Langtang Trek - D2

Langtang Trek

DAY 2  -  Syabrubesi (1467m) – Ghora Tabela ( 2973m) (November 12th, 2011)
Start 6:30 | up 2010m | down 512m | arrival 15:00

The greatest beauty is found in the smallest things.
A warm smile of the people who will accommodate you for the night.
A simple honest meal, filling your stomach after a hard day of hiking.
A carefully fired stove in a freezing cold night.
People of a different countries sharing bits of their lives with you.
Rare moments in a in our ultra fast lives.


The daily backpacker account is balanced. Bad weather and too many hikers point on the minus scale. Great nature and met animals however finally save the day. Most of the hikers only go to Lama Hotel for the first day. We will pass bye there at midday.  Due to a lack of time we must go the route one day shorter then it is commonly done. As I have been trekking shortly before on the Dhaulagiri Circuit it should not be a problem in the end, however today is going to be a long day.

Nasty weather will accompany us while we are following the Langtang river against its stream. The valley is always impressively sharp cut, sometimes the path climbs steeply, sometimes it goes along the same height for a while and sometimes we even loose height. Many times the footpath has obviously been repaired recently. Monsoon rains are constantly threatening the main access route for the people living in the valley. Building a road here is only possible with enormous effort. Building tunnels however is not an option for one of the poorest countries in the world. The river itself is an impressive whitewater, rapids and waterfalls cascade while we walk up the river. Rainforest surrounds us all day.

My guide hands me some fruits. The ball shaped ones taste quite like strawberries, however look totally different. The longer ones have a cranberry taste. Traveling sends you back into your childhood, seeing completely new things, tasting completely new things.  I like traveling. As we walk along the branches of the trees above us move strangely. I follow the pointing finger of my guide an see monkeys above us. I am advised that it is better not to come close to them. “The apes will attack you,” tells me Nischal “they bite and scratch and worse: they may throw stones on you with their tail.”

Some time later my guide triggers alarm again. “See, a red panda!” I can see nothing. “Seems I mistook.” apologizes my nepali friend. The species is endangered, but a small population lives in the Langtang Nationalpark. It is quite unlikely to see one of them, same for the leopards living here – especially close to the trek. Today between hundred and two hundred hiker were going the opposite way.

Finally we arrive at a guest house that will accommodate us for the night. We have a delicious dinner, filling the hole in my stomach. The menu is all vegetarian but the food is so great so one would not miss meat. Our hosts have always a polite hearty smile on their face. Their English is little, but people understand each other. The common room is shared by the guests, a Japanese couple and a Spaniard. We have a friendly conversation while sitting around the stove in the centre. I am happy for the nice company and for the fact, that the stove is fired with wood. In other regions Yak shit is used, cousing a smelly smoke in the room.

Trying to place a joke I ask for the saturday night party. I earn laughter and questioned faces. The saturday in Nepal is our sunday, if there would be a party it would be on frinday night. Finally there is no party. Life of the people is simple. Sun goes down before six, they fire the oven for a while to fight the bitter cold of the night in Nepals mountains. The house is hardly isolated and wood is rare. In the end I am recommended to go to bed at a quarter past six. The stove is not going to be heated any more.