To Muktinath

Muktinath is a sacred Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage site with many visitors coming every year from Nepal and India.  A flame has been burning here (perhaps for centuries), fueled from a natural gas rising from within the cracks in the rock.  The river flowing alongside creates a "natural" meeting place of earth, fire, wind and water that makes this area so sacred.

On the road to Muktinath

Our visit to Muktinath was brought forward to Feb 6, on the account of failing to get far into the Upper Mustang region.  A relatively short side-trip from Kagbeni, we were originally to visit on our "way down" from Lo Manthang.  Short side-trip is a funny way of saying 1000m climb, but as our aborted trek to Chaile, the views were stupendous.  As we got closer to Muktinath, while the sun was out the snow was underneath.  Despite the cold temperature, snow did that thing that it does in the sun and the going was a little treacherous, particularly to one trekker with a dodgy ankle.

We mostly had the road to ourselves

Stunning scenery

Not only were the views of our climb from Kagbeni to Muktinath varied from the day before, this time we passed many a Mustangian either tending to their goats, their weaving on home-made looms or grazing their ponies (and with the latter trying to encourage us to engage them to take us on the steep climb to Muktinath).  Walking here is a case of extremes.  In the shade of the mountains, your body goes into antifreeze mode, the blood drains from your fingers and toes, your nose runs and your eyes water.  In the glory of the sun shining down on you, your skin tingles in the places where the cold blood meets the warm, you can feel the sun on your face, and you quickly need to take off your gloves and scarf to regulate your body temperature.

Risking life and limb to find some grass in a winter wonderland

Getting colder as we climb

Fairytale village: Not your everyday tea-break stop

After settling our things at our hotel and warming up over yet another cup of milk tea (taste being less important than temperature), we spent the afternoon walking about the temples and monastaries of Muktinath.  A Buddhist and Hindu temple (many people in the region, and in broader Nepal actually associate to both) has been built over the site of the flame.  Further along, there is another temple surrounded by 108 water spouts.  Hindus take a shower from all of them, then jump into two cold pools before going around the spouts again (two more times) before making puja at the temple itself.  Krishna gave us a demonstration without actually jumping in the freezing pools.  The complex around the flame also had a small Buddhist gonpa (monastery), dark and eerie without any incense or singing or anyone inside, it was nice to be free to walk around and poke my nose in places you can't when people are there.  The area was covered in snow with little tracks between the most visited places.  It was serene and peaceful and exactly like you may expect a place like this should be, located some 15 minutes walk from the closest homes and hotels, although I don't know if the same could be said during peak times. However, as anyone familiar with typical Hindu rituals might attest, quiet is not actually very normal.

Krishna after visiting the temple

Scarcely a track

Taking in the peace of a monastery

The "town" part of Muktinath was mainly a sequence of hotels, empty and closed up in the starkness of a late winter although we did visit a beautifully decorated and much larger gonpa tucked in between them.  We heard complaints on the way up the hill that the snow was not yet really thawing, and we were some of the only trekkers on the road (ice).  On the whole, Krishna chose well for the lodges in which we stayed, and from a food and friendliness perspective, in Muktinath he was on the money, but from a temperature perspective, it had to be the exception.  Sure to be pleasant and comfortable in summer (when most of his clients WOULD visit), where the sun can blaze down through the windows and balconies and where the open design of the hotel would give it a grand community feel, it was a haunting place to be in winter.  With no other guests and no windows or sun making it to the room and no fire in  the common area, the greatest respite was walking amongst the temples in the snow enduring the afternoon wind or hunkering in the sunniest spot of the deck (until the sun disappeared).  With time up our sleeve we had already committed ourselves to two days here, but a cold two days it was!  I resorted to my old trick of eating daal bhaat Nepali style (with my hands) to give my fingers some temporary respite while Kat retreated early to a sleeping bag at the limits of its operating range (about -14C). 

Muktinath and the mountains

I don't want to complain about the hotel (Eureka Inn, if you are up that way) too much, as I am sure that it is great with a few more people and in the warmer months, and as the staff (two young men, Oman and [oh no! I can't remember his name!]) were incredible, made the best daal bhaat I had during the whole Nepali trip and had an interesting story to share.  The younger one had been abandoned by the side of the road, at about 4 years of age and found by the hotel owners one day on their way to Muktinath.  He was deaf and mute but as Krishna relays the story is now "stronger than an ox and does all the hard work about the hotel".  It was very hard to work out whether he or Oman actually knew any sign language, and your heart breaks a little to think about the circumstances of his abandonment and upbringing.  Regardless, in our presence he was happy, helpful and interested in most things we did, but politely declined to join us in another violent game of Uno.  

The costs were all borne out of our Mustang trip, so I have little to add in the way of tips/advice, other than even here, at the base of the highest pass in the world (Thorung La Pass at 5400m), you can still get wireless internet!