Trekking in the Langtang National Park

by Vincent

The hike starts in the forest.

The teahouse where we slept the second night, close to Langtang village.

On the second day, we got closer to the high peaks...

Tamang woman. Is she small or am I a giant?

Little Tamang boy

Prayer wheels. Always walk on the left!

Typical Tibetan house in Langtang village.

A woman and her baby walking along a Mani wall. Prayers are inscribed on it.

Porter, a really hard and common job in the mountains of Nepal.

Yak Yak Yak!

Tibetan Buddhist mantras in front of the beautiful mountain of Gang Chhenpo (6388m)

The impressive south face of Kimshung (6781m), viewed from the village of Kyanjin Gompa.

Walking in the Lirung valley, on the way to the glaciers

Langtang Lirung (7246m) dominates the valley

Following the river upstream to Langshisha Kharka

Berit walking towards the huge ice/snow block of Pemthang Karpo Ri (6830m), marking the border with Tibet

Langtang Lirung (7246m) hidden in the afternoon clouds

Climbing up to Kyanjin Ri, the view gets better and better...

Summit! We are only at 4619m but Langtang Lirung (7246m) seems so accessible. It's more than 2500m higher!

Langtang Lirung (7246m) and Kimshung (6781m)

Women at work in Thulo Syabru

The view on rice terraces from Thulo Syabru

Meeting happy kids on the way to Sing Gompa

The amazing view from Laurebina Yak, from left to right: Annapurnas (8091m), Manaslu (8156m, the eighth highest mountain in the world), Ganesh Himal (7422m) and the mountains of Tibet.

Gosainkund, the holy lake at 4400m

Better not to try to walk on it...

A sadhu we met next to Gosainkund lake. He came from Cachemire in India by foot and planned to stay 3 years there. "But it's god who decides!"

Rhododendrons. We can see a lot of them in spring time.

A trip to Nepal requires to visit the mountains of Himalaya and there is no better way than trekking to do so. Since I heard about the Himalayas in my young days, I always dreamt of exploring them. And this was also one of the main goals of this travel. We hesitated a moment between going to the Annapurnas or Langtang for our trek and we finally chose Langtang which sounded like a little hidden paradise.

No guide. No porters. 90% of the tourists in Nepal go trekking with a guide but, honestly, it is quite useless in the regions where you can do teahouse trekking such as the Annapurnas, the Solo-Khumbu (the region of the Everest) and the Langtang, except maybe if you have no experience in walking in the mountains. Even if there are no signs, it's generally very easy to find the tracks and there is always someone to help you anyway. Walking in the Himalayas is not more complicated than in the Alps or the Pyrenees. For teahouse trekking, the only thing you need is a small backpack with some warm clothes, a rain jacket, a map, a compass and a Uno game.

The Langtang National Park is located north of Kathmandu, just next to the border with Tibet, within a day's drive of the capital, and includes the Langtang Valley, the sacred lakes of Gosainkund and the farmland of Helambu. When you go to Langtang, the first adventure is to get there by bus. It's hard to imagine how any bus can take 10 hours to cover 115km! We had our seats in the first row, just next to the driver, which gave us the best position for some adrenaline rushes. The beginning of the road is quite OK but it gets worse and worse, more narrow, without asphalt and with high cliffs. It was really scary and dangerous. Sometimes, we were even wondering how a Jeep would pass on the road, and we were inside a bus! On top of that, the driver (who was using just one hand to drive, was talking with his friends behind him and was calling with his mobile phone) was constantly turning with the left wheel just on the edge of the cliff and I don't know how many times we thought we would fall down the cliff. We were actually checking if there were buses at the bottom which had fallen before... When we finally got to Syabrubesi, our destination and starting point of the trek, the first thing we thought about was to find a way to come back by Jeep.

We spent the first three days to walk up the narrow valley of Langtang to Kyanjin Gompa, the last village of the valley, at 3900m. By following the river upstream, it offered us the opportunity to explore small villages and pass through forests of pine, bamboo and rhododendrons, ascending pastures to arrive to an alpine landscape, surrounded by high snowy peaks. It's possible to spot monkeys, red pandas, snow leopards, many yaks and even the Yeti... Well, we saw only yaks and a few monkeys. This isolated region is inhabited by Tamangs whose religion practices, language and dress are very similar to Tibetan.

