Durch das Langtang Tal zum Kyanjin Ri

The transfer in Delhi went smoothly, although it took some time and we arrived at the gate just in time for boarding. Due to the size of our luggage, we booked the slightly more expensive premium economy fare, which included delicious food and drinks on the 1 hour and 15 minute flight. As we looked out the window, we saw the mountains of the Himalayas on the horizon. After landing at the relatively small international airport in Kathmandu, the immigration process was much faster than in India. We quickly collected our luggage, bought a SIM card for our phone to stay reachable, withdrew our first Nepalese rupees (exchange rate: 1€ = 137 NPR), and left the airport. Outside, we immediately saw the sign of our travel company with our names on it. Krishna, who would be our guide for the first part of our Nepalese experience, the trek through the Langtang Valley, warmly greeted us with flower garlands and accompanied us to the hotel by taxi. We quickly dropped off our bags, freshened up, and went to the rental shop for sleeping bags, down jackets, and trekking poles, as well as to meet the owner of the travel company, who officially welcomed us and briefed us on the upcoming activities.

From there, we walked back to the hotel and continued through the nearby neighborhood of Thamel, which was filled with souvenir shops and outdoor stores. We bought some snacks for the upcoming bus ride and found a nice restaurant for dinner, where we had the typical Dal Bhat, a rice dish with lentils, curry, and seasonal vegetables.

But we had to hurry back to the hotel to pack our backpacks for the trek and get some rest.

The next day, we set off early: we met Krishna at 06:30 am in the lobby, received our breakfast package consisting of a banana, apple, juice, an egg, and pastries, and headed to the "bus station". In the end, it's a large sandy area on the main road where buses depart in all directions in the morning. Once again, we were glad to have a guide who knew the bustling scene and had already reserved seats on the bus and bought the tickets. We also met Mean, our porter, who would carry a large duffel bag with our bigger belongings during the trek. Although the bag (under 10 kg) was significantly below the maximum weight mentioned to us, considering Mean's size, we still felt a bit guilty. Off we went on the wild ride to Syabrubesi, which was about 140 km away. The bus stopped every few minutes at the beginning, people literally jumped on and off, and it took a while until we left Kathmandu behind. We quickly reached mountainous regions, the bus became crowded, with people even filling the driver's cabin, and the roads became worse. After about three hours, we stopped for a shared lunch. Everyone got off and the well-prepared kitchen had a portion of Dal Bhat ready for all passengers. We ate quickly, those who wanted to also had a chance to use the restroom, although we were not yet used to the toilets in the mountainous regions of Nepal, and then it was time to get back on the bus and continue the journey. The bus bravely maneuvered on sandy, potholed, and very narrow roads up and down the switchbacks, people got on and off, sometimes only goods were loaded and dropped off in the next village. At the next stop, we noticed that we were now even transporting a goat on the roof. Our passports were checked 2-3 times and our luggage was also inspected at the entrance to the national park. So we zigzagged through the mountains for 9 hours until we arrived at our destination and starting point of our trek. We checked into a quite fancy hotel, Karsi took a hot shower before we took a walk around the village to stretch our legs and buy lollipops for Karsi. We immediately struck up conversations with other guests on the hotel's terrace. Some had already completed the trek, others were in Nepal for the umpteenth time. After dinner, Lotti also wanted to take a hot shower, but unfortunately there was no hot water left, so she quickly went to bed after a cold shower.

