I got to go to Upper Mustang for almost two weeks with Tara, a guide named Durga, and two other friends...
Upper Mustang is a restricted travel area in Nepal. Permits are $50 per day for a minumum of ten days...so $500. Of course, very little of this money actually goes to the area the permit is for, but that's the way things are sometimes.
The area is a high desert valley made from rivers that flow off of the Tibetan Plateau. It is in a truly magnificent rain shadow. To the south the massive Dhaulagiri and Annapurna ranges put an immediate stop to any moisture trying to sneak up from India. A series of 6,000m peaks barricade any sort of water trying to out flank the valley on the east and west. I found it very intersting to watch the clouds mass their power everyday behind the mountains and then charge in only to provide a light dusting of snow on the high slopes of the leeward side.
Until 40 million years ago, (when India had that accident with Asia), the whole area was a large ocean which is evident by the copious amounts of sea creatures still cruising around the area. It was not uncommon to see a Mustang whale (goat) munching on the plankton (weeds) that litter the barren ocean (hillsides). There were also a lot of fossils.
Culturally, people are more Tibetan than Nepali, but are more independent than either. They are the Lowa people, and the whole area was actually a semi-autonomous kingdom until the 1990's. Mustang valley is a historic trading route between Nepal and Tibet and there are many old forts build to repel raiders as well as protect the route.
These are a few trekking maps of the area:
After a long bus ride from Beni, we started our trek in Jomsom the first evening making our way to Kagbeni.
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| Amanda approaching Kagbeni in the evening. |
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| Nilgiri and the wheat/barley fields in the morning |
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| Tara |
The next day we headed up Chele. I was constantly fascinated by the tortured geology along the way. I bored one walking partner after another with my very amatuer interpretations of what each layer might have been.
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Just outside of Kagbeni
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Entering Tangbe
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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| Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Me: Ah, and here we can see a change in geology....
Mark: Where did I put my cyanide?
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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| A mighty confluence! |
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| Geology! |
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| I liked the little tower in the river. |
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| Approaching Chhusang |
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| More geology! |
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| The outskirts of Chhusang |
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| One of many ancient forts along the way. |
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| Old meets new in Chhusang with a gigantic suspension bridge now integrated into an ancient town. |
From Chele we went to Shyammochen where we met a child laborer working in our hotel. Upon learning this, I was initially very critical and began (nicely) grilling the owners about this set up.
Their story was this: They asked someone they know out west to get them a working man. When they went to go meet the new laborer their friend produced this boy. The boy's father was a drunk, and his mother had married someone else who didn't want the kids from the previous marriage. So she left them with the father. When they met him they said the boy was covered in sores which I attribute to malnutrition. At only seven, the boy knows how to cook and clean because he had to care for his younger brother. I'm not sure what happened to his little brother... The boy we met is a laborer, yes. And the hotel owners don't send him to school (which we told them to try to do), but his stomach is full. The boy laughed a smiled the whole time we were there, and it goes to show that there is always more than meets the eye.
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| Above Chele |
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| I liked the red rock just sticking out. |
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| Just one of the many amazing vistas |
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| One of many passes we would cross |
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| The afternoon wearing on... Amanda, Mark, and our guide about to round the corner. |
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| Nice visuals in the evening. |
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| Enjoying the bone chilling breeze |
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Above Chele
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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More nice visuals
Photo: Tara Upreti |
From Syammochen we rallied all the way to Tsarang.
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A long wall with prayer stones outside of Gami
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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What's this? More geology! and Durga.
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Tara outside of Gami
Photo: Durga |
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A good face is really just expected now...
Photo: Durga |
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Stumbling into Tsarang
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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A chorten outside of Tsarang. Chortens have some significance I'm sure...
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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| On the way to Tsarang |
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| So many different landscapes!! |
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| Durga outside a chorten. |
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| Colorful rocks...Durga and Tara making a run for it before I talk too much about the rocks. |
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| The long prayer wall with some very ominous looking clouds building. |
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| Fluted landscape outside of Gami |
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| A chorten and rocks |
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| Tara and Durga approaching Tsarang in the last sun for the day. |
Tsarang is home to a few different things:
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| A picturesque soccer field |
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| Some buildings and mountains |
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| A normal picture of Ethan |
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| A colorful monastary. |
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Stacks of wood and mountains
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Colorfully painted window frames
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Incredibly inaccessable caves
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Prayer wheels
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Two normal pictures!!!!
Photo: Durga |
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An archway.
Photo: Tara Upreti |
The next day was up to Lo Manthang which was the regional capitol for many, many years. There was very few signs of human existence in between Tsarang and Lo Manthang except for one magnificent chorten and some caves.