During those first three days, we also founded the "Uno clan" with an English couple, a guy from Finland and a girl from Ukrain. We met every evening at a teahouse and played together with others tourists and guides. We had some very funny nights! Teahouse trekking is a really nice and easy way to explore the mountains. The only problem for me was the food. One day, I ordered lasagna and got something which didn't look at all like lasagna. My stomach got quite bad the next two days and I couldn't eat the food from the lodges anymore. The only thing that attracted me was Snickers bars!

From Kyanjin Gompa, we did three excursions. I first went alone up the Lirung valley to see the huge glaciers of Lirung and Kimshung. Then, we went on a day trip to the end of the valley, at Langshisha Kharka, which offered us a spectacular mountain view in a very peaceful and quiet environment. We met almost nobody except yaks. That place is said to be the site where a lama found his lost yak he was running after, leading to the valley being named "Langtang" ("Lang" is Tibetan for "yak" and "teng" means "to follow"). The last excursion we did was a climb of a peak next to Kyanjin Gompa called Kyanjin Ri where we had fantastic views of all of the high mountains around.

Then we walked down almost all the way to our starting point and climbed steeply again to the holy lakes of Gosainkund, at 4400m. The lakes were still frozen and surrounded by snowy mountains. The place was really beautiful and allowed us to enjoy an amazing Himalayan panorama at Laurebina Yak: from West to East we had the Annapurnas, the Manaslu (8156m), the Ganesh Himal, the peaks of Tibet and the Langtang Lirung! Just that! The last day, we went down to Dhunche to take our Jeep to Kathmandu with the English couple we had met during the trek.

We spent 9 days trekking in Langtang and we can only recommend it. It was a beautiful region which offers a wide variety of landscapes with a Tibetan culture and many options for side trips.

Berit had the wonderful idea to offer me a GPS for Christmas and I immediately couldn't stop using it during the trek. So here are some statistics of our 9 days in Langtang National Park...

Trip length: 137km
Total ascent: 11456m
Max elevation: 4619m

Here is the map of the trek in Google Maps:

Display the map in Google Maps

From Varanasi to Kathmandu: an experience of crossing the India-Nepal border

by Vincent

First step: the train from Varanasi to Gorakhpur. Up to 27 people in a compartment for 8.

After another crazy trip by taxi, we are passing the Indian border with our new Danish-Hungarian friends. It's 2am.

We passed the Indian immigration but the Nepalese office is closed. Only one solution: sleeping outside on the floor!

Bus ride to Kathmandu. We are almost there! 

Inside the bus, there is always a kind of mini-temple for protecting the driver and the passenger. Indeed, we need that protection.

There is less than 500km between Varanasi, in India, and Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. In France, it would take 4 or 5 hours for a similar trip by car, and even less by train. Here, we needed 24 hours!

After a rickshaw form our hotel to the train station, we waited some time for our train to Gorakhpur, the closest city to the border you can go by train. Our train number didn't appear on the departure screen so we asked to a policeman who told us to wait next to him, together with a Danish-Hungarian couple who were in the same situation and were also going to Kathmandu. At 5pm, our train finally arrived and we sat in our compartment. "Sleeper class", as usual (I could write a whole article just about train classes in India. There are so many and their names generally don't make sense at all, like for example "AC Three Tier"). So far, we had been quite lucky with trains in India. Before to start our travel, we had the image of trains completely full, with people on the roof and some others people hanging out of the train. It probably happens sometimes but we have never seen that. But that time, it was quite close to be like that. A compartment in a "Sleeper class" is normally for 8 people but we counted up to 27 people in ours!

Anyway, we arrived on time in Gorakhpur and met again the Danish-Hungarian couple. We had decided to travel together to Kathmandu. It was more than 10pm and we had two options: sleeping in that ugly city and not being sure to make it to Kathmandu the next day, or taking a bus or taxi immediately to the border (a city called Sunauli). We chose the second option. We had heard that there was maybe a bus at that time of the day to the border but after looking for it during 15 minutes, we gave up and decided to go with a Jeep taxi after a long time bargaining the price we would pay. When we agreed on the price, we thought we would leave but the driver wanted his Jeep to be full before to go. So he looked for some others passengers during almost 30 minutes, continuously yelling "Sunauli!" in the street.

The driver was really driving like crazy and way too fast. We were used to crazy driving after one month in India but that time, it was too much and too dangerous (and I forgot to say that in India and Nepal, by night, everybody drives with the full lights so you don't see anything when there is another vehicle in the other direction). Berit tried to tell him to slow down but he just answered by some laughings and repeated "Haha, slow slow!" while making fun of us with the others Indian passengers. We got quite angry and told him "Slow or no money". We had to say it a couple of times and finally, it entered in his head and he slowed down. We arrived at the India-Nepal border in the middle of the night, at around 2am.