Day 1 of our trek: The alarm rang at 06:50 am, and we had breakfast at 07:30 am sharp. We followed this routine for the entire trek, except for one exception. After breakfast, we set off and immediately felt worse. Mean didn't carry the bag like we had thought, simply as a sports bag on his back, but rather on a loop over his head. Later, we found out that this is how things are carried here. Nevertheless, it looked like a really strange sight to us, and it didn't seem very comfortable either. However, during the trek, we realized how little the luggage burdened him and how grateful we were not to have to carry everything ourselves. We started walking uphill, first passing through a construction site for a future hydroelectric power plant by the river, and then through beautiful dense green forests, always accompanied by the sound of the river. Krishna made sure that we and even Mean had enough breaks for drinking, and we stopped every hour. By the way, drinking breaks became our main expense during the trek. Everything has to be transported to the mountain villages by donkeys or manpower, making everything more expensive. This includes water. While a liter of water still cost 20 cents in the valley, we paid almost 3 euros for a bottle in the highest village. Unfortunately, neither river water nor tap water is drinkable here, and we were advised against using water purification methods (unfortunately). We enjoyed the nature and the mountains around us getting higher and higher. It was still quite warm in the sun, so we soon walked only in T-shirts. However, in wise anticipation, Karsi had brought along his insulated hiking pants and was already melting away. In addition to the drinking breaks, there were of course also photo breaks: for the mountains, the beautiful blooming rhododendrons, and the various animals. We were lucky and quickly saw monkeys (macaques and langurs), Himalayan tahr, birds of prey, and Himalayan tahrs. Lotti's grandpa's binoculars came in handy. However, we were not lucky enough to see the red panda, which is supposed to be present in the national park, so we'll have to visit the Berlin Zoo again. We walked through small villages with their tea houses and small shops, and finally stopped for lunch. We tasted momos, small filled dumplings, before continuing our trek through the valley until we reached Lama Hotel, where we arrived just before the rain started and spent the night. We slept in a small room in a wooden shack, with drafts everywhere, and a small room with a hole serving as the "toilet". In the evening, we sat in the tea room around the stove with the owner, his family, and other trekkers, eating, chatting, or reading a book, as we had left card and dice games at the hotel due to weight restrictions. The night was only moderately restful, especially for Lotti, who kept waking up due to the snoring of our sick neighbor, who could have easily slept in our room due to the porous walls. In the morning, we crawled out of our sleeping bags with a super clear sky but still quite low temperatures, packed our things together, had our freshly prepared meal in the common room for breakfast, took our starting selfie with Krischna and Mean, and started walking. We continued through beautiful forests, the ascent became a bit steeper, and we noticed that the air was getting thinner. We could now see the snow-covered mountain peaks through the trees, where it was still green around us. But soon we reached the tree line and had a clear view of the surrounding mountain peaks. We walked across one of the rocky avalanche fields caused by the severe earthquake in 2015, which claimed many lives and completely destroyed the Langtang village. Krishna told us that many of the victims have still not been found, but thanks to international aid, at least the villages could be rebuilt. We arrived at a completely new hotel in the Langtang village. Lotti trusted the labeling too much and was disappointed that there was no hot water again. Karsi enjoyed a hot shower after testing the cold tap... a highly professional construction.

Once again, Krishna and Mean took great care of us. We just had to write down our menu choices, and dinner, breakfast, and lunch during the hike were freshly prepared and served promptly. As a dessert, we had a fruit platter that made other trekkers jealous. It is possible to do the entire trek without a guide and porter. The tea houses are all open, speak good English, and offer food and accommodations. But especially for our first experience, it was more pleasant and easier to have company. Our hotel in Langtang was really great, brand new, and quite warm. Before we sat down in the warm tea room, we visited the memorial for the victims of the earthquake.

