LangtangTrek

NEPAL - Langtang Trek - April/May 1998

While in Nepal for a several weeks, my friend Norma and I decided to take a trek in the Langtang area, which is located north of Kathmandu, in the Langtang Valley. It lies on the Tibetan frontier beneath the 23,500 foot peak of Langtang Liruang.

When I arrived in Nepal, I found none of my luggage had come with me. I had one of those flights from hell, where you get delayed and re-booked or standby to get halfway around the world. I had to borrow or buy what I needed in the way of clothing, boots, pack, etc. in order to go on this trek. Norma’s husband Pete loaned me a sleeping bag and then I was set to go.

The trek started and ended in the village of Dhunche. From Kathmandu at 4400 ft. which is the capital of Nepal, we took a bus to Dhunche 6300 ft. We had hired a guide and one porter and off we went. It was a very rough ride on the road to Dhunche and there were four of us in a 30 passenger bus. Mila is our guide and Bhirkna is our porter. Arriving in Dhunche, we stayed the night in the Langtang Teahouse; it had very good food and beds so we slept very well during the night.

Langtang Guest House

The next day we are up early and hiked to Syabru which will be our first night on the trek. We road walked for two hours in the heat of the day, then three hours on a trail. This trail went up long hills with lots of steep steps. I had to rest many times on the steps, actually I am feel odd but made it okay. As we continue next day, we had another long walk which was all downhill with very steep steps. It took us three hours just to get to the river and then uphill again to a teahouse at Landslide. I feel that I am running a very hot fever and am experiencing blurred vision. This is scary to me, so I take out my contacts and have a go with my glasses, this did not help. I made the decision to stay in Landslide at the teahouse as I feel really sick. Norma goes ahead with Mila and Bhirkna stays with me. I slept most of the day, my head was burning hot and I slept all night and woke up with no fever the next morning. I did however have a heavy chest cold.

We were awakened this morning at 5.30 a.m. by a policeman who told us we needed to hike back up the trail and sit for two hours. They were blasting just on the other side of the mountain where they are making a new trail. When the blast came, it did make our side tremble, but no rock or earth came down. We are finally on our way again and arrived at the Hotel Lama (a teahouse). I am tired and coughing. I talked with a French girl who had spoken with my friend Norma and we found out that Norma is in Langtang, so we are just a day behind them. Bhirkna is taking good care of me.

During the night there was lightening and thunder and lots of rain. My chest cold is bad today, hard to breathe and there were lots of steps while climbing, only Nepal has these miserable steps up and down. We only went for half day and stopped at the Ghora Tabela Teahouse. Teahouses are not quite what you would imagine, they are usually a hut and they have some wooden bunks in another room and they serve food. All the teahouses on this trek seem to serve the same menu. Some teahouses as in Dhunche are very good, more like a hotel with good food. There are many differences in teahouses.

While at this teahouse a lady was making Chang (beer) from rice. She also had a sick baby and the Mother had a unique way of clearing the baby’s nose and mouth. She sucked it all into her mouth and then spit it out. There was a man on the couch next to the stove who apparently was the cook for the teahouse. He had passed out from drinking too much Raki, so the cook from the teahouse next door came in and cooked for us.

The Four of us: at Kangjin Gompa; Norma, Marge, Bhirkna and Mila

We have now arrived in the Langtang and I seem to be doing okay, so I slept for an hour and then Bhirkna and I decided to hike on up to the Kangjin Gompa and meet up with Norma and Mila. They came in a half hour later from a day hike and it was good to see them. Norma has been experiencing an upset stomach and dysentery. She took some Cipro and was in bed by 8 p.m. After another day in the Kangjin Gompa we will start our return trek to Dhunche. This was an eleven day trek with an extra day at the start and one at the end for travel.

Last night the bed was really hard so I asked for another pad to put on it to-night. We also had a bucket shower and it felt good. This is a rest day and it has been a relaxing day. We have met a lot of interesting young people all of whom are traveling for a year or more. There are a lot of people on the Langtang trek, some groups with their own tents, but the most are traveling alone or with a friend. The teahouse treks allow you to do this with only a trekking permit, you really do not need a guide, perhaps a porter though if you choose not to carry your own gear. The maps they supply in Dhunche are very good, they show each teahouse and how far apart they are.

To day we started our way back and it is a lazy kind of day. We are heading to Chora Tabela and I am feeling so much better now. We had a great walk with very little energy expended. At lunch we talked to a German group who had trekked from outside of Kathmandu and went over a high pass to reach here. They have been on their way for over two weeks and the Langtang was the end of their trek. They plan to helicopter out from there.

Marge by a small river

We are now back at the same teahouse I stayed in on the way up. The baby is feeling better now and her name is Cherene and the Mother is a Sherpa Lama. The Chang (beer) has to sit one more month before it is ready to drink. We had met up with a Japanese ladies group prior to starting down and one of the ladies had become ill from the altitude, she was put into a Gamo Bag and we thought she was going to be evacuated by a helicopter. However, she is walking down with the aid of a porter and is feeling better as she looses altitude, so they decided to cancel the helicopter. It has been a great day.

We are up early today, and while waiting for the Cook to prepare our breakfast, we came to the conclusion he is not a very clean cook. We watched while he wiped out my breakfast bowl with the hem of his very dirty coat. We had our lunch at another teahouse and then on to Bamboo for the night. I cannot believe I walked all the way up to the top at Kenjin Gomba 12,850 ft and especially when I was feeling so rotten. The rock steps are murderous in themselves. Coming down you have to place each foot carefully, a fall anywhere would be a disaster. Now that we are getting to a lower altitude the weather is warm again and we are back to wearing shorts. We played cards with two very young porters this evening.

A bridge with lots of holes in it, they put big rocks over the holes.

Next day we had a very long and very hot walk to Syabru Bensie. Mila our guide became a little confused and we had to retrace our steps three times, the sun is just frying us. We are coming back a different route in order to catch a local bus and eliminate a big climb back up to Dhunche. Tonight we are in the dirtiest teahouse ever, it is full of flies and everything is really dirty and needs washing. Neither of us wants to sleep on the filthy mattress. I am eating very little here and hope the kitchen does not do us in. Each room has an electric light bulb, the street is very noisy, loud music, kids playing and a village Idiot dancing up and down the street, or maybe he was high on Pot. This was the worst place I have ever stayed and that includes any place in India. During the night some boy or young man kept tapping on our window and the Nepali dogs barked all night. There is a tale about the dogs in Nepal, they bark all night and sleep all day.

Two small boys (porters) whom we played cards with and the dirty teahouse we stayed in.

Next morning we got on the municipal bus at 6.30 a.m. This was an experience; the bus was loaded inside, as well as on the top, and people were hanging on the sides. It was an hour and half ride back to Dhunche and when we arrived and checked in at the Teahouse, the first thing we did was have a hot shower and then a great breakfast.

Next day our Bus ride back to Kathmandu was a long and hot trip. We left at 7.30 a.m. and arrived at 5.p.m. This was the end of our Langtang Trek.

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