The Guerrella Trek

                        Nepal is the land of Shangrila like a paradise. Stretching from Mahakali river in the west to the Mechi river in the east. Nepal shares border between India and china. The Indian border lies in the south , east and west around 1700KM. And in the north it is bordered with Tibet of China stretching around 1000KM.

People coming from collecting Yarchagumba(Himalayan Viagra)

                        There are numerous of trekking trail in the Himalaya. In this blog today we going to talk about The Guerrilla Trek. The name itself sound unique that how it became Guerrilla trek or Gurrilla trail. Nepal has came through the decade long civil war started in 1996 AD to 2006 AD between Government and Nepali Maoist as a rebel force. During the war time Maoist used to operate their  activities in the remote village where there is no presence of government or there was  very rare or minimal presence.

Maikot village @ Guerrilla Trek

           After few years the Maoist became more violent and aggressive then the government decided to mobilize Nepalese Army against Maoist. The Maoist were all over the country but their headquarter area was in Rolpa district.  They were practicing war skills and training mostly in Rolpa district and most of the combatants were in Rolpa so they have to move to different places in a secret way that nobody knows. Then they have discovered this trail to come to the east close to Pokhara and nearby places thus Gurrella trail was discovered.

Maoist Combatients with dress and arm

Now this Guerella trek is getting famous because of its uniqueness and the opportunity to explore western Nepal as well as we have opportunity to explore many landmark from the decade long civil war.

Maoist build entry gate Rolpa

Pisang Village Manang Nepal

 
                        There are bunch of beautiful settlement in Annapurna region depending upon the area  and the way of building the houses differ place to place that makes the settlement unique from otheres. In this blog today we are talking about one village from Annapurna circuit way. The name of the village that we going to talk is Pisang. 

Upper Pisang

 The Pisang village is located at the altitude of 3250M above the sea level. This village is divided into two different section that is Upper Pisang and Lower Pisang . The above picture is from Upper Pisang. The house build ed in the Upper Pisang are typical to the region. Lower Pisang also contains many houses following the typical way of building the house . Now due to modernization people are trying to make more western style. Actually what people doing with western style is they are doing the fusion between them.

Lower Pisang & Upper Pisang in distance

The Pisang village is located in Manang district between Dhikur Pokhari and Humde village. The village is very rich in flora-fauna & culture-heritage. The people living in the Pisang village are all Manangis(one of the tribe group from Annapurna Circuit Region) they speak local dialects close to Tibetean Language.

Valley view from Upper Pisang on a snowy day.

The main occupation of the people is tourism like most of the local who are living in the village are mostly engaged with tourism business and their secondary business is animal husbandary, herbs collection, agriculture and service.
  

Fairs & Festival In Nepal

 Nepal is a country with so many diversity in terms of Language, culture, custom, tradition, fairs & festival. Its hard to believe that everyday is festival in Nepal because its multilingual, multicultural.
Today we going to talking about one of the second biggest festival celebrated in Nepal.

The name of the festival that is very popular among everyone. The name of the festival is Deepawali or the local name of this festival is Tihar. This festival falls in the month of October & November usually. and it lasts for weeks. The festival start with worshiping crows, cows, dog and in the last day the tika (red color)  is exchange between brother and sister for the long life of each other.

The young guys play Deusi(local musical ceremoney) and they goes from house to house singing and dancing and they get some offering from the house owner.

Below we have video from Playing Deusi vailo. This was taken last month during the festival from Namche bazar Mount Everest region.

Alpine Migratory Duck

Nepal is heaven  among bird watchers because of its varied landscape stretched from the foot hill of terai to the Mount Everest roof of the world. Among all those birds today on this blog we are talking about on bird that is found in the lake of high altitude. 

The bird is called Alpine migratory duck. It looks very golden and some look golden brown. These kinds of birds can be found in the lake of Gokyo lake4800M, Tilicho lake4900M, Lake mansarovar4556M, Gangapurna lake3400M, Foksundo Lake3612M, Rara lake3500M.

Alpine migratory bird in Goky Lake 4800M

These birds used to migrate from one place to another place during summer and winter time. The above mentioned lakes are the home for these birds. These birds have special lungs function so they can reach so high like 5500/6000M during the flight. If you have intrest on exploring many tropical/arctic birds Nepal would be your best choice. Himalayan smile treks & adventrue offers several tours for bird watchers. we have discount  provision for student, volunteer and researchers. 

