Langtang Valley : Kyanjin Ri and Gosaikunda Trek

I took the bus from Machhapokhari to Dhunche, Rasuwa early at around 7:30. We had a team of 5 and had planned to meet at dhunche. The bus left at 8.

The road had some huge landslide after crossing Trishuli Bazar. Thus, our vehicle had to wait for the debris to be moved for about an hour. The scenery was fantastic once we entered Rasuwa District. It took about 8 hours for me to reach dhunche. Usually, it takes about 6 hours to reach Dhunche from Kathmandu. My bag was also checked by the Army before entering Dhunche as it's a part of a National Park. I loved the weather of Dhunche when I reached there as it was chaning every 15 minutes.

Though the bus would directly go to Syabrubesi from Kathmandu, everyone from our team got down on Dhunche. Syabrubesi is around 15km from Dhunche which would be a very long distance for us to walk and the bus going there would only arrive from kathmandu at around 2/3 PM. Hiring a Jeep would cost around 5 thousand rupees which was too high for our liking. So we took the help from local police in the area who helped us to connect with container drivers transporting clothes from china border to Nepal. Luckily, we found a container truck going to Syabrubesi and we got a hitchhiking experience riding container truck for the first time

After reaching to Syabrubesi, we started walking towards the trail along the Langtang River. We walked through the access road of Langtang Khola Hydropower project before reaching the real trail.

As the trail Started, we started to gain some altitude and moved across the left of Langtang River through the tropical dense forest in the area with lots of small waterfalls throughout the turns. Then we reached to a place called Bamboo through a place called "pahiro". As the time was around 11 a.m. we decided to have our lunch there. Usually, Tourist prefer Bamboo or Pahiro area for the lunch.

After walking for about half an hour from Bamboo, we crossed Langtang river and started walking to its right before reaching a place called Rimche. It was a steep climb to reach Rimche and the trail ahead was supposed to be more horizontal as per the locals.

After half an hour walk from Rimche, we reached the place called Lama Hotel. Lama Hotel is usually a staying location for the Tourist in this trail. Since we still had time and energy to trek a bit more, we decided to move forward.

After another 45 mins walk from Lama Hotel, we reached River Side area. It was basically in level with the river. So I would not recommend you to stay there during rainy season as flash flood can affect the area. The place we stayed had a really vintage looks as if straight from the story books. Living cost was very affordable at around Rs.700 per person for Nepali for fooding and lodging. The Owner was really friendly and treated us just like he would treat the foreign guests.

We left early morning for the trek next day. Last night, i had met a very old friend of mine from school (Kindergarden) surprisingly at Riverside. So we all teamed up, took a group photo and walked together the next day. After half an hour of walking in levelled field, we ascended for another hour and reached the place called "Ghodatabela". "Ghodatabela" in Nepali means horse stable and it was the place to keep Horse. The view started getting amazing once we reached Ghodatabela.

After crossing the fields of Ghodtabela, we ascended for next half an hour to reach a place called Thangshyap. we started realizing that we're walking between the pass of two huge mountains and will be doing so for rest of our journey once we reached there.

After leaving Thangshyap area, we moved across the belly of several hills in between huge mountains on both sides. Subsequently, we reached the location of old Langtang village which now is only a debris of the landslide caused due to avalanche fall during 2015 Earthquake killing hundreds of villagers and tourists. I recall one of our professor explaining about the disaster in our Disaster Risk Management class where he added that the settlement in that area are still vulnerable to such avalanche induced landslides as evidence shows frequency of such event in every 100-200 years with overhanging ice mass still above the settlements.

After 5 mins walk from Landslide area, we reached newly settled Langtang village. Newly constructed house, well managed trails and flowers all over the meadows : the village felt like a breath of fresh air after such mishap. We had our food there, rested for a while, slept in grassland full of flowers and then started moving towards our destination.

After  Walking though the beautiful meadows full of flowers, horses and prayer flags, we finally reached the Kyanjin Gompa; one of the oldest Buddhist Shrine of Nepal. We could see the Himalayas right in front of our eyes as if we could touch it. We then decided to stay there for a night as there was no other settlements above it. We planned to roam around the Kyanjin Kharka area that day and the Kyanjin Ri peak the next day.

That day, we just roamed around the meadows in kyanjin kharka area. The view was mesmerizing.

Next day, early morning we decide to go for a hike to Kyanjin Ri peak in the area at around 4770 meters from MSL. We started trekking early around 4, got lost for about 15 minutes but finally made it to the top at around 7 A.M. We could see Langtang range and Langtang glacier from the Top of Kyanjin Ri.

After completing trek to Kyanjin Gompa and Langtang village area, we quickly descended upto Bamboo in same day and stayed in a local hotel. We covered a distance of around 35 kilometers in a single day and were really tired. We still had one more destination to cover : Gosaikunda.

We moved down from Bamboo early morning with some breakfast and reached pahiro where the trail between Langtang area and Gosaikunda diverges. We then took the Gosaikunda Trail and aimed for our next immediate destination: Thulo Syabru.

After about 4 hours walk from Pahiro, we reached Thulo syabru : The most developed area throughout the whole trek. It had all the infrastructures available that were on Dhunche. We had our Lunch there and then moved towards the Mung Kharka. We could witness Tibetian culture in the area.

After Another 3/4 hours walk from Thulo syabru, we reached Mung Kharka. I just loved the vibes the place carried. As very less trekkers use this route for Gosaikunda, we had a hotel all for ourself. The Owner was really friendly and made chicken soup for us at very reasonable price. Everything about Mung Kharka seemed just perfect.

Next day moved early from Mung kharka and connected to the usual Gosaikunda trail at Chholangpati where we had some breakfast and then moved towards the hills of Lauribina. We did not find the trail to Lauribina difficult as claimed as the trail from Mung Kharka to Chholangpati was really tough. The view at the top of Lauribina was great with the flowers all over the ground.

After some walk from Lauribina, we reached our destination of Gosaikunda. The lake seemed majestic and was much more larger than what I perceived from photographs. With the happiness of reaching the last remaining destination of our trek in one hand, what made us feel really low was the behavior from the owners of Hotel "Namaste" who threatend to physically harm us for cancelling the request for a room due to its small size. It was there where we realized how powerless and weak one can become in a new place. Imagine a foreign tourist in our place in a completely different country, it would be much more difficult for them to cope in such settings. Despite that incident, the hotel we stayed were really hospitable and made us feel little safer for the given condition. We the roamed around the lake, took photographs and then planned to return next morning after praying in the lake.

Next Morning, we worshipped in the lake early, rounded it once, took photographs and started to descend quickly. On our way we, we had our lunch at Cholangpati after resting at different stops in between.

After having lunch at Cholangapti, we started descending from a new trail that would connect us directly to Dhunche bazar. The trail passed through beautiful singompa area which is famous for cheese and has Nepal government sponsored cheese factory. Then we reached dhimsa, where the rain started pouring from the sky and we rested for a while. Finally we reached the place called deurali which was just across the river from Dhunche area. As it was getting darker, we got closer to our final destination Dhunche.

Finally, we reached Dhunche just after the sunset. We crossed the river and walked 15 mins across the hills before reaching the final destination. All of us had missed saussage and mo:mo, so we had it a lot and booked the ticket for the bus to Kathmandu right away for next morning.

Next morning, we got into our bus and rode back home in a bus. There was a huge traffic jam on the way as it was festive season and people were getting back to their home from Kathmandu. Nonetheless, we reached home safely. This trek will always be remembered as the one which I decided to go one night earlier after finishing a party.