Mustang Tiji Festival Trek

Namasté. Welcome to Nepal! The adventure begins once you arrive at the airport in Kathmandu, a city that seamlessly combines the medieval and the modern, and which also boasts more UNESCO World Heritage sights than any other city in the world. You will be met by your guide who will assist with your transfer to your centrally located hotel. On the drive, you’ll have your senses challenged by the sights, people, and smells, all of which are so different from those we are used to. Your guide will be available to help with anything from last minute packing advice for the trek to suggesting places to see, shop or eat in Kathmandu. In the evening, you and your guides will have a delicious welcome dinner and briefing session, at which time your senior staff will explain arrangements, logistics, and schedules for the coming trek.

This extra day in Kathmandu is very helpful for overcoming jet lag, acquiring necessary permits, and beginning your appreciation for the Nepali culture and customs. We have included a tour of Kathmandu and surrounding sites, including Swayambhunath (the “Monkey Temple”), Boddhanath, Patan (an ancient city), and the Old Bazaar. The remainder of the day is free for you to explore the Thamel area on your own. This unique neighborhood is home to hundreds of little shops and restaurants.

In the morning take a flight to Pokhara, a nice little tourist town with some wonderful restaurants and mountain scenery. It is known as a place of leisure and trading, as well as a starting point for many different treks. Time permitting, you can visit the Tibetan Refugee center. In the late afternoon, there will be free time to explore around the lake area.

Early morning, catch a breathtaking 35-minute flight to Jomsom. The flight takes you up through the Kali Gandaki gorge, the world’s largest, with its towering snow-capped peaks of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna. It will seem as though you can reach out and touch the peaks! Below will be magnificent views of waterfalls, canyons, and terraced fields. This is truly one of the world's most spectacular flights. Upon arrival in Jomsom, you'll meet the rest of our trekking staff for lunch. The rest of the day is free to relax or explore the village.

Jomsom is a very picturesque Tibetan village that sits right in the high mountains at 8, 800 feet. You can decide how you would like to spend this day. The village is worthy of exploration on foot, and there are also some wonderful day hikes that would certainly introduce your legs to the idea of trekking.

Today you start your 3.5-hour trek by doing a fairly easy section of the trail along the Kali Gandaki River to Kagbeni, the gateway to the restricted zone of Mustang and one of the major trading routes between Tibet and India. The traders brought salt from Tibet and barley, spices and clothes from India. After the Chinese invasion of Tibet, trade came to a halt, and many of the rich villages lost their revenue and, later, many of their people. Nowadays, although there is again some trade, the majority of village income comes from tourism. Upon entering the dusty village, legend says you should think good thoughts, leaving all bad ones outside the town gates.

From Kagbeni to Tangbe, the trail winds along the east riverbank and occasionally ventures out into the rocky river bed. Initially, the trail climbs steeply to the top of the hill, but you'll be rewarded with a spectacular view of prayer flags, stupas, and villages. After crossing several windblown plains and passing through a canyon, you arrive at  the Mustang village of Tanbe. This small village is filled with whitewashed adobe houses nestled against each other and is surrounded by beautifully terraced fields of wheat, barley, and buckwheat, as well as small apple orchards. On the lower side of Tangbe, you'll see three elegant chortens and the remnants of an old abandoned fort. As you continue your five to six hour walk, be on the lookout for black ammonites, small fossils of coiled sea mollusks that inhabited the Tethys Sea and covered the Tibetan plateau millions of years before the Himalayas were formed. They are considered to be holy by many local people. Continue on to Chele, where you stop for the night.

The five-hour climb from Chele is up a fairly steep spur to a cairn at 10,329 feet, from which there is a view of the village of Gyagar across the canyon. The trail, which is literally carved into the side of this spectacular canyon, continually offers spectacular views. After crossing a mountain pass, the trail makes a long gradual descent on a pleasant trail to Samer. Finally, after passing through several small canyons that are home to cool streams and shady juniper trees, you arrive in Geling at 11,880 feet.  Although it's the largest village before entering Upper Mustang, Geling is a rarely-visited gem. The town, set among numerous poplar groves and a central stream, boasts one of the oldest gompas in Mustang. Spend the evening relaxing in front of the central field, where you can observe grain being threshed, animals grazing, and children playing.

On today's six-hour walk, the trail climbs gently through fields of barley and groves of poplar trees up the center of the valley, passing below the settlement of Tama Gaun and an imposing chorten. After rejoining the direct trail, it becomes a steep slow climb across the head of the valley to the Nyi La pass at 13,035 feet, the highest point reached on the trek. Charang is a maze of fields, willow trees, and houses separated by stone walls at the top of the large Charang Cho Canyon. The huge five-story white dzong and red gompa are perched on the edge of the Kali Gandagi gorge on the east end of the valley. Overnight in Charang.

Today you'll move slowly but steadily on a five-hour walk up a rocky trail to a cairn on a ridge opposite the village at 11,841 feet. The trail turns north and climbs gently to a large isolated chorten that marks the boundary between Charang and Lo Manthang. After a rest break, you'll travel across a desert-like landscape painted in every hue of grey and yellow. Finally, you reach your destination, the whitewashed walls of the city of Lo Manthang, which sits among fields filled with horses and yaks. You may even have time to see the start of the Tiji festival.

Spend the better part of the day at the Tiji Festival watching all the dances and celebrations that take place, including horse racing and a giant tug-of-war. You’ll see Tibetan women in their traditional clothing and colorful jewelry, monks in their robes, and dancers in elaborate costumes. This is an almost unknown festival that most Nepal trekkers never experience. Definitely bring your camera along today!

In addition to the festival, there are many other activities in Lo Manthang from which you can choose while here. Spend today exploring the intimate alleyways and courtyards of the city, or you can rent a horse and visit some of the other villages in the area.

You will have the opportunity to vary your return route and visit Gar Gompa, the oldest active gompa in Nepal.  Ghemi village is the location of Gar Gompa and is known for its many hectares of beautiful fields and for its white-washed houses. The trail to Ghemi is not a main trading route and is crisscrossed with herders' trails. Today's trek will cross several valleys, some lush and others barren.  Near the end of the hike, the trail then makes a long rocky descent down a ravine to a grassy valley, where Gar Gompa is situated within a group of large trees by a stream.

These last days again will bring beautifully rich scenery and great hiking on your way back to Jomsom.  The trek will take you through Samar and Kagbeni before ending in Jomson.

Depart early in the morning (by flight) to Pokhara, and then continue on to Kathmandu. Or, if you wish to spend more time in Pokhara, this can be arranged.

We consider today an “insurance day” just in case the flight can’t land due to weather or other reasons in Jomsom or Pokhara. Otherwise, you will go to see the ancient city of Bhaktapur, once a separate kingdom. The city still retains an architectural and design spirit of a feudal state focused on artistic and religious glorification. You will feel you are walking back in time as you stroll through the core of the old city now preserved and interpreted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Take some time to look in the shops to observe potters, weavers, brass-makers, religious artisans, Brahmin priests, and spice merchants engaging in their professions as they have done here for hundreds of years. End your journey with a traditional farewell dinner this evening.

Today you’ll say goodbye  to Nepal and your wonderful staff before being transferred to the airport for your onward flight. If you wish, you can continue your travels with either an extension within Nepal to Chitwan National Park or to other Asian countries.