Lukla Airport Everest base camp Trek

Australian Camp Dhampus Hiking Photogallery.

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Upper Mustang Photo Gallery

                  Photo courtesy Himalayan Smile Treks & Adventure Pvt. Ltd

Beni JOmshom Highway 75 Km Day 02 Bumpy road

Prithivi Highway Kathmandu Phokhara 200Km

The bus window view from Pokhara Beni Highway 75Km

Mustang Trek

Fallen piece of rock from the cliff hiding the river

local women skimming yogurt to make butter 

women taking her goats to pastureland

The isolate chorten

Mani wall

multi storied caves of Chosar 

The big group of  local cow found here

on of the oldest monastery from this region at Kagbeni

Narrow street and shared courtyard from Kagbeni village
https://www.himalayastrek.com/upper-mustang-trekking/

Upper mustang trek

A short itinerary, Information and highlights

Day 01: Kathmandu/Pokhara by tourist bus /6 hrs /200 Km. 

Day 02: Pokhara/Jomshom by flight   & trek to Kagbeni   :  20 Min flight/3Hrs walk 2810M O/N @ lodge : it is the short flight early in the morning which offers the scenic beauty of the Midland , Himalaya and  TransHimalayan region . This short pleasant flight goes through the deepest gorge in the world carved between Mt Dhaulagiri and Mt Annapurna .and the aircraft lands at the desert and windy valley of Jomshom .After reaching the jomshom we have to take a short acclimatization there. We will go to the local guest house for some refreshment and a short rest over there. Then we will meet up with the rest of the members from our trekking group. Porters will arrange the backpack and the necessary stuff. After that we will start our journey towards north. The trail goes through the bank of river Kali Gandaki we are walking through the windy valley so    Be prepared  to face hard breezing during the walk . The landscape is amazing around. You have Nilgiri North behind to the south and Mt Dhaulagiri to the south west. We will see several small settlements with apple orchards at Eklebhatti. We will arrive our destination Kagbeni in the midday where we will have launch and in the evening we will visit the village and monastery.

Day 03: Kagbeni /Chaile  5Hrs/3050M/On@lodge: After having the breakfast we will leave early morning to escape the possible hard breezing during the day. The trail goes through the bottom and ridge of the mountain following river Kaligandaki. The trail goes through the medieval village of Tangbe where we can see three different colors painted chorten by the side of the trail. And the houses roofed with thatched mud and fascinating apple orchard surrounded. Then after hour we will reach another village called chusang. This is also the village with local style of houses, courtyard in the side and ground floor as cow shed that makes every traveler amuse. The green terrace with apple orchard adding the beauty of village. We will have launch here probably.  Then the trails goes straight following river valley and then we will reach the bridge where we got to see the big rock fallen from the cliff in the middle of the river and river flowing underneath that fallen rock. After crossing the river the trail goes upward towards chaile. It is 15 minute walk upward to reach the village Chile.

Day 04: Chaile/Syangbochen  6Hrs/3660M/ ON@Lodge : This day the trail goes uphill in the beginning towards northwest . We got to see newly planted apple orchard and the trail goes upward continuously we will reach the cliff from where we can see the village called Gyakar across the cliff. The trail carved  in the cliff looks really wondering. Then after we will reach one pass near Samar village. We will have lunch in Samar. Then the trail goes slightly upward and reaches another pass at 3750M. Then the trail goes straight up to Vena where we can see few teahouses by the side of the road. Then the trail leads further towards another pass at 3870 M From where we can see Nilgiri on the south ,Tilicho peak, Yakawa Kang . Then the trail goes downhill up to Syangbochen where we will stay overnight.

Day 05: Syangbochen/Ghemi 3.5 Hrs/3520M /On@lodge: The trails goes slightly inclined upward at the beginning and reaches a pass with beautiful chorten after a while we get to see the first sight of Geling village. That makes you to feel that you are in the different world. The houses painted white, red, yellow and the fenced terrace around the village and some lush green trees looks really amazing. at this village on can feel that they are in somewhere in the remote village of Tibet. After passing this village the trail will continue straight towards another small settlement surrounded by green fields and lush green trees. Then after the trail goes uphill towards the Nye pass at 3950 M from where we can see detailed 360 panoramic view of surrounding. at the south we can see Nilgiri , Damodar Danda , Bhirkuti Himal and towards north west we can see Arniko Himal and the series of yellow , grey , brown , red mountain  Which looks really colorful.  After the pass the trail descend down to Ghami . Ghemi is an ancient forbidden Kingdom. So there is lot of things to see in Ghemi. After lunch we go to visit Ghemi village where we can see uniquely builded monastery, the amazing houses, and the local people working in the field and bushy with their livestock. At the edge of the village we can see flossing Ghami khala coming from Arniko Himal. The color of water is amazing green even it floss down rapidly.

