SGTrekker 12D Nepal Upper Mustang Tiji Festival Photo Tour (1-12 May 2013)

[limwhow]

Day 3: Pokhara to Jomsom
... and from Jomsom, a jeep drive into Upper Mustang...
.. and trek to Chele.

This was an exciting day.
We knew roughly what the day's events were.
But we really didn't know what to expect.
Some trekking would be involved, but unknown to us, what a day ahead for us it was.

Very early this morning...
Sun was not even up, we were all packed and readied for the flight from Pokhara (altitude 800m) to Jomsom (altitude 2700m).

All thanks to vngks, we all had a good dose of carbohydrate in the crispy dried potato chips before we leave for the airport.

... and in the Pokhara airport...

Yupe. I must say Adrian and Mahesh had gotten everything under full control.
Of course, the weather was unpredictable and erratic in the higher mountains. But the pilots had been flying these parts for so long, they were all very experienced. No fear. I am sure we are good to go.

Drifting into deep thoughts here while waiting for the plane...

And finally, the moment came. We were ready to fly to Jomsom!

 

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STOL flight from Pokhara to Jomsom

As can be seen, Jomsom is that small little town located right in the middle of the mountains, at an altitude of around 2700m.
It is a small town. But yet, it is an important gateway town to Mustang and other parts north of the Annapurna range.

As we flew, we found that the little plane was weaving in between the peaks of the lower mountain ranges, and flying close to the side of the mountains.
No wonder the pilots were very cautious when the weather turned bad, or when wind became unbearingly strong.

[This is an actual GPS track from my Garmin Oregon of our flight from Pokhara to Jomsom]

A short and relaxing video of our Tara Air flight
from Pokhara to Jomsom.
As can be seen, in good weather and in good hands of experienced pilots,
the whole experience can be very enjoyable!
... as long as the plane doesn't spin into the Kali Ghandaki river flowing next to the runway...

[video=youtube_share;yWZpaNqXL-I]http://youtu.be/yWZpaNqXL-I[/video]



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10 days after we landed safely,
a not-so-relaxed NAL plane landed at Josom
... with a slightly different end result...
The plane landed and ran on the runway for 20m before its left wing broke and the plane and its passengers ended up in the river.
Clickable picture below to read the news.

 

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Jomsom Town!

Upper Mustang is a restricted area that requires a special permit for foreigners to enter.
A US$500 per person permit as below...

The small airport runway is parallel to the main thoroughfare of this small town.
And the river Kali Ghandaki runs just alongside the airport... must be some kind of safety measure, I reckon.

A quick arrangement and we walked a few blocks down to this guest house called Hotel Tilicho.
What a guesthouse it was!
It had the BEST airport runway view we have ever seen. Each time the plane touched down or took off, we would be just enjoying the view either from the dining hall or from an open air platform on the rooftop. Exciting!

Our good member was so excited she literally ran out to the rooftop platform without her coldwear and camera.. and just shot the beautiful mountain view with her handphone! Must be the Nilgiri peak (as shown on the right) that had attracted her.

 

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A quick lunch of Dal Bhat (Rice with Lentils) and Egg Thukpa (egg noodle).. and we were about to set off.

"Ok, guys. We are about 15-20 minutes walk from here to our jeep pickup point," said Adrian.
"The jeeps cannot drive into this part and has to wait further out. So you have to carry all your luggage yourselves and walk."
My goodness.
All those with the roller luggages were smiling happily whilst those of us with the backpacks were struggling to keep the weight up, as obvious from the photo below, SereneXMM was weighed down by her backpack behind, and her camera bag in front. Poor girl, she...

Our trekking started early?
Or perhaps Adrian and Mahesh were giving all a taste of what was to come... and making sure we warmed up our legs muscle.
"How come walked so long still haven't reached the jeep yet one?" complained the poor, heavily-loaded SereneXMM.
"Wah lau.. in front still got to cross a bridge. My heart rate is beating very fast!"

Ok lah.. Just tahan a little bit.

True enough. 20 minutes walk. And the jeep was there.

sdf

 

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The jeep ride to Chhuksang...

Some of the trekkers we met at Jomsom planned to trek all the way to Lo Manthang from Jomsom. That would be quite a long trek and would take a long time.
For us, our main objective was to photograph the Tiji Festival in Lo Manthang, thus, we would take the jeep as far as we could.
There was a stretch from Chhuksang to Syangboche that was not accessible by 4WD jeep and had to be undertaken on foot.
That would come later.
But on this day, we would first take a slightly more than an hour drive from Jomsom to Chhuksang, driving on the dried river bed of Kali Ghandaki (previously a glacier) and on the bumpy and narrow mountain roads.

[This is the actual GPS track of our jeep ride from my Garmin Oregon GPS]

 

[limwhow]

SereneXMM and I were relegated to the rear seat of the 4WD jeep and we ended up lying down looking directly back out of the rear window into the massive plain of glacier gravel.

And a small video of our
Bumpy jeep ride along the ex-Glacier bed
and up the narrow mountainway...
I really am terrified of jeep rides like these.
One wrong turn of the steering wheel
or one wrong step on the accelerator
the whole lot of us will end up feeding the river fish
down the cliff.
I'd rather walk.
Any time.

