2010-09-17-Nepal Jomsom Muktinath

Follow the photographic journey (and some videos too) of the ride to Nepal from flood hit Uttaranchal to the evergreen Nepal plains and foothills and finally to the high altitude barren terrain and high mountain peaks in Annapurna region: Jomsom / Muktinath.

Photos:

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/zenosh/20100917Nepal#

Videos:

Floods in Uttaranchal - http://picasaweb.google.co.in/zenosh/20100917Nepal#5528496168234112738

Swelled up Kali river at the Mahendranagar border -
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/zenosh/20100917Nepal#5528501072770253906

People helping to cross landslide –

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/zenosh/20100917Nepal#5528508412705150706

View from Muktinath -

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/zenosh/20100917Nepal#5528513745095598690

Rains being a dampener this year, I was not really into the ride at the start. Of course I had a great travel companion, Param from Delhi due to which we could go this far on our motorbikes. The start of the ride was brightened up by the amazing aloo parantha’s at Shekhar’s house and meeting up with Jay, Pravo and Shekhar + family. Shekhar and Jay would accompany us till Kiccha for the first day and then head back to Delhi.

Starting the ride with floods in Uttaranchal, rains in Nepal (specially in Pokhara region), crossing slush filled dirt roads and landslides what started off as a ride became an expedition to take our motorbikes to the trail of Jomsom – Muktinath in the Annapurna region.

Finally we had to give in to nature’s fury in a way of unending landslides on the road; parking our bikes at a village guest house we started walking towards our destination, later changing 2 buses (again due to land slides) and finally a jeep ride we reached Muktinath. Weather gods had mercy on us and we got some perfect weather, sunny and clear skies at Jomsom and Muktinath enabling us to enjoy some of the best mountain views of the Himalayas and also a good trek from Muktinath down to Jomsom via Kagbeni.

We also enjoyed our brief stay at Bardia National Park with nice off-roading of around 20 km from the highway with 2 river crossings at night and a pleasant stay at the Bardia N.P Lodge before reaching Pokhara. Chitwan National park on our way back was avoidable since lot of tourists and hotels inside which really put me off – though when on elephant safari we spotted a Rhino mother baby pair.

Pokhara is good as a travel base but quite warm till September. Best time to enjoy Pokhara would be starting October when the winter sets and the skies are crystal clear offering some of the best mountain views even though Pokhara is just 960 mts above sea level. At least when we were there the peak tourist season had not started so it had this small town feeling with not too much crowd. People always greet you with a smiling face and “Namaste” greeting.

We did try our best to go ahead on the Jomsom trail on our bikes, crossing 2 small landslides with the help of some locals, but the final one at Kapre was really huge with the whole mountain side collapsed on the road. The locals also told us that they would life our bikes over the landslide for a price but both of us thought it would be risky so finally decided to go by foot. We even waited out for 2 days at Dana since the locals told us that a bulldozer was on its way to clear the landslide. The bulldozer did come but the same night there was heavy thundershowers washing down our hopes of any work being done to clear the landslide. Instead we came to know later once we went by foot that it caused additional landslides.

The best part of our journey was when we started from Jomsom to Muktinath. We took a Jeep to Muktinath – what a dirt road it was, it would have been a challenge to do it by our motorbikes, but that’s what we had come here for. Unfortunately due to the landslides our bikes were resting at Dana J. We could see snow capped mountain peaks all around and also a peak to the barren Upper Mustang region when on the road. The Jeep travel was uncomfortable since it was local mode of transport and overcrowded but once we got down at Muktinath all our tiredness went away with the crisp cool mountain air and amazing views. We checked in to a very nice hotel with room on top floor with a huge verandah and a terrace. We made the most of it by clicking photos from the terrace and spending quite some time there enjoying the mountain views. In the evening it was a visit to the Muktinath temple complex.

The next day we decided to trek down to Kagbeni via Jharkot and then to Jomsom. It was an awesome experience to see the mountains and the scenery around at the walking pace since you tend to observe a lot more than when you are on the bike. We had a nice time at Kagbeni with Philip from the U.K who was our trekking companion from Jharkot to Kagbeni. We had amazing parantha’s at Yak Donald’s (yes its not Mac Donald’s J ) and then went ahead to explore the Kagbeni village and to see the point after which the restricted area of Upper Mustang starts. The village is a strange complex of tunnels and intermingling houses which I saw for the first time and seems that it is built in such a way to keep most of the village protected against the string winds which start blowing after 1:00 PM.