One more time, we had two options: sleeping in a hotel on the Indian side, or trying to pass the border (which, according to our guidebook was open 24 hours). Since we were tired, we decided for a hotel but after ringing and knocking during 5 minutes without response at the door of the only hotel we found in Sunauli, we changed our mind.

On the Indian side, we found a small wooden house with an almost invisible sign "Border office". It had no door but just a curtain and behind, we found two guys sleeping and snoring under mosquito nets. We felt a bit bad but after a few "Excuse me" or "Hello", we managed to wake them up. They stamped us out of India and then we happily walked to the Nepalese office, a hundred meters away. We found a house looking a bit more like a house than the Indian office. We knocked at the door. No answer. So we insisted and after a while we heard somebody saying something from inside. But nobody came. We knocked again and again and finally somebody came, opened quickly the window, just the time to say that the office would open at 6am. We were stuck in the territory between India and Nepal. We couldn't come back to India, and we couldn't enter in Nepal. We had no other option but to spend the night there, outside on the floor, next to the door of the Nepalese office. And on top of that, it was not so warm and mosquitos were waiting for us!

We didn't really manage to sleep and were so happy when, at 5.30am, a guy came to open the door. Twenty minutes later, we all had our Nepalese Visa and at 6.30am (Nepalese time. There is a ridiculous 15 minutes difference with India), we were in the bus, ready to leave for Kathmandu that we would reach after a 10 hours ride.

A border is just an abstract line but by passing from India to Nepal, we immediately saw the difference in the physic of the people, the architecture, the cleanness and the organization. Nepalese people look like a mix of Indian, Chinese and Thai. Regarding the cleanness and organization, it was a big change as well. We had the impression to come back in a civilized country whereas most of the people arriving directly from Europe to Kathmandu would probably think the contrary.

But regarding the driving, it's quite similar. It was impossible to sleep in the bumpy bus which stopped at every place it was possible to stop on the way, picking up people, newspaper, letters, food, chickens and many others things to transport them from village to village. The bus was full of everything and a dozen of people were seated on its roof.

Like in India, the mentality is completely different compared to Europe when it comes to driving (but not only driving of course). Here, you don't wait to have space or visibility when you want to overtake. You just overtake, press the horn constantly and will happen what will happen. There is almost always a car, a bus, a truck, a motorcycle or a cow coming from the other direction, when it's not all of them in the same time. But by miracle, everything goes well and we manage to pass. I don't know how many times we tried to catch anything possible in a bus or a car (because of course there is no security belt) when we saw a big truck coming fast towards us, sure that we would unavoidably have an accident. Oh! and I forgot to say that this time, we were driving on high cliffs!

After 10 hours, we arrived in Kathmandu. One more taxi to Thamel (the touristic center) and we were at our hotel. It was almost 5pm. After a rickshaw, a train, a Jeep, a night outside on the floor nowhere between India and Nepal, a crazy bus ride and a taxi, we arrived to our destination, 24 hours after the start of our journey...

Varanasi, the holy city on the banks of the Ganga

by Vincent

People preparing the daily aarti celebration

A lot of people watching the aarti

The aarti show: 4 or 5 guys doing strange movements/dances with instruments and fire. Nice but a bit always the same after 20 minutes.

Colourful women in the audience

Indians chilling out at a tea shop

Boat ride on the Ganga. You can't leave Varanasi without doing it!

Varanasi ghats viewed from the Ganga

People washing

People doing strange religious things (quite usual in India)

A cobra charmer. Since I saw a photo in our guide, I was hoping to see one. Better not to stay too close...

One of the various sadhus we met on the ghats. This one is a "competition one".

Our daily food in India: curry with rice and Naan. Delicious!

After another night in a train from Haridwar, we arrived in Varanasi (also known as Benaras), our last destination in India. We had heard of Indian trains being 15 hours or even one day late but we have to say that our experience was really good (and probably a bit lucky too). All of the trains we have taken were on time! For that one, we had to be told by our neighbours that we were in Varanasi whereas we were expecting to arrive 3 hours later!

Located on the banks of the Ganga and famous for its ghats, Varanasi is probably the holiest city for Hindus. A lot of them come there for their last pilgrimage, to be burnt on the ghats and have their ashes thrown in the Ganga, which is the best end you can have in Hindu religion. The cremation ghat is a very strange experience. During all day, a dozen of bodies are constantly burnt. Dead bodies, rolled in a white sheet, are put down on a first layer of wood logs. Then, they add one more layer of logs on top and start the fire. All around the cremation ghat, there are tons of wood waiting and I don't describe you the smell... For the respect of dead people and families, it is not allowed to take pictures.

