Heavenly Path

We started off quite early on our trek. Al had brought quite a sensible sized bag with him but, although we had managed to leave loads of our usual load behind, we were still both carrying quite heavy bags. Our hotel owner in Kathmandu had told us that there would be mosquitos on the trek, although no malaria, but it already seemed obvious that this was nonsense as the temperature in Syabrubese was already several degrees cooler than Kathmandu.

Weeds

Joanne and Al on the Heavenly Path

Walking through the village on the way to the main path up the valley, there was lots more of the “heavenly path” graffiti as well as lots of possible clues as to what it all meant, I thought: in the town there had been a few, but all the way along the route there were cannabis plants growing wild. Loads of them, scattered all over the place, growing like – well – weeds. In some sections there were huge patches just off the path and in others they were growing in a row down the middle of the path. Heavenly Path indeed!

First glimpse of high peaks

The walking was not too difficult, but our bags were too heavy and we hadn't done much exercise lately so we struggled a bit, especially Joanne.

Undergrowth next to the path

We had to get from about 1500m to 2470m. This was probably going to be the hardest day so I kept reminding her to pace herself since she kept going fast for a while then needing to stop completely for about as long. It wasn't necessary to go particularly fast, since we seemed to passing through the little villages in good time but Al was setting the pace a bit faster than us with his light bag. The scenery was very pleasant and reminded a lot more of Scotland than I expected. Much of the walking was through forest, along beside a river. Every now and then we got peeks at higher peaks, though, and you knew it definitely wasn't Scotland. Since we seemed to be making such good time, we stopped off a couple of the little villages for tea. Actually, most of the villages don't really have much to them except one or two tea houses. The tea house owners were all really friendly, but clearly desperate for business; they always ran out as we were passing and begged us to stop for tea or, better yet, food. We passed only a few other tourists walking in the other direction, but quite a few locals, most of them carrying huge packages strapped round their foreheads and hung down their backs. It doesn't look like a particularly comfortable way to carry anything, but they seem able to carry huge loads like that. Even these people with the huge loads still took the time (and energy) to say “namaste” as they puffed past.

The approach to Landslide

Al approaching Landslide

Our target for lunch had been a place called Landslide Lodge at a “village” simply called Landslide. We stopped for tea at a place we assumed was still some distance before Landslide, but there was a sign nearby which said “Landslide Hotel” on it. We asked the owner if it was Landslide and he said “Yes, this Landslide. This hot spring. This everything”. We knew there was a hot spring somewhere on the route, but it sounded just a bit like he was trying to be all things to all people in fact he'd almost said as much. Not long after he said it, though, there was a thunderous noise and a cascade of rocks poured down the hill and over the path, where we had just been walking. Did he have a friend up there to kick rocks down to help convince tourists this was Landslide?

View from inside the tea house at Landslide

There were several different signs around, and the sign in front of the building did not match the name above the door, and this did not match the name on the menu. We had begun monitoring the menus to try and get an idea of what the prices were doing. As expected they had jumped as soon as we left Syabrubese, so we quickly noted established a few benchmark items through which we could gauge each place. The daal bhaat index and the momo index has only risen slightly so far, but the beer index had already jumped past the affordable level. We left the place of many names, expecting to continue for maybe an hour before lunch but, just round the corner from this guy who had been pleading with us to stay for lunch, was Landslide Hotel.

View from Landslide

We stopped there for lunch but felt a little guilty since we were only just out of sight of the last place. The owner of Landslide Hotel was holding a printout and frowning. He asked Al if he could help him translate “because I'm not an educated man”. It was an email in English from someone in Germany who had run out of money, saying that he had transferred what he owed to the owner's bank account. However the email was about two years old! Had he been sitting there for two years trying to work out what the email said? Al and I both had momos, which were very nice, and Joanne had a disappointing noodle soup thing. Unfortunately buff momos were not on the menu, but the veg ones were very nice: spinach and garlic. I had ordered a raksi just to find out what it was and because it was cheap. As I'd been hoping it was alcoholic: it's locally produced millet wine, so it doesn't have the huge premium added to beer to pay for the porters to carry it up the valley. When it came to pay the bill he asked us to write it down and add it up. Very trusting, but I suppose he has little choice if he's as uneducated as he claims. Just as we were getting ready to go some animal moved around in the bushes. He pointed it out to us and told us we were very lucky. I didn't get a good enough look to be sure what it was, but there are red pandas in the area, as well as various monkeys. I'm sure it was one of the two.

Joanne at Bamboo

Not long later we were at Bamboo, where we stopped again for tea. This was the last place before our final destination so we seemed to be making great time, however referring to the guidebook revealed that we had not yet clocked up even half the day's ascent. We had started to notice that the menus were fairly generic and most of them did not say the name of the tea house they were in, in fact most of them said the name of a tea house or hotel further up the valley. We later realised that the places at the top of the valley must pass their the menus on down the valley each time they have a new one printed; this way the further down the valley you are, you older the prices are you are paying. At the bottom the menus must be about four years old.

Nice forest path

Joanne carrying her heavy bag

The rest of the day's trek was quite a hike. Quite steep sections, although not once did it get anywhere near the sort of difficult terrain you have to tackle on an average day's hillwalking in Scotland; apart from anything else the trail was a huge built highway by Scottish standards. The weather held out for the whole day and, although it was quite cloudy at times, there was no rain at all. We eventually got to Rimche at 2470m, where we had been thinking of staying, rather than going on to the “big town” of Changtang, known as Lama Hotel, which the Lonely Planet trekking guide had decreed was the end of the first day. We had to be a little bit careful about altitude from the following day on, but we weren't high enough to have to worry yet. However Lama Hotel is lower than Rimche, so we would be getting a head start on the acclimatisation and staying in a smaller, nicer, we expected, place. Rimche is split into Lower and Upper Rimche and we almost ended up stopping too soon when an owner swore blind that we were in Rimche.

The river we follwed up the valley

However we had the name of the place we were heading to: Ganesh View, which was actually still quite a climb from Lower Rimche. As we approached a sign said “Best shower on the Langtang – a customer” which sounded like an awfully nice idea. Most of the day people had been offering us free rooms if only we would stay, therefore eating and drinking with them. Some actually sounded like they just wanted the company and several of them said they were very bored with no tourists. So we tried it here and it paid off: as long as we kept our voices down she would give us the room for free. The two Americans, who had been on top of the bus with us and spoke Nepali were already there and presumably not getting their room for free. We almost completely failed to make conversation with them and in the end gave up. They were about as friendly as Indians. One by one we took a shower and amazingly the solar shower had enough water for all five of us, and it was still hot at the end. In fact it was so hot that you needed to add some cold water. Electricity was there but very limited as that is also entirely solar. Ganesh View was a lovely place, with beautiful views down the valley and up towards some of the higher peaks. One of the few things the Americans did say to us was to tip us off that daal bhaat was the menu option to go for if you wanted value for money. Joanne and Al both ordered it, but I couldn't resist more momos, which were delicious again. The daal bhaat was certainly good value and came with a free refill of both rice and daal. I made a particularly good discovery there: mustang coffee, which was only Rs60 compared to about Rs250 for a beer, has a large slug of local spirit in it, mustang I suppose, which is probably distilled raksi. Mustang coffees have all the warming qualities of an Irish coffee or a hot toddy. And we felt quite chilly that night, so we needed a few.

Ganesh View

Rimche, Nepal