Lho-manthang or Lomanthang is also called ‘the walled city’. There is a wall that separates dwelling area from the field where normally there are no houses. Inside the walled city or the dwelling area, there is a palace and king therefore Upper Mustang is also denoted as the kingdom inside the kingdom. But these many things are not that active in practical these days since the kingship abolished from Nepal. Yet, the local people here in Upper Mustang respect so much to the king and his orders are highly respected. You can visit the king!
Explore each and every item of your interest. The delicately displayed handmade old paintings are a bit intricately but so much meaningful of life and after. The architectural design of each monastery is very unique and beautiful.
Itinerary
Airport reception and transfer to hotel in Thamel. Room check in is followed with welcome drinks. Later brief Q&A and free time.
Before visiting the mountain a bridging day of city and mountain. And the day turns to be amazingly interesting when your tour leader brings you to explore some of the amazing and old parts of the Kathmandu valley. The tour majorly focuses of observing the temples, statues, palaces, gates, courtyards, bells and you name it…
Return from the exploration and enjoy free time until dinner. Within this time we request you to check your trek gears and other things. If anything is running short, Kathmandu is the best places to add up. Later go for the ‘Welcome dinner’ in a typical Nepali restaurant for traditional Nepalese food.
After breakfast, we board on a privately reserved Toyota Hiace and drive to Bandipur. Bandpur is a old Newari town situated on a hilltop that provides amazing wide panoramic view of snow mountains and the trip is also rewarded with Newari culture experiencing. This short trip will bridge you the cultural co-existences in Nepal. You will surprise seeing the differences in the people with attire, language etc.
In the morning after breakfast drive continues along the Prithivi Highway to Pokhara. Keeping the major exploration of this beautiful town to be done later upon the trip ending, we go for lunch. And further section of drive, will be better with a 4RD jeep. So, things are to be switches from the Van to Jeep, and perhaps 2 or 3 jeeps depending upon the number of people.
After lunch, drive to Beni and further along the Kaligandaki Corridor road to Kalopani for 5-6 hrs. On the way you may stop for photos at several places; such as Rupse Waterfall, Kaligandaki gorge, etc.
After breakfast, we retrace walk for 20/25 min to cross the Kaligandaki river at Chhoya and then another 2hrs strolling hiking via Titi Lake to Kokhethanti. This is more traditional portion and has beautiful sights of Dhaulagiri icefall. Right after, we crossing the suspension bridge over Kaligandaki river at Chhoya, we turn left leaving the trail to Annapurna Base Camp trail that Mt. Herzog followed on his Annapurna I expedition in 1950.
Catch up again the jeep at Kokhethanti and drive to Tukuche, a short stop and village walk. Drive again to Marpha for lunch. Until lunch gets ready, you may visit the village including the monastery. Nearby is a Tibetan settlement, a brief visit is worthy.
After lunch 1.5hrs drive to Kagbeni. This town borders the Upper Mustang with lower. So, an entry with detail is to be formalized here. Another 2hrs slow drive reaches to Chhuksang. There are interesting sights of the pale hills, dunes and river beds. You might see the ruined remnants of the cave life near Chhuksang.
As usual, we start the driving after breakfast. If you are early riser, then even before the breakfast time, you may go for taking photos. Some photographer finds this early morning time very suitable for the hills and passes with birds or sun lights etc. It is interesting drive upto Samar along the Kaligandaki river bank and end on. From Samar we hike towards Chungsi Cave to the right leaving the road to the left. The hike is for about 3 hrs, so is advised to get prepared with hiking poles, hiking boots, water bottle, day bag etc.
Exploring the Chunsi cave site, the journey is joined again for jeep drive at Syangbochen; a small town but good for lunch. After lunch, it’s a short drive to Gheling visiting en-route villages and of course the tourists’ attractions.
Today it’s not a long distance to drive, but fully an interesting day. The major attractions of the day are centaury old monasteries and the natural views of the aired territory of Upper Mustang. Also en-route lie two beautiful villages; Ghami and Dhakmar. Ghami is a quite big village with a primary school and beautiful monastery, whereas the green meadow of Dhakmar resembles as the oasis in the desert.
Here in Upper Mustang almost every village has at least monastery. But some villages’ monasteries are regarded as highly important and famous all over the region. The ones on today’s journey in Ghami and Charang have such monasteries. We take time to visit each of them!
A short drive bring us to our destination town, that is Lomanthang passing an iconic Stupa and several unique sights on the way. Lho-manthang or Lomanthang is also called ‘the walled city’. There is a wall that separates dwelling area from the field where normally there are no houses. Inside the walled city or the dwelling area, there is a palace and king therefore Upper Mustang is also denoted as the kingdom inside the kingdom. But these many things are not that active in practical these days since the kingship abolished from Nepal. Yet, the local people here in Upper Mustang respect so much to the king and his orders are highly respected. You can visit the king!
Explore each and every item of your interest. The delicately displayed handmade old paintings are a bit intricately but so much meaningful of life and after. The architectural design of each monastery is very unique and beautiful.
Another exciting day as it is filled with some unique activities such as visiting of the caves in Kancholing and Ritcheling villages. We can observe the remnants of the recent-time cave life. People use to live in the caves not that long ago but most of those die out today.
Also some other villages like Nymphu, Garphu, Jong etc. These villages are more traditional than the ones we passed on this journey.
Return to Lomanthang and hang around within the walled city that actually provides wonderful time for photography.
Take your breakfast on your usual time and get ready to drive on. From now the journey is in return course. So, it’s a same way drive back and then head to right-hand north to explore some kind of oasis looking settlements and an important monastery at Ghar Gumba. This is really a pleasant location with the monastery by a small village. Take your time to visit it and take enough photos!
Later, we take a bit little longer drive to Ghara. The major attraction of this area is the Luri Gompa that is visited after lodge check in at Ghara.
It’s mostly retracing, but as this is your privately reserved jeep, you can stop the jeep any place you find interesting for photos. After lunch, visit Muktinath shrine. After done here, drive to Jomsom for the night stop.
Enjoy the trans-Himalayan flight from aboard. Upon landing at Pokhara airport, transfer to Hotel. Free day. Enjoy it as you like…
In the morning after breakfast, drive to Kathmandu. For the night stop, go to transfer to Patan – one of the most beautiful traditional towns in Kathmandu valley. Patan nicknamed as Lalitpur meaning the city of fine arts and architectures. Your hotel here will be traditional boutique one but associated with all the modern amenities that a fine hotel has in a room. So, you will certainly enjoy this unique stay here in this hotel in Patan.
Thamel is the tourists’ town in Kathmandu. Your last day is good to spend here sampling food and drinks and shopping.
Happy see off… Home sweet home!
