
Kalau pipi merah karena high altitude Andina, jadi kaya sunburn gitu sebenarnya. Kalau baju tebal juga karena dingin. Kaya di Mustang ini biar lagi summer tetep dingin. Tapi ini orang-orang yang di daerah pegunungan aja, kalau di kota kaya di Pokhara atau Kathmandu normal-normal aja.
Summer tapi jalanan becek karena moonsoon ya, mirip dengan di Thailand juga ya, sering ada Summer Storm atau hujan dadakan yang sebelumnya matahari terik menyengat.
Itu monk nya gampang trekking kemana-mana karena sendirian aja dan ga bawa backpack besar kayaknya. Apalagi kalau sehari-harinya emang sering jalan jarak jauh kan.
Tapi lucu juga konsep taksinya, mirip juga dengan di Thailand, kita bisa sharing dengan orang lain. Apalagi kalau monk, biasanya orang-orang kayak segan menolak gitu.
Nah iya, Thailand juga sama ya Risna, Malaysia yang peninsula juga gitu, tiba-tiba hujan dadakan.
Super emang si Monk ini, hidupnya beneran ga ada beban.
Oh lupa diceritain, kita terkagum-kagum lho sama supir taksi, karena dia polyglot haha. Bahasa Inggrisnya bagus, Hindi, Nepali dan bisa Urdu juga.
Selalu wow, terkagum-kagum sama travel notes-nya teh May. Tapi tetep ga pengen ngikutin jejaknya, secara aku ga mau sengsara. Faktor U ni, kayaknya… 🤔 Hihihi… 😁
Hihi I feel you Teh Alfi, kita juga setelah pandemi ini belum kemana-mana lagi. Mau ke Yogya aja banyaknya yang dipikiran, faktor U memang 😀
May, kamu berapa kali sih ke Nepal dan tetangga-tetangganya? Kayaknya daerah sana emang tujuan favorit ya? Suka deh baca cerita-ceritanya 🙂
Ke Nepal dua kali, trus India juga dua kali, tapi beda daerah semua Dea. Tujuan favorit karena suka daerahnya dan murah dari KL. Maksud hati pengen juga ke Europe gitu tapi mahal hehe.
Banyak nih cerita yang belum ditulis, nanti kutulis lagi ya