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Tourists and chorten
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Durga and chorten
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Tara and chorten
Photo: Durga |
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Durga in cave
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Tara in cave
Photo: Durga |
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Weeeeee!
Photo: Durga |
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How did Ethan get up there?
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Oh, that's how! An entry hole.
Photo: Durga |
We reached Lo Manthang, and spent a day checking out the area around Lo Manthang. We rented horses which was quite a riot! It was my first time on a horse, and I must admit it was very entertaining. I named my horse Natalia, and she was the biggest one they had. Natalia seemed to respond to me well, and immediately she took the lead while the other horse followed. I quickly figured out how to make her stop and turn, and was feeling rather cocky about how quickly I had figured how to control Natalia when she decided to take matters into her own hooves. About 20 minutes into the ride she starts to canter. When I pulled back on the reins she put her head back, shook it, and then took off at a full gallop. This was quite an experience for someone who had never ridden a horse before. I didn't know how to sort of roll use my legs with the gallop so ended up just sort of clinging on for dear life. I tried all sorts of cooing and commands to get her to stop, but she decided not to do that until she wanted to. I was actually pretty terrified- I was worried if I fell which felt likely I would snap my leg in the other stirrup. She missed the turn we were supposed to make, so I got her turned around and back she galloped. My friends just thought I had gotten the hang of it, and was showing off until I asked our horse guide to help me. Natalia got back into line, and I figured out how to actually pull on the reins to make her stop. I also later learned how to use my legs in a gallop, how to make her gallop on command, and how to stop her. The later galloping sessions were much less terrifying.
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| Tara tips her hat like a real cowgirl |
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| Riding the open range |
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A Buddhist gumpa built into some cliffs
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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It was pricey to go inside, so we didn't.
Photo: Durga |
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The horse gang.
Photo: our horse guide |
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Tara, atop Fatty, the name she gave her horse.
Photo: Our horse guide |
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The wind was cold
Photo: Durga |
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Durga was terrified to ride a horse, but had a great time in the end.
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Cruising through a boulder field.
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Arriving back in Lo Manthang
Photo: Tara Upreti |
The next day we rallied off the main tourist trail to a place called Yara. The views along the way were breathtaking.
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| I really thought hese canyong were somthing else. We would cross their upper reaches in the coming days. |
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| The desert has some truly amazing colors. |
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| Approaching Yara there are more and more cliff systems that people dug out of the soft cliffs. |
We spent a day exploring outside of Yara to a place called Yuri. Here there is a gumpa and an amazing cave system. Inside people had built a stupa. They had plastered the walls and done intricate paintings. The paintings are at least 800 years old with Indian influences.
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People had more recently added their own decorations
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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| Photo: Tara Upreti |
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The stupa stands almost 15 feet tall
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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| Walking back to Yara |
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| This Tibetan Mastif was not stoked about me taking a picture near him. |
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| The morning in Yara |
After Yara we crossed a pass at 4,100m and walked to Tengge.
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| Tara and Amanda nearing the top of the pass |
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| Amanda nearing Tengge |
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| Evening falls on Tengge |
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| Looking down river from the roof of our hotel |
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| Tara enjoying the sunlight...and wind. |
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| Someone's been in the bush a bit too long... |
The next day was a long day. We went from Tengge all the way to Chhusang which involved another high pass and then winding along a 4,000m ridge until we dropped 1,000m into Chhusang.
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| Amanda getting to the top of another pass. Looking North towards Tibet |
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| We were getting out just in time. Those clouds looked really dark in the afternoon. |
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| Looking down at a deep canyon and more geology |
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Cool fluting
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Durga and geology
Photo: Tara Upreti |
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Tara and geology
Photo: Durga |
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Durga making her way off the ridge
Photo: Tara Upreti |
The next day we hiked back to Kagbeni with plans to take a bus the next day back to Beni, but this is Nepal. The bus/jeep operators went on strike in the Mustang/Myagdi district which covered the road from Jomsom to Beni. I heard several stories, but the main idea I got is that the jeep/bus committees (which are very mafia like) decided that they lost money when Indian tourists took "Tourist Only" vehicles. They wanted to ban Indian tourists-(Indians are generally not well regarded in Nepal- from taking the tourist vehicles and put them on the committee owned vehicles. So they held a strike to get what they wanted. The funny thing about strikes in Nepal is that the demands are rarely, rarely met. People just eventually decide to randomly lift the strikes. This one was no exception. We ended up catching a ride in the back of a cargo truck for about half of the way to Beni, and the next day hiked to Ghasa. That day around noon, the strike lifted from Ghasa to Beni only, so we got on the first bus out.
Another trip well travelled!