Now it was already 1:00 PM and bit late to walk in the valley to Jomsom but we carried on. We had to walk through some very strong winds and dust storms, luckily the trail / jeep track was wide enough and the walk was not by the mountain side but in the valley so we could sway few feet here and there without fear of falling down some valleyJ. It was amazing to see a firang family trekking towards Kagbeni with 3 kids. One was so small (maybe less than a year) and they were changing the kid’s diaper when we spotted them. Hats off to the parents for taking the trouble and the risk of trekking with such small kid.

Back to Jomsom and then to Dana by Bus and trekking, we celebrated our completion (well almost) of our journey to Muktinath with couple of games of Carom with the locals and then Beer at Dana (the place where we had left the bikes). We would recommend a stay at Annapurna Lodge at Dana – amazing food and good people. I loved the Tibetan bread and omelet they used to serve.

Next day we had a nice bath at the Tatopani hot springs, 4 kilometers from Dana towards Pokhara. It was the most amazing feeling, within minutes all the aches and pains of trekking over 3 days went away. The body was totally relaxed and revitalized after we came out.

The return journey to Pokhara was easy with the rains stopping and the slush drying up. We took just an hour to reach Beni which earlier on the way had taken us around 5 hours due to endless slush on the road. Even the going from the Nepal border to Delhi was easy going except broken roads from Rampur to Moradabad in U.P.

On this ride we met some wonderful people and mainly overland travelers who had travelled via Europe through Central Asia, Pakistan, and India before finally making it to Nepal. They interested me specially and I was all eager to extract maximum information from them since it’s my dream to do Central Asia overland via Pakistan.

We met Matt – a cyclist from New Zealand who had cycled from Iran, Pakistan and then into India to Nepal. We crossed path couple of times in the journey first at Pokhara then Dana, Muktinath and then again at Pokhara where we finally had dinner together and heard his interesting travel stories – one which interested me the most was how he managed to pull through in Pakistan when he was down with Dengue and was treated at a public hospital there, and then was confined to his room for almost 10 days recovering. Such things are unfortunate to happen when you are travelling but it does make you a tough nut to crack in such instances in future and does make you a better traveler.

Another instance was of Bernhard from Austria who has been travelling on his BMW Paris Dakar motorcycle since 2 years and had come overland via Central Asia and Pakistan, to India and finally Nepal. We met him at Raju mechanic at Pokhara. He also had fascinating tales to tell. Some time back he had a very bad accident in Andhra Pradesh and had to be hospitalized for 10 days and a month of recovery – he got lot of help from the locals during that time.

On the whole a good trip and a nice introduction to a new country Nepal. I will surly return here again to explore further the dirt roads and the challenging trekking trails in future.

Ride Distances:

Total Km: 2370 km (Odometer: 48600 -50970 km)

#	Day	Date	Places	Distance
1	Fri	17-Sep	Train to Delhi - 4 PM	Train
2	Sat	18-Sep	Delhi - Kiccha	Delhi - Pokhara via Mahendranagar approx 950 km (Should be doable in 3 Days)
3	Sun	19-Sep	Kiccha - Bardia
4	Mon	20-Sep	Bardia - Butwal
5	Tue	21-Sep	Butwal - Pokhara
6	Wed	22-Sep	Pokhara Rest	Rest
7	Thu	23-Sep	Pokhara - Beni - Ratopani	Pokhara - Beni  = 85 km Beni - Ratopani = 22 km Total = 107 km
8	Fri	24-Sep	Ratopani - Kapre - Dana	Ratopani - Tatopani = 3 km Tatopani - Kapre - Dana = 17 km Total = 20 km
9	Sat	25-Sep	Dana rest	Rest
10	Sun	26-Sep	Dana - Jomsom	Trek (4 hours) + 3 Buses (4 hours)
11	Mon	27-Sep	Jomsom - Muktinath	Jeep (2 1/2 hours)
12	Tue	28-Sep	Muktinath - Kagbeni - Jomsom	Trek (6 hours)
13	Wed	29-Sep	Jomsom - Dana	2 Buses (3 hours) + Trek (3 hours)
14	Thu	30-Sep	Dana - Pokhara	Dana - Tatopani = 6 km Tatopani - Beni = 23 km Beni - Pokhara = 85 km Total = 114 km
15	Fri	01-Oct	Pokhara rest	Rest
16	Sat	02-Oct	Pokhara - Chitwan	Pokhara - Mugling = 96 km Mugling - NarayanGarh = 38 km NarayanGarh - Chitwan = 19 km Total = 153 km
17	Sun	03-Oct	Chitwan - Kusum	Chitwan - NarayanGarh = 21 km NarayanGarh - Kusum = 301 km Total = 322 km