To Tibet Mustang!

It is significant that we should have recently shared the story of how our blog got its name, because we did not have to wait more than a day from our arrival in Kathmandu that we should see it in action, in all its fist-shaking glory.

Not only were we unable to book a tour to Tibet, within a few days our alternative trek to and within Upper Mustang (a place home to many Tibetans and their descendants) was thwarted by natural causes, not to mention some bad planning and to a certain extent a little bloody mindedness.

Travel Dream! "Be a Buddhist in Tibet"... sort of. 
Rob is not a Buddhist nor in Tibet, but we got close.

Let's take them in turn. I had investigated organising a tour to Tibet some months ago, and came to the conclusion that it may be far simpler to engage a tour company in Kathmandu that could do the running around with visas, passports and the extra special Tibetan Entry Permit cheaper and in many less days than it would take me to do from Australia.  A person of exactness or certainty may not have taken this same approach, but, what can I say, I can be a little odd when it comes to shelling out the greenbacks.




Buddhist prayers flying high in Kagbeni

The first problem arose when it became clear that the Chinese government, had that week announced that they were no longer issuing visas or Tibetan permits for foreigners to enter the "Tibetan Autonomous Region".  This is not uncommon, the problem is just that they usually do it in March (or so I have read and been told), not in late January. As we did some shopping around, it was not immediately obvious that we could definitely NOT go to Tibet, but in the case of each tour company we visited, a single phone call resulted in them resolving to sell us other options.  The reasons given were various ("it is the Chinese New Year, so the area will be full of Chinese tourists and they don't want foreigners there", "because of the weather", and most resignedly "who knows why the Chinese government does these things?") but all amounted to the same thing (not going).






The streets of Kagbeni through Kat's eyes

Luckily, or so we thought, one of the alternative travel dreams, was to take a trip to Upper Mustang - a region I have heard so much about and been jealous of friends' photos.  Friends from my work at Tilganga had been there, other volunteering friends, even my brother (Tim) had been to Lower Mustang and he was only ever in Nepal for about 2 weeks!  Additionally, Upper Mustang itself has traditionally had very close roots to Tibet through religion, trade (the Tibetan-Indian trade route has gone through Mustang for centuries), war, and as the home of refugees, settlers and squatters.  A trek there would not only allow us to see a dramatically different landscape to that of the Annapurna Himalayas, it would take us in to Lo Manthang - a town of many Buddhist monastaries), within kilometres of the Tibetan border.  Upper Mustang also maintains its own figurehead king who judges on disputes and has a certain responsibility for the people in his region (despite the obvious contradiction this presents since the abolition of the Nepali monarchy in 2008 with the rise to power of the Nepali Maoists).



Permit required!

Let me be clear, this was not an inexpensive alternative to a Tibetan tour.  The Upper Mustang permit is prohibitively expensive ($US500 per person), but, one hopes, that this has the added benefit of preserving the culture of the region, while still taking in income for preservation and restoration purposes.  Without too much dallying, we set about the process of booking the trek and making arrangements meet  our guide Krishna in Pokhara, on Feb 3 to start out on Feb 4, following on from our Poon Hill & Ghorepani trek.

Rob and Krishna in an awkward backpack embrace

Feb 4 started us out with an amazingly scenic flight from Pokhara to Jomsom, the district headquarters for Mustang.  In that rickety flight where we ascended but never really descended (the plane just landed - think about that) we were treated to a view of all the main stops of our Poon Hill trek over the prior 5 days.  We had breathtaking views of Nil Giri and the Annapurnas right out the window as we wound left and right through the ranges to our destination.  After a few checkpoints the backpacks were on and we were trekking (all by 9am), the day's ultimate destination was Kagbeni, a Hindu/Buddhist town on the intersection of the Kali Gandaki and the Mukti Kola (rivers).



A plane ride that could not be captured on film

Before we got up close with the mountains

Soon after is where we discovered that my bloodymindedness of visiting this region may have been inappropriate for the time of year.  From the outset, Krishna did point out that icy tracks could make the way difficult or impossible, but that his inquiries suggested that we would definitely make it to Chaile - the goal of our second day (Feb 5) and that from there we would need to take advice.



Kat's view of Nil Giri and Kagbeni

Sadly, this was not to be, and where the second problem developed (or more accurately, where the second problem was discovered).  Having stamped our newly minted and expensive Upper Mustang permits at the border of Kagbeni (for this is the entry point from Lower Mustang to the highly restricted Upper Mustang) and checking on the quality of the road ahead, we discovered that we were the first trekkers to enter the region this year and that "the road ahead is rocky and icy, be careful".  We managed to make it about 2 hours (of fairly consistent uphill) while freezing in the shadow of the hills before being confronted by 3 rockfalls entirely blocking the road that were relatively passable on foot (impossible by jeep) before a fourth that was too dangerous to really mess with.  At this point Krishna and I investigated this avalanche/rockfall and tried to find an alternative (over, under or through). Kat knew that we would not be going further into Upper Mustang and for some time waited patiently for us to reach the same verdict. Well, not so patiently it turned out. In fact, she had decided to test some nearby ice with her foot. Unfortunately instead of hearing one crack she heard two, she had rolled her ankle.



One of the rock falls we were able to pass

Resolving to hide our disappointment (and Kat her pain), and hungry for food, we slowly trudged and limped back to Kagbeni, where we would work out our next steps. Frustrated but also trying to look on the bright side, we were assisted by views of barren landscapes of contrasting brown, white and blue that we had to share with no one.



Brown, Blue and White