[video=youtube_share;TlhugzSu7zI]http://youtu.be/TlhugzSu7zI[/video]
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[limwhow]

People shooting at Kabgeni
... while waiting for our guide to validate our permits.

SereneXMM and I were really zhi-siao one ah.
People got done excitedly from the jeeps and scampered all across the fields to shoot waves in wheat field, shoot mountain ranges, and landscapes and such.
And what did we shoot?
We went around shooting people shooting landscape.

Then after that, SereneXMM and I kan-cheong kan-cheong had to run high and low searching for the shrubs to ease ourselves behind...

 

[SereneXMM]

At first I only saw vngks shooting the wind.

Then later everyone also started shooting the wind.

 

[SgTrekker]

Still at lake Fewa in Pokhara. Please pardon the cross processing, still experimenting

Old Ladies by Lake Fewa

Locals by Lake Fewa Pokhara by Singapore Trekker, on Flickr

Landing at Jomsom (with Nilgiri behind)

Landing at Jomsom by Singapore Trekker, on Flickr

The Usual Suspects in Jomsom

The Usual Suspects Jomsom by Singapore Trekker, on Flickr

Looking back at Kagbeni

Looking back at Kagbeni by Singapore Trekker, on Flickr

 

[sea-horse]

Great photos guys!....MORE...pls.

 

[CS7890]

Nice ! A place I wanted to go in the near future.

 

[limwhow]

Great photos guys!....MORE...pls.

I thank you on behalf of my team members, sea-horse.
Do look out for a branch of my business somewhere up there in Lo Manthang. LOL..

Nice ! A place I wanted to go in the near future.

CS8790, thank you very much, on behalf of my teammates. Yes, No need to wait until the near future.
With so many public holidays coming up you can just book and go!

 

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Day 3: Trekking from Chhuksang to Chele.

Chhuksang was a nice rest point for lunch.
Mr TrippingTheLight kept all of us entertained with his stories and anecdotes and his vast knowledge of political histories.
SereneXMM was so touched by his stories that she dehydrated herself even before the trek started by shedding buckets and buckets of tears.

After lunch, we were ready to go.
"This is a most easy trek from Chhuksang to Chele. About one and a half hour. Relax all the way," reassured Mahesh.

Well, this Mahesh he has been taking Singaporean travellers so much that he has an acute understanding of the Singaporean psychology.
He is very good in subtle encouragement and if need be, some physical support.
But he never fails to reassure every one in the team.

 

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The actual GPS track of our climb from Chhuksang to Chele after lunch.

This wasn't that bad a trek, really.
But I guess we weren't warmed up yet.
And the last 110m ascend was pretty steep... I had to upload the GPS track into Strava to find out what the gradient was later...

 

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Was it cold at this time?
Well, heck, no.
But it was pretty windy.
As long as there is the noon sun, the temperature won't drop too low. About somewhere in the teens.
Thus, Vngks, Wkcheah and Adrian all could trek in their T-shirts.

We started off on the dry river bed of Kali Ghandaki.

While in Lukla, we saw dzopkyos (a breed between yaks and cows), and in Ghorepani we saw goats, here in Upper Mustang we saw lots of mules.

 

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It was the first time we were walking on the river bed of an ex-glacier bed.
And looking across the canyon-like mountains had streaks of horizontal cuttings that had been made by the moving glacier billions of years ago.
Now what remained were just the gravel and stones on the bed, the fresh-red vertical cliff faces with naturally occuring crevices from years of erosion.
The sky was a deep blue, and relatively cloudless.
No wonder all our sunglasses turned dark from the very intense Ultra-violet rays.

And Mahesh is very clever. Way from the beginning he was already psycho-ing SereneXMM.

 

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Vngks very happy about finally being able to trek, as his trekking legs have been waiting just for this day.

... a sentiment which, up till this moment, was still shared by our good wkcheah, as he crossed the bridge.

Yes, as can be seen in my GPS track here. Once we crossed the bridge, we would be looking directly at the steep climb...

 

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The Climb.
Yes, the 110m vertical ascend.
All gravel treks to walk on.
Some a little more slippery than other.

"Wah.. what gradient would this slope be ah?" wondered vngks.
"I think it is at least a good 25% gradient. Can walk up slowly won't die, but cannot cycle up, at least not on a road bike." said me.

The altitude wasn't high. It was around 2950m. But there is this local saying, once you hit 3000m, you just got to start to be careful with your breathing and your pushing because you can unknowingly fatigue your muscles and find yourself totally winded.

"Take a small rest. A small rest. Then walk another few tens of steps and take another small rest."
Sounds as reassuring, these words, as ever.
So that's what we did.
Don't let our zest burst our Lactate Threshold Heart Rate.
Got to conserve as much energy as we possibly can.

 

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There is a saying "when climbing a steep slope, do it in a zig-zag fashion. You will encounter a less steep gradient and will be able to conserve more energy."
Again, precisely what we were doing here.

And SereneXMM already started to feel her heart rate racing long long ago.
Here her stance was so deja vu.
I think I did see her stand like this on a previous climb.

Clickable image to see where this photo was shot


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[limwhow]

Well, siong or very siong (translation: be it tough or very tough), we made it up to Chele.
Such a delightful little small village awaited us.

There was Tibetan Buddhist chorten and prayer wheels lining the walls of the village and we could see some old man and old woman going around circumambulating the prayer wheels and chanting.