We chose to trek within Langtang National Park next to the Tibet border. Compared to the Everest base camp trek, which is rated difficult, our trek was more suited to out-of-shape people like ourselves. The drive from Kathmandu to Langtang, though just 40 miles as the crow flies, is a seven hour slog via jeep over the scariest roads and through the most beautiful countryside.
How does 40 miles take 7 hours? A picture of a section of the highway says it all:
All the bags went up to the roof, though I wasn't sure why - there was plenty of room. In addition to our driver, there were only four of us: me, Jean, MB and our porter Naresh. Little did I know we'd be stuffing in five more people, ten in all in one jeep.
Our team squeezed into the last row. Naresh and MB snoozed. In the row in front of us were a French couple and their Nepali guide and porter.
Nepal and India are one, MB explained. A citizen from either country can cross the border between the two as if it's a single union. They clearly share a taste for ostentation. Just look at the colorful tricked out truck. They rule the roads, you have to get out of their way as we did here, driving off the half-way finished road into the dirt.
The music sounds the same too. We were treated to seven hours of it in the jeep as we bounced along. To view this video, you have to visit the blog.
Half-way into our drive we stopped for lunch in a small village.
We were introduced to the Nepali staple: dal bhat. Here are the various pots that comprise dal bhat on the stove.
The main component is a huge pile of boiled rice (bhat) and a bowl of lentil soup flavored with coriander, cumin, chili and tamarind (dal). A variety of side dishes are added: greens, pickles, potatoes and rarely - chicken. This is a Buddhist country so there's not a lot of meat eaten and the higher you go in elevation the less likely you are to find any. MB and Naresh ate this twice a day, every single day. The best part - you can get a free refill of rice and lentils, as much as you can eat.
In a country of mountains you live where you can, which is on the steepest part. Small villages and terraced fields on either side of a rock slide, in this case.
Another reason for the slow drive are the dozens of road blocks. Most are maintained by the army or police and in some cases the national park rangers. The ten year civil war ended recently in this part of Nepal, around five years ago. The soldiers didn't smile much. They peered inside the jeep, climbed on the roof to check out the luggage and chatted with the driver. They are looking for Maoist rebels and/or contraband. In some cases, we had to get out of the jeep and walk through the checkpoint.
If you are a foreigner you better have a trekking permit, though with 20-20 hindsight, Jean could have skipped this - she passed for Nepali.
At the edge of Langtang, we had to wait for twenty minutes while they checked our permits. We studied the signs.....
......and checked out the view.
By mid-afternoon we reached Syapru Besi, a small village from which most hikers start their Langtang treks.
We checked into our first "tea house", which we would later realize was palatial and sumptuous compared to those ahead of us.
We walked around the village and sipped coffee at a nearby stall. The owner, when not serving drinks, weaved on a hand-carved loom. We would see many of these in the next two weeks.
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