Trekking in Langtang

Still in Nepal. The lovely China decided to change rules for Tibet-visa, again, actually for the 3rd time since we are here, and this time we would have had to be 4 people of the same nationality in the group going over the border. Well, not going to happen... Not too easy to find 3 finns and 3 polish who want to leave to Tibet on the exact same day as we do. But what ever, one more reason to dislike China and one more reason to stay in Nepal!

And to do some climbing, now also in Hattiban, about 30 min drive away from Kathmando.

But to be stuck for weeks in KTM wasn't really an option so we decided to go to Langtang for trekking. Other option would have been Chitwan, but as we've already been there and it was anyways time to move our lazy asses and maybe get a bit rid of the quickly forming beer belly... So we took a local bus for 9 hours to Suafru Besi where was absolutely no space for legs but apparently space for all the local people wanting to have a ride. We eventually also got there, I was dying on the way a few times, I still can't get used to sitting in a death trap called a bus for hours on the steep serpentine roads. But still, what views we had on the way, amazing!!! This is one of the most beautiful countries I've ever been to for sure.

Early in the morning we left towards Langtang Valley, planning to do a trek for 5-6 days. 3 days up, maybe spending a day in Kyanjin Gomba and then 2 days down. Ha, that's what we thought, but should have know better. We took it easy on the way up, Kate was trying to hurry and do ridiculous days but nope, I'm on holiday and yea maybe we should also acclimatise as we were going to over 4000 meters.

The first surprise was the local plantae. Hmmm...

We stayed in Lama Hotel for the first night, cheap rooms, 200 rupees but the more higher you go, the more expensive the food & drinks are. The most ridiculous was beer for 600 rupees, hell no. But yea, understandable, the people have to carry everything up.

On the second day we reached Langtang village, a small cozy place with an excellent bakery & cheese factory. And the VIEW!!! We thought this is it, but nope, on the next day after 2 hours trek we came to the final destination, Kyanjin Gomba, and yep, it was a place with just ridiculous views, do these kinds of places really exist???

We weren't too tired after the short walk so we started to climb to Kyanjin Ri, a peak in 4700 meters.

Surprisingly our legs felt fine after the 3 days so we thought of going down already on the next day. The plan was to stay one night somewhere on the way but yea, should have know better, of course we walked all the way back to Suafry Besi in one day. At the end it took us 13 hours and we came back in the dark wearing headlamps. Kate's foot was fucked, in all of our feet were quite a few blistered. Bad idea.

Especially as we were stuck in Suafry Besi for a few days coz of a general strike in Nepal. The busses didn't run and the jeeps were either full or the driver didn't want to risk it as there were barricades on the way and people threw rocks at vehicles. On the second day also our little village decided to take part on the event and built “barricades”. Hmmm... And the “mob” was playing cards in the shade...

We managed to get seats on one jeep and it left in the afternoon towards Kathmandu. I was sitting in the front with Kate so it was our job to clear the “barricades” on the way. Well, at the end we only had to move a few rocks. We got back to KTM safe after 5 hours and still here, happy to be in Nepal. Tomorrow I'm off to climb my first multi-pitch in Bimal Nagar with Tashi. Can't wait!!!