Trekking in the Langtang Valley - Syabru Besi

What a wild ride. First the crazy streets of Kathmandu, the busy ring road, then the climb out of the Kathmandu Valley on a narrow road paved as far as Trisuli Bazaar. We frequently met overloaded buses with people sitting on top, the vehicle taking up most of the road, as well as jeeps, lorries, motorbikes and weird diesel tractors. Add to that the people who seem to live on the road, chickens, cows, goats and potholes – no wonder there are many accidents.

We turned right and followed the east bank of the Trisuli River, climbing, climbing, climbing on a rough unpaved, narrow and winding road. Thankfully there was little traffic now, so we made good progress, a quick stop at the entrance to the Langtang Park, and we arrived in Dhunche in under 3 hours from Trisuli.  Our driver was excellent,  I can only stand in admiration at his driving skills. The Toyota Landcruiser was really comfortable and we were only badly shaken around on the very worst parts of the road which were over slips with horrifying drops over 1000 metres to the valley far below. Tiny villages clung precariously to the cliff edges, fields of corn millet, mustard, and I guess foraging in the forest helps sustain them. Often the people were beautifully dressed in their finest clothes. We saw women and children carrying enormous loads of foliage, while most of the men and boys semed to be sitting around admiring the view, playing games or chatting. The last hour before Syabru Besi at 1400 metres was the wildest – 12 zigzags down to the river on a bumpy road, but we arrived in one piece, the village clean and our simple guesthouse just fine.

 A cup of tea in a little shop was organized by Mithu our guide. Our porter is his good-looking 21 year old son, Aite. The two of them took us for a walk in the afternoon - it turned out to be at least 2 hours, with the air scented by wild marijuana. First we went down steep steps to the hot springs by the Trisuli River, then crossed over a bridge and wound our way up through a pretty village where we saw a woman using a spindle to spin wool and watched a woman weaving. We climbed up towards some caves, then visited a Buddhist monastery where we met a lovely young lama and were invited to have some salty tea made with yak butter. I felt embarrassed that I couldn’t drink it all.

 We continued back across the river and along a road the Chinese are building to the border with China. We noticed that the drilling crew wore no ear protection but were proud of their work and seemed to want us to photograph them. We continued to a fork in the river, with various groups passing us by, including very young children carrying great loads of potatoes.

It was dark by the time we returned, our feet filthy from the dust and mud of the track and road.  By 8.45 pm we were both exhausted and fell into bed.