The next day was a bit quieter. We started again around 08:00 am, but today, due to the altitude, only about 4 hours of hiking were planned. Langtang is already at an altitude of 3400m, and to prevent altitude sickness, it is recommended not to ascend more than 400-500m per day above 3000m. So we hiked to Kyanjin Gompa at 3800m, where we arrived shortly after noon and checked into a nice room once again. We used the free time to explore the village and see the yaks, as well as to be impressed by the backdrop of the mountains. Especially Karsi, who had to take deep breaths every few breaths due to the thinner air, was grateful for the time to acclimatize. Of course, we took many photos, Lotti had brought her camera and tripod, although the sky became increasingly cloudy in the afternoon. In the evening, we planned the next day: we would have to get up early and start in the dark to climb to the summit of Kyanjin Ri at 4400m. The alarm clock rang at 04:00 am, we put on warm clothes in freezing temperatures, and went outside to the field to take some night-time photos of the mountains before we tackled the summit. Unfortunately, the night-time photos didn't turn out as nice. Nevertheless, we marveled at the mountains illuminated by the moon. At 05:00 am sharp, we met Krishna and Mean, who finally didn't have any luggage to carry in the morning, had another cup of tea, and shortly afterwards set off outside and uphill with headlamps and only light equipment. As we walked in the dark, the sun slowly rose behind the high peaks and bathed the mountains in an incredibly beautiful light. We used the photo breaks to catch our breath and have a drink. The night before, we overheard others at the neighboring table talking about how they needed medication for altitude sickness and experienced nausea and headaches. Therefore, we were very careful to breathe properly and not overdo it. The ascent of nearly 600m in altitude took a little over an hour with all the breaks, and we timed it perfectly with sunrise. The mountains all around were beautifully illuminated, and we had a 360-degree view of all the surrounding peaks, some of them over 7000m high. We congratulated each other, took many pictures again (probably all duplicates), and had a little snack. There was the option to descend a few meters from this "lower peak" and climb up to Kyanjin Ri "upper peak" at 4773m along a ridge. We felt fit and good, but the plan was to climb the 4400m "lower peak" and then descend again. We didn't want to challenge Krishna's 20 years of experience as a guide. Karsi hesitated a bit and was typically motivated: if you're in the Himalayas, you should go as high as possible. A small matter of prestige. In the end, Lotti convinced him to say something: it would be foolish to regret not having tried later. Krishna and Mean agreed to continue. So we fought our way up for 40 minutes, past yaks, to an additional nearly 400m in altitude. The view rewarded us for our efforts. Although the sun was already higher and it was no longer the typical sunrise light, the surrounding peaks still looked impressive. Now that the sun was shining over the peaks, it was also not so bitterly cold anymore. We congratulated each other again and took more photos before packing our trekking poles and making our way down the steep path back to the village. On the way, we met many familiar faces from the previous evenings, struggling to breathe as they passed us on their way to the summit. We had a wide grin on our faces. Just under 4 hours after our departure, we sat in the kitchen of the hotel, eating breakfast with pride and euphoria. And we had done everything right, as dense clouds moved in front of the peaks already around 10 am. The original plan was to have a day of relaxation, but after some changes in our plans, we had already decided the day before that we would not spend the day at the hotel but start the descent and thus arrive in the valley one day earlier, which would give us an additional day in Pokhara. So we packed up our things, met Krishna and Mean, who was loaded again, and set off through the valley to lower altitudes. We felt our legs, our muscles, and particularly our knees during the fast downhill pace, but we persevered, with only a few breaks and some more photos, until we passed the Langtang village and reached Lama Hotel. Well-deserved, we cooled our feet in the river, enjoyed a Sherpa stew, and fell quite exhausted into bed. This time, Karsi didn't sleep as well. The rain was pounding loudly on the corrugated iron roof of the accommodation. However, the rain had the advantage that the paths were significantly less dusty than during the ascent. With only a few breaks, we courageously continued, and shortly after noon, we reached the familiar hotel in Syabrubesi. Proud and a bit exhausted after about 75 kilometers and 3300 meters of altitude gain in 5 days, we took off our hiking boots. This time, Lotti was fortunate enough to have at least a warm shower. We walked around the town, bought some provisions for the bus ride the next day, Karsi got a lollipop, and soon it was time for bed after dinner.

Thursday, 16th March: We had to get up early again to catch the bus at 07:00 am to Kathmandu. Currently, we are sitting on the bus and once again, we will be traveling for about 8 hours on bumpy roads. Our bus driver is a bit wilder than the one on the outbound journey, but we are making good progress. Later, we will say goodbye to Krishna and Mean, who have taken such good care of us and made this trek an incredible experience. Tomorrow, we continue with two exciting flights!