Day 06: Ghemi/Tsrang / 4Hrs/3520 M/ On@Lodge: we will cross Ghami Khola the amazing flossing green river and after we will reach the longest Mani wall painted red and white. Far away in the distance we can see red and Grey Mountain which looks really amazing.  Then after the trail goes uphill towards another pass. The view from the pass is really amazing .its worthy to spend some time on the top of the Pass. Then after the trail goes down and straight.  The village of Tsrang welcomes the visitor from far distance which looks really amazing and fascinating. The fields are really bigger then before from any place. We can see the mud wall fenced around the field to protect the crops from livestock. And the monastery in this village is really very nice where we can see the skeleton of the architectures hand. And we can see one old fortress at one end of this village from where we can see the village very well.

Day 07 : Tsrang/Lo-Manthang /4Hrs/3700M/on@Lodge : The trails goes downhill towards the river and after crossing it goes uphill and catches the main trail . Then the trail goes straight forward. We can see small stream downward from the trail while walking. After walking for 2 hours we can see an isolated chorten in the trail. then the trail goes  slightly inclined uphill and reaches the another flat grass land .on the east side at cliff we can see ancient man made caves  where the people used to live in the ancient time to protect them from extreme cold. After crossing another pass we can see Lo-Manthag valley which looks really beautiful. We can recognize the royal palace from distance. We can see lots of small hills with different color like grey, red, yellow. And the trail goes downhill towards Lo-Manthang. As we reach the village the big gate welcomes us and we can see wall everywhere in the village. That’s the reason this village called walled city.

Day 08: Lo-Manthag/Chosar/Lomanthag 6/7 Hrs round trip: This day we will visit another village called Chosar which is famous for its multistoried ancient cave, Monastery. The trail goes across the river from where we can see perfect image of royal palace. And the trail goes through the bank of another river passing through the fields. It takes several hours to explore the monastery, village and caves in Chosar village.

Day 09: Lo-Manthang/Namgyal/ Lo-Manthang : 5 Hrs round trip : The trail leads west from Lo-Manthang valley and reaches Namgyal monaster one of the oldest and precious from this region . After visiting the monastery the trail leads towards Tingkar village .

Day 10: Lomanthang/Dhakmar via Gharghumba /7Hrs/3820 M/6: The trail leads upward towards the west and goes through the Dhi pass 4300M. And the trail goes slightly downhill towards Gharghumba. We will visit Gharghumba monastery .

Day 11:  Dhakmar/Gheling 6Hrs/3570M/On@lodge: The trail leads downward from Dhakmar and reaches Ghemi and goes uphill towards the pass and once again the trail goes downward towards Gheling. In the evening we will visit Gheling village.

Day 12: Gheling/Kagbeni / By jeep /5Hrs drive / 2810M: We will take jeep this day to avoid walking through same way back. The adventurous jeep drive will take you to Kagbeni where we will be check out from restricted area zone.

Day 13: Kagbeni/Muktinath /6Hrs /3800M/On@lodge: The trek leads upward towards east. it is the sloppy inclined uphill and on the way we could see many apple orchard and we will see the village called Jharkot which is famous for its uniqueness and variety of houses build using local style. We will visit Muktinath temple after we arrive to Muktinath. This is one of the major pilgrim sites for both Hindus and Buddhist. We got to see many pilgrims coming here from Lower part of Nepal and other south Asian countries. And we can see holy eternal flame coming from the heart of the cave like structure now its temple. 108 water spout where we got to see the devotees taking shower  to wash away their sin. Also this temple is famous for the Nun priest who takes care of the monastery and temple here.

Day 14: Muktinath/Jomshom/5Hrs/2810M/On@lodge: The trail goes downhill and it goes uphill again through the village called Lupra . It’s a pleasant walk with awesome panoramic view. In the evening we will have farewell program with our team member.

Day 15: Jomshom/Pokhara by flight/20 min/810M

   

Chorten and entrance gate at Samar