The cremation ghat is just one among many along the Ganga. All of them are different and some have their speciality: temple, evening celebration (aarti), etc... It is really nice to take a walk and pass all of them, watching all types of activities: buffalos having a bath, people washing themselves or some clothes, kids playing cricket (and losing the ball in the water every time), people praying or having Chai, etc...

When you walk on the ghats, every 50m you have a guy proposing you a boat ride. They always say "Boat, mister?" or "Boat, madam?". However, it is not clear for everybody. We saw a German traveler who was telling to one of them: "But I don't want a goat, what do you want me to do with a goat?". Hehe :)

On our second day, we wanted to go to a cafe recommended in the Lonely Planet. Its name was "Brown Bread Bakery". After some troubles looking for it, we eventually found it and had a breakfast there. As described in our guide, the cafe was also running a NGO called "Learn for life" to help poor children of the city. When we went off the cafe, we walked 10m up the street and saw another cafe called "Brown Bread Bakery". When we entered to ask if they had a NGO called "Learn For Life" (in order to check if it was the real one or not), they told us "Yes" and they added that their cafe was the original one. We had the same speech from the other cafe. Today, we still don't know which one is the authentic one. That kind of things happen only in India. This is India. Incredible India!

Lakshman Julha (Rishikesh)

by Vincent

Lakshman Julha viewed from our room

The pedestrian only suspended bridge. In fact, many motorbikes take it as well.

Being a blond girl in India is like being a celebrity.

Yoga, meditation, massage, etc...

Funny monkey face

Celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Krishna

A guy making Chapatis

Sadhus. It's always hard to know if sadhus in the street are "real sadhus" or homeless people who became "fake sadhus" to be able to get some donations.

Streets of Lakshman Julha

With Francoise and Ramu, who is from the family where we stayed in Nokha.

Big fire for Holi festival!

Our faces after Holi...

Night train in India. Sleeper class! Not very comfortable with all the bags but OK.

After 18 hours and a night in the train from Nokha, we arrived at Haridwar, in the Nort-West of India. From there we took a bus to Rishikesh and then a short rickshaw to arrive in Lakhsman Julha. Famous among western people for its ashrams, meditation and yoga center (there was the international yoga festival when we were there), Lakshman Julha is a small and quiet place located on the shores of the Ganga, in the mountains, at the very beginning of the Himalayas, not so far from peaks over 7000m. The Beatles also contributes to make Lakshman Julha famous since they stayed a couple of months in an ashram where they wrote the White Album.

But when you arrive in Lakshman Julha, you wonder if it's the world capital of yoga or of rafting. There are rafting agencies everywhere! We stayed a few days there, enjoying the calm and the tranquility after the chaos of the others places we had been in India. We spent our days relaxing on the beach, on the terrasses of restaurants, cafes and "German bakeries" (for some reason, there are a lot of "German bakeries" in touristic places of India but it has nothing to do with a real German bakery). My parents, who had stayed there a week before, had booked for us a very nice room in a hotel with a great view of the Ganga.

Another occupation in Lakshman Julha is to observe the others tourists. Some of them are quite funny. It is full of western people on a kind of pilgrimage who went to an ashram for a month or so to do yoga, to meditate, or to think about life. Most of them are dressed with large and colorful pants and shirts that are sold everywhere in India. Maybe they want to try to look local like that? However, there is absolutely no Indian wearing that kind of clothes! Indians living in Lakshman Julha must think that all western people have long hair, rastas and piercing!

It's crazy what love can make you do: Berit managed to convince me to take part in a yoga class! She also tried an ayurvedic massage but she wasn't really satisfied even if it was better than the torture of Nokha.

We also met Francoise, the cousin of my father I had never met before, who organized our stay in the Indian family. She lives in Lakshman Julha a couple of months per year and knows everybody. Everybody knows her as well. She was really nice and it was good to have the advices of a local!

On our last day, it was Holi, one of the biggest Hindu festival of the year. Holi is the festival of colors: during that day, people throw scented powder and paint to each other. We got prepared and bought some very cheap white clothes for the occasion. After less than 5 minutes, we were covered of paint! It was really funny in the streets where its was like a "paint war". People were hiding in balconies and where throwing buckets of paint on passengers (and of course tourists were the favorites targets...). After some time being the victims, we came back to our hotel and that time, from the balcony, we were the ones who trew buckets! Verry funny festival!